A magician's guide to realizing your dreams | Derek Selinger | TEDxCapeMay

I didn't want to say it I didn't want to say it I was standing on the stage of a luxury cruise ship in front of a thousand people performing my magic and mentalism show and I didn't want to say it, you see, I had a spectator on stage and I was about to reveal what I only they were thinking, but I knew as soon as I did it it would ruin the next 10 minutes of my performance and the worst part was that this was the 13th show in a row where this had happened. We'll come back to that in a moment, but first let's try to do something impossible with this little piece of paper in this box and with you you're going to try to read my mind and to do that, we're going to use this, this is a powerful ball of thread, it's going to pick some from you at random, so if I could get some lights from the house, I'm going to throw this, it's important that it doesn't fall to the ground because it's going to be a precious item of clothing in the future, so here it comes ready, pick it up, oh , nice catch, very good, could you stand where you are if you don't mind?

I need someone to read some things. Do you need reading glasses or not? Okay, okay, can you just turn around and throw that ball to someone else? Okay, catch her, it's important to catch her and get up when you catch her, but would you mind, uh, the first person here? Yes, could you join me here on stage? Go up right now. while everyone greets you with a nice applause here, you are going to write some information here for us, we are going to write six numbers, five in a row, then one here, okay, we are going to name them in a minute but whoever has the ball now alone I want you to stand up if you don't mind, okay, yeah, I want you to try and just mentally catch what I'm throwing at you.

I am sending you a number between 1 and 69 what is the number that comes to mind 52 write the number 52 nice and big throw the ball gently to another person okay catch it yes very good get up if you don't mind okay catch by the way a number between 1 and 69 say it now 45 yes, that's very good, wonderful, next, next person, just throw it to someone else, kind and gentle, coming towards you, take it, yes, very good, stand up, if you don't mind , a number between one and 69, the number three, the number three, well. throw it this way to another random person catch it very well stand where you are and a number between one and 69 what am I thinking 32 32 that's the fourth number number 30 32 again throw it to another person oh that was almost a catch it was very close well stand up and a number between 1 and 69 the number 18 right there and once again throw it one more time to someone else we're going to add the last number here 1 two 3 four five stand up, if you don't mind, right there, okay , you are the power number, so to speak, I am going to ask you to name only between 1 and 26, what number would you like?

The number 25 adds that right here, big and bold, you have the power. ball of wool and that mighty ball of wool is now

your

s to knit a beautiful winter hat or as they say in Canada a beanie and you could take a seat right there if you don't mind, very well, I will invite you to come. On this side of the stage we have here this plastic container with a note inside. I want you to take the note if you don't mind, open it and go up to the microphone here and tell everyone what that is.

The Powerball ticket is a Powerball ticket and you, do you see what state it's from? I guess it's, yes, Pennsylvania of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, yes, very good and the date has already passed. Yes, back in July, when I was invited here, I sent it to me on July 15. Very well, now what interests us most are the numbers, so you are going to name those numbers one at a time. Ah, there's the pen, you're going to name them one at a time. sure and let's go three three 18 18 32 32 45 45 52 52 and what's the power number 25 25 come on woo thank you very much can you take

your

seat a big round of applause take her back to her seat yes, thank you very much okay that's how we start that's it impossible no, no what I did entertaining you through mentalism is what I do win the lottery it's actually impossible it's like 0% I could predict that it will influence you, but lottery machines if I could, don't you think I would?

I've already done it and it's silently statistically absurd to win the grand prize is one in 300 million or so, so you're saying there's a chance that a better strategy, let's do the math, would be to take 20 years of weekly investment in Power Sphere and go to Monte Carlo, you have about 20 grand, put it all in red, win, you will have 40 grand. Let It Ride wins again in fact Let It Ride 10 times in a row and you will have over 2 million and the odds are only 1 in 1376 one in 300 million one in 1376 those are the mathematical odds orders of magnitude better by exactly the same money, but how many of you would go to Monte Carlo and put down 20 grand and let it run 10 times in a row?

