“Change is not a one-time explosion of opportunity. It is a slow burning fire that needs to be tended constantly.”

I received an e-mail from the author of this book, Jason Harvey, about a week ago offering me a complimentary copy of his book to read and review. Obviously, with 2014 just around the corner, this gift could not have come at a better time.

The book: Achieve Anything in Just One Year: Be Inspired Daily To Live Your Dreams and Accomplish Your Goals

Open the book, and you’ll find that it is broken down into 365 days. Yep, that’s one chapter for every day of the entire year (the next leap year isn’t until 2016, but if it happens to be that year when you’re reading this, then you get to finish a day ahead of schedule, lucky you).

Obviously you don’t need to start this on January 1st (although you could). Any day would work. A good time to start anything is “now,” whenever your “now” happens to be.

As per the book’s instructions, I have only read the first chapter (Titled “Day 1”) but I can already tell that this is going to be a gem. At a glance, Harvey seems to have formatted the book for those who have lost touch with their dreams and feel stuck. But there are a lot of levels to “feeling stuck” and I think that, no matter where you are in your journey, you could probably benefit from a book like this.

I am reminded of one of the last posts that I wrote while still working at Club16 (the fitness facility that I was “stuck” at for over a year – it’s actually somewhat fascinating how this blog has actually given me the opportunity to track my changing thought patterns):

“If you have ambition, know that you are more than your current job title. Being unhappy isn’t proving anything to anyone, but is only poisoning your own potential for happiness and your own ability to be productive.”

– Please Don’t Mistake My Smile for Complacency, published July 6, 2013

When I first arrived in Vancouver, I had a lot of dreams that seemed depressingly out of reach. There are a lot of self improvement books our there, and a lot of tools designed to snap you out of your current mindset and push you forward. The whole concept behind this blog was to make success less scary and intimidating, and through that process I have discovered that many of these tools actually work.

I like this book because it draws from many of these tools and breaks them down into less intimidating chucks. Instead of right off the bat trying to do every positive habit that you’ve ever heard about (meditating, journaling, gratitude journaling, vision boards, envisioning the future, charity work, exercise, stretching… my God the list could go on forever), Harvey truly does make success seem less intimidating with 365 chapters averaging 2 pages each.

This Book Promises to Help you To:

1. Set goals and stick with them
2. Take daily action that creates a ripple effect in your life
3. Stay motivated, focused and balanced
4. Feel happier everyday
5. Define, pursue and celebrate personal success

Each chapter will naturally expand on the last. This is a project that I can definitely get behind. And although it will certainly require persistence and commitment to make it through the entire book, remember that every chapter in this book is meant to be fun, challenging and enlightening. The amount of growth you have the potential of enjoying could be incredible.

So here’s a sneak peek:

Day 1

The assignment: purchase a journal and carry it with you everywhere for at least one week. In that journal you will write down your dreams whenever they pop into your head.

“It doesn’t matter if they are impossible. Don’t judge them. Just write them down. Have faith. Take that first step.”

Throw away any rules that you think exist for this one, and just have fun. It’s going to be a good year. I can feel it.

Related Articles:

• Ben Nemtin’s 6 Steps for Crossing Anything Off Your Bucket List
• Discipline: How I’ve Learned to Get Things Done

Recommended Reading

1. E-Squared: Nine do-it-yourself energy experiments for proving your thoughts create your reality – by Pam Grout
2. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the New Rich – by Timothy Ferris
3. Achieve Anything in Just One Year: Be inspired daily to live your dreams and accomplish your goals – by Jason Harvey
4. The Happiness Advantage: The seven principles of positive psychology that fuel success and performance at work – by Shawn Achor
5. The Success Principles: How to get from where you are to where you want to be – by Jack Canfield