When is Enough Enough?

This is a question I’ve often started asking myself lately.

When is enough enough? Specifically with magic. I don’t mean in performance; this is different for everyone. But I mean with buying magic.

Stage One Buying Gimmicks

 Buying new magical products can be great, it can be liberating and creative. But it can also be addictive. It can be addictive to such a degree that we will spend thousands every year with the idea that we’re becoming better magicians. We get all those products only for them to rot away in some closet or on a digital shelf.

Do we genuinely need the product to get better or are we just in love with the idea of getting better? In love with the idea of learning new amazing skills from another magician that will elevate our skills to the next level.

 I see that this happened in cycles. First, when we start with magic, we are all in love with the gimmicks that the market has to offer, the tricks that we can buy from the magic dealer. Then after buying enough crap and things that are not as advertised, things that we have to build ourselves, or products that are miss marketed we usually stop this cycle. I know this sounds very negative, but sadly enough the gross of the magic market is like this.

 At this point, we stop buying the tricks as we realize that the promise from those tricks to make us better is a false promise. Some of the tricks are amazing, but usually, they don’t make us a better magician. They just make us better at this one trick, at this one specific thing.

 From there we usually move on to either of two ways.

1. The magic books

2. Videos, be they downloads, courses, or DVDs

 Stage Two Buying Knowledge

This depends on the person and the preferred learning style of the person. Personally, I love books as it’s a faster and more efficient method of learning that eventually forces me to be the most original version of myself. But I do know that many people prefer videos as they like to see how something looks and how it’s done. Some people even claim to be visual learners, but I just think that this is a poor excuse for not reading a book. Reading can be difficult especially technical text like magic, but with time you get better and more efficient at it.

 When we move to either option, we come back into the same loophole but we convince ourselves that we’re not. We come back to the cycle of endlessly buying stuff to convince ourselves that we are becoming a better magician.

All of the above is true. Ben Earl, Dani DaOrtiz, and Expert card technique all have great value, and great essence for study. All of those sources are a wealth of knowledge and information. But the really honest question that we have to ask ourselves is how much we’re actually using the information. Are we going from project to project, stopping halfway or even after 20 minutes in search of the next hit of dopamine, the next miracle shot that will elevate our magic to the next level? Or, are we genuinely studying a project and trying to understand what makes that magician awesome?

The Problem

 I catch myself way too often doing the first thing. Look I’m not perfect, my body loves dopamine and we live in a day and age where social media companies, and any marketing company for that matter have figured out how to high-jack our senses, especially our dopamine receptors. They understand that since dopamine is a pleasure-seeking hormone that the pursuit of getting better at something is a great way to sell something. It will get you jacked up on dopamine with the promise of becoming the next legendary magician. 

The Solution

Now I’m not saying that these sources don’t hold keys to amazing miracles and card handling. But I’m saying that the way that I’m currently using those sources is not the way to become a better magician. I’m slowly progressing, way slower than I actually could. I fall in love with the idea of becoming the next legend and while pursuing that Idea I search for the next illusionary project that gives me the feeling of becoming that legend. I pursue all those things rather than the things that I should actually be doing. Rather than the hard thing, actually studying the material, actually starting to understand what makes the material good, what makes it work, and what makes it improve magic.

Saying that we should get item A or item B is meaningless. It’s another quick dopamine hit and another quick way to prevent doing the hard work, this way of thinking prevents us from actually mastering the thing that we love so deeply.

With this in mind, I want to spend every minute from this moment in a less high, dopamine-addicted state, a state where I have intentionality and where I work humbly on mastering my craft. Not on cheap cheat codes that only convince me that I’m getting better.
All of this has to do with my approach to the material, not with the material itself. It has to do with being honest with myself and allowing myself to be bored. When I’m bored sometimes I can reach the goals I set out to reach.

So with all of this being said, I want to ask you to answer for yourselves, when is enough enough?

- Rico Weeland