Wizardry And Other Kinky Stuff

When I was a kid, other kids told me that if I manage to keep an egg for 4 years under my armpit I will become a wizard. They told that to me in a low voice and only after I passed a few very difficult trust tests. So, in a way, I was among a few privileged to have access to that information. The egg shouldn’t break, of course.

The task seemed so daunting to me that I bought it instantly. From that moment on I was deeply convinced not only that it is possible to keep an egg under your armpit for 4 years (without breaking it, of course) but also that wizards do exist. There was something so hard to believe in that task, something so incredibly difficult, that the result of actually doing it couldn’t be less than magical.

Years passed by and, of course, the bare logic of this way too deterministic world in which we spend most of our time eventually blew away this belief. I realized that it was physically impossible to keep am egg anywhere for 4 years without breaking it, let aside under the armpit, and I also learned that wizards, or magicians, like other people called them, were just highly trained impostors, playing tricks on our minds.

But deep down something from that childish memory survived. As a matter of fact, I remember that I actually tried to do this once or twice. It didn’t last more than 10 or 15 minutes of course, because the egg was invariably broken, either by my arm, or by the simple action of falling down in a moment of relaxation. Mind you, these failed attempts somehow increased the respect I felt for people who, allegedly, did it.

The Real Wizards

During the last 20 years I immersed myself in many difficult projects. Some of them were just for a few weeks, some for a few months and other for a few years. Every now and then, the childhood memory of the egg-centric wizard emerged. Consciously, I knew it was just a story, made up by kids who spent most of their life in an imaginary world. But unconsciously, that was exactly what I was doing.

The only difference was that I substituted the egg for something else. Instead of keeping an egg under my armpit, I kept a goal in my sight. A vision. An objective. I strongly focused on a single outcome, day by day, week by week, month by month and, from some point on, year by year. Eventually, I became some sort of a wizard. Meaning I became so good at doing that thing, that there was hardly anyone who could replace me. And what I was doing seemed, from the outside, an act of magic. Like one day, back when I was working as a radio anchor, I was able to read the news sitting on my head on the desk. Seriously.

As an entrepreneur I created projects that were number one on the market for years. After I sold my company, I focused on other type of tasks, like running. In time, I was able to run my first marathon. I learned tango, 5 days a week, for a year and a half and now I’m starting my own tango course, as a teacher.

If you really look at it from the outside, it will look like wizardry. But I just call it discipline. If you keep yourself focused on a certain goal, on a certain outcome, day by day, for years, something magical will happen. You may not become a real wizard, but you can become the equivalent of a wizard. Somebody so good at what it does that no one else could replace you. Somebody so skilled that every performance will look like a an act of magic from the outside.

Small, 30 Days Witchcrafts

But there’s another interesting side effect of this discipline thing. For instance, right now I’m in the middle of a 30 days challenge, which, basically, it’s just a discipline exercise. I decided that I will stop doing certain things every day, and that I will do other things instead. It’s a mix of physical and emotional tasks, but the main point is that I committed fully to this. It’s only for 30 days, not for 4 years, but guess what: the benefits of this specific challenge are so big that I can hardly recognize the person I was at the beginning of it. I’m more lucid, more aware, more relaxed and, yes, more powerful.

If that’s wizardry, then yes, I can testify that discipline can turn you into a wizard.