It’s a way of thought
It’s a lifestyle, it’s a philosophy, it’s a way of thought. I didn’t always have this mindset. I actually learned it through magic.
“You need to practice more”
As a kid, I loved magic. Who doesn’t? And I loved it even more when I found out that it was all about tricking the mind, and focusing the attention of the audience away from where the magic was really happening. OMG! Magic was about psychology!
And neuroscientists are discovering that now and paying more attention to it. They’re inviting magicians to conferences and seminars to explain to neuroscientists how the mind works, and how attention has it’s own weird quirks.
So when I was in college, I delved into it for a while, reading it and trying it. The skill needed to pull off a simple magic trick is incredible. I honestly practiced day in and day out for about 6 months before I could even pull off a simple trick (and even then not very well).
But they said I had to practice more!
Only show a trick when you’ve mastered it
You can’t show a magic trick when you can (only) do it. You can’t even show it when you can do it well. You can only show it when you’ve mastered it. When you can handle any kind of interruption. When you can handle that idiot at the back of the crowd who keeps pestering you and trying to explain your magic trick (even though he’s wrong). When you can handle your audience wanting to look at the coin after the trick because they think it’s a fake coin (when it isn’t).
When you can handle all that, then (and only then) can you show it to your audience.
And what if something unexpected happens? Say… that the wind starts blowing and knocks your cards over? Your fault. Make sure you work behind some cover.
You forgot what the audience’s card was even after you figured it out! Your fault. Don’t forget.
There’s no one else to blame
It’s actually a refreshing feeling. You just can’t blame anyone else anymore. Even when it’s someone else’s fault, you’re supposed to take into account that he might make that mistake and already have a contingency (a plan B) in place.
That’s right; have a plan B for everything.
You don’t have time to make every mistake possible, even if you wanted to
You’ll soon find that even though there are technically a million ways to fail at something, only a few ways keep repeating themselves. These are all that you really have to prepare for. And how would you find out what these few ways are that keep repeating themselves?
Either make your own mistakes and learn through that or ask someone who’s been through it before. Learn from their experience. That’s what other people are there for.