I don't believe it. but the lottery now I stopped playing the lottery for another reason and to explain it to you I will take you back to the scene of that cruise ship with 2,000 eyeballs approaching me. I had a spectator on stage thinking about a dream they had for their life and they were about to reveal it, but they didn't want to say it. The next 10 minutes of my performance were focused on the power of

dreams

and encouraging this person to pursue his

dreams

, but his dream was the 13th show in a row. It was winning the lottery look, it had puffy music in this little ornate box that they were going to write down their dream and put it in so they could take it home and put it on the shelf and look at it every day to remind them to chase it. their dreams but they won the lottery and that broke my heart that's not a dream that's a wish now why is it a wish and not a dream it's a wish because there's nothing you can do to make it come true you don't have agency AG to do reality a lottery come true zero one in 300 million is a wish and wishing inoculates us against really dreaming because it feels like you are doing something that is just an illusion.

I spent the next 15 years from that day trying to understand what a dream is and how to make them come true and it's so simple that anyone can do it, even me, you see. I think we were born knowing how to dream, but we forget the stress of busyness. We stop the failures of broken dreams or at least reduce them and yes, some dreams don't. I don't work against the conventional wisdom of every superstar and every award show, some dreams die. My first dream was to play in the NBA. Thanks for laughing. I worked hard to achieve that dream, but some dreams die.

I happen to have average athletic ability. and despite my best efforts, some dreams die, but that was not the end because that dream became the seed of my next dream. Some dreams die, but seeds don't sprout or grow unless they die, so never give up. Dream but never stop dreaming and if we observe the children playing we see that we need to dream like children. Let's imagine two children on the beach, one turns to the other and says, what if we built a sand castle? the other yes with three towers yes we'll build a moat and put water in it, yes, and then a tunnel in the middle so we can drive our Hot Wheels cars through the essence of dreams found in this exchange, Children express a creative desire that they are creating through a question and the question is what if? and if this singular question is the simplest way to start dreaming.

Ask a meaningful question that you want to know the answer to in a creative way so that our children come up with this idea of ​​this dream, but if they don't they follow through with that dream. dies or becomes a wish like I wish someone would build a sandcastle I wish the lifeguard would build a sandcastle a dream is not a dream unless you are willing to do something about it Wishing one in 300 million chance that you can bought is just an illusion to move from the imaginative stage to making it real there are two more phases: the dream leads to direction and the direction leads to discipline dream Direction discipline first Dream what would happen if we built a sand castle second direction the children move to meet? an understanding of what it would take to build a sandcastle they get information they gather supplies they set goals you build that Tower and when you're done I'm done with the moat by the way, goals are goals we create along the way to accomplish a dream and this is an important phase to realize our dream, isn't it?

But we don't stop there, we don't just watch YouTube videos about what we want to do, we have to start acting which takes us to the third thing. Discipline: Children have to use their effort and their tools to move the sand. They have to get their hands dirty. We have to turn our backs and this is where a dream is realized direction of the dream discipline let's imagine a dream we could have in our lives dream What if I play guitar in a rock band? Address, well, what would be needed for that? What is a guitar?

Where do you get one? How do you touch it and how do I do my hair like a rock star? Discipline that you take lessons you start playing with people you meet other musicians interested in forming a band and you start to make your hair stand on end could be broken down further into these three phrases dream and if direction I will discipline do this what if I played guitar in a band of rock? I will develop a path of understanding to realize this dream and now to progress I must do this I must practice I must strive What happens if I do this?

What happens if I do this? What could happen? That's a dream. This is what I try to teach the entrepreneurs I work with This is what I try to communicate through my art Never give up on the process Never give up on dreaming Never give up on asking the question What if and what if I do this and then I find out? I wonder if we might have the courage to dream again if you have a dream, use it as direction and create action, establish discipline, but my hunch is that most of us adults have stopped dreaming altogether now that your dream can It might not be playing guitar in a rock band, but what would happen if you started that business you always wanted?

What would happen if you started working with that charity? What would happen if you started learning that language? o What would happen if you actually started working on that idea? What if and instead of launching our dreams? Impossible processes like buying a lottery ticket. Let's try this, take a simple sticky note and write, what happens if I start there? Let your imagination flow about what could be and then, from that sticky note, let it give you direction and from that direction put action and discipline into practice. What happens if I do this? I am sharing this with you for selfish reasons, of course, I want you to be happy and fulfilled, and dreaming gives meaning to life, but selfishly I want you to dream because you have the solution to problems in you. your dreams and God knows we need some solutions you have art in your dreams you have new music in your dreams you have a business or a way to help people or an invention we could never have imagined in your dreams the more people dream the better it gets This world George Bernard Shaw once said that life is not a short candle to me, it is a kind of splendid torch that I have in my hands for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before passing it on to the Future.

The generations burn brightly my friends