Through the Looking Glass: Lessons In Magic

I've become a creature of habit, my heart happily tick-ticking to the predictability of my days. Alarm clock set for 4:30. First cup of coffee shortlly thereafter. In the stillness of my morning I say a little thanks, catch up on my email and slowly wake to take on the day. And while my soul craves this routine, this etched pattern to follow, the routine of wake-work-cook-read-clean-sleep, mixed in with a little socializing, the mundaneness of it all had taken it's toll: And so it was that at around 6:00 on a Tuesday afternoon I felt a boredom with my life so intense it quite literally ripped through my body, So then and there, at my kitchen table piled high with craft projects and bills, I decided I had to shake it up or go crazy. I opted for the former.

And because I don't do anything half-assed, I decided that from that point forward, I was going to try something new every day. These things wouldn't have to be big; In fact, at face value, most of the things I'd try would be rather small. But I had to start somewhere.

At 6:10, with renewed enthusiasm for life, my mind now raced. What would be my first new thing? What could I do? A deck of playing cards peeked back at me from the kitchen table. "I should really put those cards in the cupboard along with the rest of this crap," I thought. And then it hit me: a card trick. I would teach myself a card trick for my first new thing. I reached for the deck and shuffled them, then put them back down realizing I didn't know the first thing about trickery. "This is silly," I thought. My insecurities about looking dumb or trying something I would never be able to master wanted to take over. Then I Googled "learn a new card trick" for a little inspiration. In seconds, I had more card trick tutorials to choose from than I had time. I picked one.

The goal of the trick was to have another person select a card from the deck that I, in turn, would magically guess. I practiced and practiced, over and over, dealing out cards to a phantom across from me, playing both roles in my trick. I was getting pretty good, but I couldn't wait for my daughter to get home to show her. When she arrived, any guesses she had about my sanity were confirmed, but she played along with my eagerness and let me show her my new skill. Success! It worked. We laughed about my future as a magician, and she even asked me (albeit a few days later) to teach her the trick.

What I learned that day was much more than magic. I learned that the things preventing me from venturing out of my comfort zone existed only in my mind's eye. I was a magician if I wanted to be. That was it. That was all There was no more to it than that: It was a decision. And then it was effort. And then it was execution. Decision, effort, execution. Wow. The simplicity of that concept hit me like an old wooden baseball bat over the head. Given this new theory, I was rendered incapable of making excuses about who I wanted to be. If I truly wanted something in my life, the only thing that stood between me, and it, was a decision.

My decision to try something new every day has already spurred countless life lessons. As you sit there reading this, what is it you want to do? Who do you want to be? What habit do you want to kick to the curb? Take it from me: it's just a decision. Give it a try.