A lot of people dream of success such as financial gain, power or fame. Wanting is normal and even necessary in the process towards success. But there is a key ingredient in the process and that is clarity of vision: do you know what you want?

The first thing people need to ask themselves is what do I want? This is the destination. This is important because you have to know if you are there or not. I want to be rich is not clear, it is vague. I want one billion dollars is clearer than I want to be rich.

Another key question is, what does success look like? You have to know your visual markers such as a car, house, or happy family to know that you are there or on the way there. To push it further you can name your car’s brand, subdivision or what a happy family looks like.

I remember back in college that we were asked to write down and draw our life’s goals. I still have the document somewhere in our stockroom. The last time I saw it was more than 10 years ago but so far I already have most of it.

Be clear on what you want. It will help you in attaining your goals. This is at least the first step, not the only step.

Magic is considered by many as a childish hobby, but I feel lucky to have chosen magic as a stress relief hobby. You know why?

Not because I can fool people or astonish them but for the books written by magicians who are teachers and philosophers such as Eugene Burger. His persona is an acquired taste. He is on the other side of those you see on stage. His magic is deep, reflective, and most of the time, dark, but the power of his magic comes from psychology and the way he connects with the audience.

I have read his articles, interviews and conversations and here are my takeaways.

1. ON THEORY & PRACTICE

“In my twenties, I was deeply influenced by the traditional Buddhist teaching that right thinking must precede right action. In other words, if our thinking is confused, how can we expect those actions which spring from that thinking to be clear and focused? To me, this has always seemed a most profound question. And the answer Buddhists gave was that we can’t expect clarity of action to follow from confusion in thought.If our thinking is confused, our actions must be confused as well. In magic, for example, if my goal is to produce real impact upon an audience, shall I then read the explanation of a magic effect in a book and immediately attempt to perform it without prior practice, rehearsal and thought? If I do, the result will almost always be a disaster. To produce impact on an audience with a magic effect always requires prior thinking. And the better and more cunning our thinking, the greater the impact our magic will have.”

2. ON TAKING ADVICE

“Absolutely! Don’t listen to too many people. I listen to three people in my magical world when it comes to putting a magic presentation together. I listen to Max Maven and Jeff McBride. I’m very willing to take direction from them. That’s another thing. You have to be willing to be open to take direction from people.”

3. ON CREATIVITY

“Put that way, sure it is foreign! Heidegger, for example, said humans are existentially thrown into existence. Thrown-ness is one of the basic descriptions of the human situation. We’re thrown into life and we find ourselves in this world — and that very fact produces anxiety.

Well, that’s one way of looking at it, but for me a more interesting way is to say that we grew here. We’re all part of what’s growing here. The trees the grass and you! That’s a little friendlier and not quite as combative as being thrown into existence with all this anxiety. When it gets right down to it, how much can you really accomplish in magic by an act of will. You can accomplish certain things, very important things. For instance, it’s an act of will that will put you on a rehearsal schedule.

So I think, structurally, acts of will are very important. Either I’m going to do it or I’m not. But when we move away from structure and talk about content, I don’t know. I just don’t find that I can grit my teeth and tense my muscles and come up with a good magic presentation.”

4. ON WORK. (my personal favorite)

“Romany: Eugene, you’ve been performing magic full-time for 25 years now…

Eugene: 25 years plus.

What is the most important lesson that you’ve learnt in that time?

(Smiles) To make the magic that I do appear important to the people who see it.”

There are more profound essays to be found on his books and internet. Not only magicians can benefit from this but those who are looking to improve their craft and life.

When I watch the news, I can’t seem to find any good news related to this pandemic. The numbers are steadily going up and there are less medical professionals who want to get employed in health care industry and the healthcare system is starting to get overwhelmed again. We were dealt a bad hand.

I can’t seem to find humanity in this pandemic or have I been blinded by the suffering of those who are dying, those stranded LSIs or the incompetence of leaders? Are there any news the can at least give us a glimpse of hope, an Ace of Diamond?

No matter where I look, I do not see humanity in F*ck You, I don’t see humanity in ad hominem, I don’t see humanity in getting imprisoned by the contract, I do not see humanity in double standards, I don’t see humanity in manipulation.

Let me make a guess on where humanity is.

I guess they are at home, in the togetherness of the family. I guess they in the struggles of those who are suffering to make a living for their family. Humanity is in the silence of those who are praying for others. Humanity is in those who are mindful of others. Humanity is finding the truth in the message. Humanity is in big businesses helping consumers with their bills. Humanity is in the spirit of policies that try to alleviate people’s problems. Humanity is in the action, voice and words who fight for truth and injustice. Humanity is in the tears of those who feel hopeless for themselves.

