Design Your 2019: Write Your Movie

You may not be familiar with Don LaFontaine’s name, but I guarantee you have heard his voice. His deep and resonant voice became synonymous with the words, “In a world where…” Yes, Don LaFontaine was the movie trailer voice, warning us of the perils that awaited our hero and his eventual triumph over them.

What if your harp story were a movie? What would be your happy ending? What difficulties would you encounter along your path and how would you surmount them?

Today I want to walk you through the first step in planning for 2019. I want to help you design your harp happiness, not just hope that you stumble across it. And we will do it together by writing your own “In a world where…” movie trailer.

Possibly you have tried to set goals before and failed. The way most people approach it, it’s a painful process. But it doesn’t have to be, and the process we will start today is not only painless; it’s even fun.

Before we begin, here are a couple of things to keep in mind.

First, this is not your traditional goal-setting. This is creating a vision and, most importantly, creating a path for following through and actually bringing your vision to life. We won’t do all the steps today, but over the next couple blog posts, we will put all the pieces in place for you.

Second, you don’t have to have a momentous goal for this to be worth your while. This is not just for the serious performers of the world. Actually, they need this less because their goals are so clear. This kind of planning is for anyone who wants to grow as a harpist, a musician and an individual.

Ready to get started? Let’s go.

Your Assignment

Here is my “no stress” way to sleuth out the goals or projects that will be the most meaningful to you. Our objective today is to figure out how you want to grow and some of the resources and challenges you have before you.

Pretend you are writing a screen play for a movie about a harpist, a harpist who just happens to be you. (If you’re not a harpist, that’s okay; this works for all musicians.)

We are going to write a “trailer” for your movie. This is a description of the main character of your movie, what she wants to do, the obstacles in her path and how she finally reaches her goal. All you have to do is fill in the blanks in this template below. You will need to print the blog post or copy out the relevant portion.

I’ve given you some direction, but many of the answers you will need to come up with on your own. Here is one hint, though: if you find it difficult to write about yourself, give your main character a different name.

You’re the Star of Your Movie

In a world where musicians struggle to keep their passion alive, one harpist tries to discover his/her unique path to harp happiness.

Our harpist (YOUR NAME HERE) fell in love with the harp when (YOUR HARP STORY). It became his/her dream to play the harp (FOR/AT/IN). (YOUR NAME) envisioned him/herself playing music like _______________ and ____________________. He/She set out on her harp journey with his/her trusty companion, his/her very first harp, (KIND OF HARP OR NAME OF HARP).  

Unfortunately, (YOUR NAME)’s path was not without obstacles. His/her dream was threatened by the Resistance, a sneaky, happiness-stealing enemy of musicians everywhere. First, the Resistance revealed itself as (CHALLENGE) and then later caused (DIFFICULTY). Soon our harpist had more and more trouble ______________. Her practice became _______________ and her music felt _____________. Playing the harp was _______________ than she thought.

Will (YOUR NAME) give up? Will he/she defeat the Resistance? Will someone come to his/her rescue? Will he/she ever be able to (HARP DREAM)?

That’s your movie trailer – congratulations! Don’t worry if you don’t love your answers your first time through. Rewrite it until it feels right to you.

Then you will be ready for part 2 of our process next week: The Sorting Hat. Are you intrigued? I hope so!