We all dream.  We all have wants and desires.  While some of us achieve those desires, others of us do not.  It is a sad thing to imagine being on one’s deathbed and knowing that a life goal was not reached.

But fear not!  If you have a dream you wish to achieve, there is a path you can take, and it’s not as impossible as you might think.

The enemy is bad habit.

A bad habit is sleeping in.  A bad habit is surfing the net at work.  A bad habit is lounging when your friends are at the gym.  A bad habit is wasting time.

A bad habit cannot be changed overnight.  It takes time.  In fact, it takes 21 days to acquire a new habit.   Once you choose the habits you want, make sure to ease into them slowly.  If you are overly zealous and demand too much of yourself, you may abandon the new habits before they have time to set in.

These are some great habits you can adopt that won’t be too difficult, but will change your life:

1) Wake up early.  Almost all billionaires wake up at 5 am.  Millionaires, perhaps 6am.  Decide how much money you want in life and set your alarm clock to it.
*Try to ease the clock back slowly.  Set your alarm a half hour earlier every 21 days.

2) Every morning, as soon as you hit the alarm, get out your laptop and write out your goals.  Start with your broadest goals first (10 year, 5 year), then move in (1 year), then further in until you nail exactly the right thing you should do right away.
*Remember: the further you project into the future, the more successful you will be.

3) The right thing you should do right now is exercise.  Jump out of bed and start the blood flowing–start now!  This will vitalize you for the rest of the day.

4) “Work the whole time you work.”  Recite this mantra throughout the day.  No chatting.  No internet.  No distractions.  The amount of work you achieve, even in your current job, is directly proportionate to the amount of success you will have in life.  You are building a ‘work ethic’ for yourself.  It’s one of the most important habits you can acquire, and when you finally start your own business, you will be amazed at how much support you are given by others.  They know you have the ability to work.

5) Right before you go to sleep, write out your schedule for the following day.  Your schedule will drift into your dreams, and when you wake up you will probably have insights into problems you may encounter.

If you really want to achieve your goals, you have to develop good habits.  It takes time, but once you have them, your dreams are asured.

Jordan Harbour

The advantages of a mastermind group are numerous.  First, and most obviously, they will be your cheerleaders throughout the sometimes challenging process of starting a business.  Second, they will give you sage advice along the way.  Third, you can use them for leverage.

This last point is critical.  No one is an expert in everything, and when someone tries to be, they usually fail.  A writer might not be savy in web design.  A graphic artist might find writing a difficult chore.  But put these two together and you have a couple great looking websites that are also well written.

The trick is to play off your strong points.  If you’re good at music, trade some composition for marketing.  If you’re good at construction, build a deck in exchange for a promotional video.  Not only will you give your company a sharper look than you ever could have doing it alone, but you will also build your portfolio.   Maybe you’ll even gain some referals from your work!

Jordan Harbour

I’m exhausted from turkey (the food kind).

I had an improv show right after dinner.  It actually went better than expected.  There was a scene that took place on the moon, and I played some Ravel-like moon music to accompany the actors.

Sometimes I don’t like playing for comedy.  It’s fun, I guess.  It is fun.  But sometimes it seems frivilous.  The actors want me to play happy waltzy music most of the time.

I really want to dive into some deeper dimensions of the human experience.

So I would like to suggest improv drama.  It’s like its comedy cousin, but instead of taking a rig worker and plunking him into a yoga studio, you keep him on the oil rig.  You find out how he explores his natural environment and then build relationships and a story from that.

I would love to play piano for improv drama because I think if it was done right it would allow for a greater range of interplay between actors and the pianist.  If something is sad, the pianist can really explore those feelings, and when something is happy, that happiness can be made more authentic than it can in comedy because there is contrast.

I also have the idea of pitching an improv history.  Once the actors are accustomed to the drama form, we can take historical figures and relive their lives.  Imagine going to an improv show and being taken back to Constantinople after the fall of Rome!  Slides can show Byzantine landscapes on the walls, and the actors can wear costumes.

An artform only reaches true maturity when it is able to express the full range of emotions.

Jordan Harbour

The Regina Rifles

I love Vancouver.  Every time I go it just feels right.

Today I visited my relatives.  It was a treat to see my Grandpa.  He’s always laughing and when I wheel him around in his chair he calls out, “Weeeee!!!”

He’s 98 and just bought a 5 year diary.

My grandpa has kept a diary since 1935.  The ’35-’39 displays the name ‘Beverley’ written in crayon along with some drawings (My aunt was a trouble maker).

Sitting in his room, my mom and aunt and I each took a diary and were flipping through them as my Grandpa proudly watched.  My mom poked fun at Grandpa for penning ‘golf’ every other day.  My aunt found the entry where she was concieved (there wasn’t much written that day!).  Then I picked up the 1940-1944 diary.

Grandpa’s entries are pretty basic.  He comments on the weather, a sentence or two about what he did… and that’s about it.  I read this one aloud: “Thursday, June 5th, 1943.  Lunch with Gladys.  The Allies have started bombing Germany.  Nice weather.”

It gave me the chills.

Right before the war, my grandpa got rheumatic fever.  It was so bad he was hospitalized and the doctors thought he might die.  Believing he would have heart problems, he was discharged from the army.  Every single soldier in his unit, the Regina Rifles, died in Europe.  My grandpa couldn’t walk down the street without receiving cold stares from the women whose husbands didn’t return.

When I push my grandpa in his chair and he calls out “Weeee!”, it’s hard to imagine him being shot by a German.

Jordan Harbour

me slating a shot

Last night was fantastic!

Chris Ruffell (www.aclarapromotions.com) and I have been working on a documentary film for the past month. Last night, we presented a sneak preview at a documentary film festival and it won the ‘Peoples’ Choice Award’! Needless to say, we were absolutely thrilled. It was like taking a shot of approval without the salt or lime.

The film is called ‘Natural Growth: Strategies for a Sustainable City.’  It all started with Dorin Cernet.  He came to Chris and I and suggested we make a documentary for a competition.  He thought we should do it on urban planning.  Although I was passionate about the subject, I was reluctant to involve myself in a project I knew would smash my schedule.  Chris was all for it.  He took it upon himself to phone the developer for Dockside Green.  Amazingly, he got the interview!

I was sold.  I drew up an outline for the project and gave Chris a list of my dream interviews.  He got almost all of them, including the mayor!

We still have more work to do before this bad boy is out of the bakery, but we’re motivated to finish it off!

Jordan Harbour