Humanity is our last card, the Ace of Diamond. If we don’t play it well, we will lose this game.

Early this morning, I was to cook my breakfast. I thought of cooking egg, so, from the living room, I went to the kitchen. For a few seconds, along the way from living room to the kitchen, I thought of my meeting, which was about to start in 30 minutes, so I computed in my mind how fast I should eat. As soon as I realized I’m in the kitchen, I came back to my self and stared at the surroundings. I forgot why I was there. I had to ask my wife what I needed to do in the kitchen.

Short-term memory loss or ulyanin is what we would normally call it. Labelling is not, however, my purpose for writing this. I want to talk about how we sometimes do things in autopilot. This has happened to you, right? You take a bath without being mindful, the next thing you know is you are already dressed up and ready to go. This is our brain working on the subconscious.

The brain is like a computer, it programs our routine, if it detects that we are doing a routine, it switches on autopilot mode. There is no problem with the autopilot. However, it is important to be aware that being in autopilot can affect our productivity and decision-making. Countless of information have been recorded on people making errors in their decision because of the autopilot mode. There was this video of a man who walks into a closed door and bumps his head. Someone who is not in autopilot will see the reflection and will notice that there is a glass door in front.

It is good to have a routine but living a life on a routine may not be that fun. Here are some of my suggestions to get off the autopilot mode:

1. Have a goal everyday.

2. Use a different route on the way to work.

3. Take a mindfulness pause during the day just to breath

4. Do not eat the same thing everyday.

5. Call a friend

6. Do one thing at a time. So have a notebook beside you always to keep your thoughts.

There are countless of ways to get out of the autopilot mode. As soon as you catch yourself on that mode, stop, tell yourself that you need to be more mindful. That is also another clue that you are doing many things at the same time.

I normally read my work email in the morning to jumpstart my workday. This is also the habit of many people I know. However, A few minutes into reading my mail, I would catch myself browsing Facebook or window shopping. I bet this happens to you, too.

Being distracted is a normal phenomena specially now that there are numerous visuals trying to catch our attention: pop ups, text message, alerts and more. This is common in today’s world but takes away a part of our daily goals and affects our bigger goals.

First, why do we get distracted easily? According to LIVE SCIENCE, “Distractions turn on different part of our brains and do so more quickly than the daily grind of paying attention, neuroscientists have discovered.” Now we know why something glittery attracts our attention so fast.

How can we maintain productive when we are surrounded by distractions?

Have you seen a good magic trick before in person? The magician shows you a sponge ball and makes it disappear in front of your eyes and all there is left to say to explain the mystery is that the hand is quicker then the eye. Are the hands really quicker than the eye? Unfortunately, a magician never repeats and never reveals.

The sponge ball is like your daily goals or tasks, it just disappears without you noticing it. Those pop ups, social media alerts and discount notification are the magician’s hand gestures, and backup dancers that drive you away from where you need your attention to be. No, the hand isn’t quicker than the eye. In fact, the magician’s hands are slow but it can hypnotize you the way those discount notice leads you to your shopping cart.

Magic is my hobby, I should have a few ideas about focus and attention management. In my corporate lectures, I use what I know about magic and it’s science to talk about focus, attention and productivity.

We all get distracted. Like I said, it’s normal, the good thing though is there are ways to increase our productivity while being surrounded by distractions. We are already half the battle as we have already recognized that we can be distracted from where our attention should be.

Here are the other tips to manage attention:

1. Control your environment. Be in a place where there is less noise. Since many are WFH, we can inform the people around us about our work schedule but if distractions can’t be avoided, most likely, they are not distractions, they are family.
2. Use an analogue planner. I use pen and paper, this takes away time from using to much screen and avoids unnecessary exposure to temptation. I spend a few minutes planning the day, listing things on the list as well as crossing finished tasks.
3. Compose email on paper. Yes! Do your draft on paper. This takes away exposure on screen. Once you have your thoughts listed down, it’s going to be faster on screen.
4. Manage your thoughts. Brains are made to wander, that’s the beautiful thing about being human. Some people will say control your thoughts but I think we can’t, we can manage our thoughts by acknowledging it’s presence, and keeping note of it while we refocus back to our goal.

Focus and attention can be a tricky matter. when it comes to magic, allow magicians to take control because our main goal when watching magic show is to be astonished and not to solve a puzzle. At work, we can focus on our attention management strategies so we can remain productive.