The word for the year 2020 is most definitely “Intentions”, for the entire month of January I’ve been listening to podcasts, watching Youtube videos, reading blog posts, or seeing Instagram stories that refer to this word. And I couldn't agree more.
When ringing in the new year, everyone makes these crazy New Year Resolutions and have BIG goals that they want to achieve by the end of the year. But as the year goes on and life naturally gets in the way. The goals become a bit harder to achieve, people realize they don’t have the tools to help them obtain their goals, the process is much slower or more difficult than anticipated, or the goal is completely forgotten about amidst the chaos of day-to-day life. But this year, let’s try to finish strong and get those goals we’re after! “Twenty-Twenty” sounds too good for it not to be an epic year full of growth! Lucky for us, there is a synonym to the word “goal”, a close friend if you will. And that friend goes by the name of “intentions”. Their meanings are extremely similar, but our goal is our destination and our intention is the actions taken and mindset had on a daily basis. As long as the intentions you have correlate with your goals, they will assist you in achieving them. By giving yourself intentions for your daily life, geared to your desired destination, they will help to hold yourself accountable and keep you fully invested for more than just the first month or two of the year. Intentions help you hold on until the very end. Now, I encourage you to dream as big or as small as you would like to with your goals, but as for intentions I suggest keeping those small. Since your intentions are going to require daily effort, they should be something attainable that you are able to easily implement in your busy schedule without feeling overwhelmed. By doing this, it encourages you to keep pushing towards your goals rather than shying away from what you are definitely capable of. For example, one of my goals for 2020 is to get a professional dance job for the summer. My dream is for it to be a job at a local theatre somewhere in the country, where I can work on being both a dancer and a singer and earn some equity points. That means I must audition for many companies and programs and refine my dancing, acting, and singing to prepare for the auditions and potential job. One of my intentions is to focus on the performance aspect of my dancing as intensely as the technical aspect in all of my dance classes. Another intention is to be as confident in myself as a singer and actor, as I am in myself as a dancer. That will translate to biweekly vocal coachings, and working on vocalizing and practicing a variety of monologues and song cuts multiple days a week. It may only be a few days a week and it may only be fifteen to thirty minutes each day, but it is something I can introduce with school and work without overwhelming myself. I also intend to be as well prepared as possible for each audition. That means reading up on the theaters I’m interested, perfecting my 16-bar cut and half minute monologue, and raising my confidence levels however I can. Just as I did with my goal for this year, you can do the same. Dream big and determine a goal you really want for this year and then pick it apart so that you can identify the things needed to achieve this goal and tie intentions to those things. AND WRITE IT ALL DOWN. Make a vision board, write it on your whiteboard/chalkboard, put sticky notes on your mirror, make a poster, do whatever you need to do to motivate you. And whatever visual you create, put it in a place you look every single day. You can do this, Dream big but remember to start small. Love Always, Jenavieve
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For those of you who don’t know me, I am a planner. Like months in advance, daily and monthly planner, typed up schedule on my computer, google calendar, sticky notes, meal plans, reminders in my phone, and excessive lists, next level planner. Some may call it obsessive; I prefer to use the term highly organized. I plan out literally EVERYTHING. From when I wake up to when I go to bed, my life has been written out. Even my free time is often planned.
Odly, for someone who loves plans and organization, I am pursuing a career that calls for last minute rehearsals and auditions, job instability, and unconventional hours. Not to mention within the walls of the audition room, directors and choreographers will ask you to do the most strenuous and unconventional things and if you want to show them how much you want the job, well you better just go with it. This summer, I had the opportunity to attend a dance intensive that enabled me to work with many Broadway performers, some were even Tony Award Winners. Often times during this intensive, my peers would ask them “How did you know you when were Ready?”. Of course they all answered something unique to their individual journey, but for the most part all of their answers were along the same lines of the fact that they most definitely didn’t feel ready in the slightest but they just took that jump and hoped for the best. Sometimes, yeah, they fell flat on their faces, but they peeled themselves off the ground, rebuilt their confidence, maybe learned a few things to become better for their next chance, and when the opportunity presented itself they jumped again. And they usually landed on their feet after their second (or thirty-second) try. Simply put, to be “ready” similar to achieving perfection, does not exist. It is impossible to be completely prepared for an audition, a job interview, a relationship, an exam, starting college, or just life in general. There are too many people in this world and too many unknown and ever changing variables. So don’t even try to fool yourself into believing you can be “ready” for anything, and that if you’re perfectly prepared that you’ll never be hit with an obstacle ever again. No matter how much you train, how many hours you spend studying, how many drafts you write, how many books or articles you read, you’ll never be ready for this life. You can not prepare for life, you have to simply live life. Yes, that means you’ll do poorly on a few tests, get a few rejections from jobs or universities, go through a couple breakups, and feel a lot of pain. But that also means you will ace some exams, get hired for the job of your dreams, get accepted to the school that is the perfect fit for you, find the love of your life, and feel overflowing amounts of joy. But if you sit around making lists of how to prepare and plan out when you’re finally going to go on that date, sign up for that audition, or send in the application you’re going to keep pushing that date back and eventually all those opportunities and dreams will fade away. For example, this blog is something I’ve been thinking of starting for over a year now. And here I am, just now attempting to write my first blog post??? I kept planning and waiting for when would be the “right time” to start it, or when I would be “ready”. I would come up with excuse after excuse, “I don’t know how to make a website”, “No one is going to read it anyways”, “I don’t have time during the school year”, “I’ll run out of ideas to write about”, “I’m only nineteen how am I supposed to give advice” etc. And yes all of these statements are true. I didn’t know how to make a website, but with the help from some friends and a couple late nights, I figured it out. It’s a very high possibility that no one will read this blog, but that’s not why I created it. I created it as a creative outlet for myself and something I can be passionate about outside of dancing. My school year is pretty busy, but I’m going to set aside time specifically for this project because I care about it. I may run out of ideas, but until that day comes I’ll keep writing and posting. I am only nineteen and don’t have a lot of advice, but I’m hoping to share what I have and to share how I grow and learn along the way. So here I am, trying something new that I’ve never done before, that I’m not totally “ready” for, and that might be a total failure, but I can’t wait around anymore. I’ve just got to jump. Ps. I challenge you to pick something, big or small that maybe intimidates you a little bit, that you don’t feel ready for, but you’ve been curious about for quite some time and to just quit waiting and just do it. Love Always, Jen |
Jenavieve Anna CapriHey There! I just wanted to pop in and let you know a few things about me. I'm a Commercial Dance major at Pace University. I nanny on the side to help me afford living in this beautiful city. I live by the three Ts - Trader Joes, TJ Max, and Target. If it's salted caramel anything, I will gladly put it in my mouth. In my eyes Disneyland is the OG and Disney World will never compare. Hopefully, you'll choose to continue to get to know me more through these blog posts and my social media. Connect With Me:
Instagram: @jenannacapri25 |