One of the aims of Game Plan is to talk about how to live life, so I thought I’d take a few tips from a master on the subject. Today, May 14, 2008, marks 10 years since the death of Frank Sinatra. What I'm about to share with you is less about how he lived and more about the mood or lifestyle his music evoked.

“Whatever else has been said about me personally is unimportant. When I sing, I believe. I'm honest,” Sinatra once said.

So I set out to imagine what it would be like to live life like you’re in a Sinatra song--carefree, going with the flow, cool, living in the moment, weathering storms.

“I'm not one of those complicated, mixed-up cats. I'm not looking for the secret to life ... I just go on from day to day, taking what comes,” Sinatra said.

Keep in mind that Ol’ Blue Eyes sang about a million songs over the course of his distinguished career. Therefore, the tunes on this particular jukebox will be selected from my array of favorites, most of which are upbeat. I prefer a swingin’ Sinatra. Feel free to hum along.

So many of life’s moments can be captured by this man and his music. Suppose you’ve just met someone you’re crazy about or you just landed a fabulous job and you’re in the car, windows down, feeling light. Sinatra is there for you.

You could revel in it:

I’ve got the world on a string
I’m sitting on a rainbow
Got the string around my finger
What a world, what a life – I’m in love

Or you could fly:

Weather wise it’s such a lovely day
You just say the words, and we’ll beat the birds
Down to Acapulco Bay
It’s perfect, for a flying honeymoon - they say
Come fly with me, we’ll fly we’ll fly away

Or you could dance:

When the band begins to leave the stand and folks start to roam
as we walk home cheek to cheek we'll be
Come on, come on, come on, come on and dance with me

Or you could revel some more:

She loves the free, fresh wind in her hair
Life without care
She’s broke, but it’s ok

Let’s say you’re feeling like suburbia doesn’t quite fit or you think it may be time to take your act to a bigger pond and you need a little encouragement to make a change. Sinatra might grab you with this tune:

I wanna wake up in a city, that doesn’t sleep
And find I’m king of the hill - top of the heap

These little town blues, are melting away
I’ll make a brand new start of it - in old New York
If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere
It’s up to you - New York, New York

Or maybe you need the tone to be gentler before embarking on the journey:

Just what makes that little old ant
Think he’ll move that rubber tree plant
Anyone knows an ant, can’t
Move a rubber tree plant

But he’s got high hopes, he’s got high hopes
He’s got high apple pie, in the sky hopes

Perhaps you’re at a place in life where you’re sowing some oats, really hitting the social scene. Sinatra can help you capture that mood, too:

It was just one of those nights
Just one of those fabulous flights
A trip to the moon on gossamer wings
Just one of those things

But then, maybe Cupid’s arrow hits its mark and, oh yeah, it’s hit hard. This is not foreign to the Chairman of the Board:

I would work and slave the whole day through
If I could hurry home to you
You brought a new kind of love to me

And soon you’re in even deeper:

You make me feel so young
You make me feel like spring has sprung
Every time I see you grin
I’m such a happy individual

Just in case things start to take a nosedive in your career and you need a pick-me-up, something in-your-face that allows you to rail, Sinatra has you covered because he knows the feeling all too well:

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate,
A poet, a pawn and a king.
I've been up and down and over and out
And I know one thing:
Each time I find myself, flat on my face,
I pick myself up and get back in the race.

That's life

Ultimately, you pick yourself up. Again and maybe again. Because that’s the credo that has worked and served you so well. Sinatra knew it. He lived it.

Hats off to a master.

“May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine,” Sinatra is known to have said.

I’ve lived a life that’s full.
I’ve traveled each and every highway;
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way

Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.