World Class Experience

I'm always inspired watching the Olympic athletes exhibit the incredible degree of peak performance they've worked so hard to achieve.  As many of you know, I teach Judo, and when I was younger, was fortunate enough to train with many of our nation's top Judo players at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.  Ever since my teen years, peak performance of all kinds has held a deep fascination for me.  It's much akin to magic, in that those who go far beyond the norm achieve seemingly impossible results.

How is this possible?  As I discuss in my book, peak performance, as well as self actualization, both come quite often from surprising sources.  Yes, hard work and determination most definitely play a huge part.  But paradoxically, true achievement often comes in those moments where we simply allow ourselves to become completely immersed in the moment.

Rather than trying harder to be more, to do more, a certain surrender also comes into play.  Surrender to the experience of the moment:  body and mind merge into a single, highly focused field of experience, a one-pointed, yet relaxed level of heightened awareness.  This, the 'Magical Moment' experience, is often where we transcend our limitations and go beyond mere 'trying'.

The 'in the zone' experience that many athletes describe is one form of what Abraham Maslow described as a "peak experience", and they are common to those who are peak performers in all fields of human endeavor.  In the words of that great philosopher Jedi, "Do.  Or do not.  There is no 'try'."

And that's the real magic of achievement.

The Magic of Perceptions and Beliefs

Another topic I address in my upcoming book is the fact that our perceptions of the world are always inaccurate.  As a performing magician, I experience this regularly, and it is in fact the reason that I can accomplish what I do as a 'weaver of wonders'.  Unfortunately we tend to forget that our perceptions are faulty, we then base our beliefs about the world and how it works on those perceptions, and then we more often than not staunchly defend those beliefs as though they were the ultimate truth about the world, even though nothing could be further from the 'truth'.

And therein lies the source of all our unhappiness.

In my book I quote a bumper sticker I once saw:  "If you can't change your mind, are you sure you still have one?"  What if instead of thinking we "know" what is true, we instead went through life in a state of open-minded curiosity?  This attitude is the foundation of all true creativity.  And it's the secret to living our lives as the magical, creative beings we were always meant to be.

When life is a continual dance of discovery, it's tough to get bogged down in thinking there's something "wrong" with the way things are, and therefore in resisting them and making ourselves miserable.  And ironically, it's our open-mindedness that also allows us to respond more capably to challenges when they do arise and to resolve them more effortlessly.

So the next time you're tempted to think you know better than someone else, stop to remind yourself that it's really nothing more than a belief based on your necessarily limited perceptions of the situation, and see how that shift in perspective serves you to live more peacefully and joyfully.  You might just surprise yourself with some real magic!

Richard Wayne Clark: 1944—2012

My wife, Kathi, and I unexpectedly lost a good friend this past week—our neighbor and creative co-conspirator, Wayne Clark.  Wayne lived cattycorner across the street from us, and we met several years ago when I called him about a plumbing problem we were having.  Wayne ran his own plumbing and heating business, but to call him just a plumber would be a serious misrepresentation.  Wayne was a creative artist at all that he did, and a true intellectual in his own right.  He brought ingenuity and artistry to even the most mundane of activities.  After completing that first plumbing job for us, when he discovered that I was a magician, he refused to take payment for the job, insisting instead that I barter with him to do a show for a small private party at his house.

We quickly became good friends, and Kathi and I were enriched time and again by his generosity.  Allowing me unhampered access to his woodshop, Wayne taught me the art of cabinet making, and assisted and advised me through numerous projects, including new cabinets for our kitchen, a variety of "crafty" Christmas presents for our family, and a large hall tree/seat, to name just a few.  In turn, Kathi and I helped Wayne with decorating his house, creating curtains and window treatments, and with a wide variety of creative projects for both our houses.

Whether it was helping me to build magic props for my act, offering advice on home repair, or just thinking through some building project, Wayne was an absolute wealth of information, expertise, and creativity.  His artistic solutions to a variety of problems never ceased to amaze me.  And he shared it all freely, never holding back.

Late night talks at Wayne's house also become a regular occurrence, with topics ranging from creativity and art, to philosophy and religion, to science and technology, to politics, to cooking, to just about anything and everything in between.  Wayne loved to argue and debate and would often take a contrary position on something just to get a rise out of someone.  He took great delight in getting under your skin and seemed to find tremendous joy in the intellectual banter.

But he was also one of the most caring and generous people I've ever known.  While he'd be embarrassed to have anyone acknowledge it openly, he nonetheless cared genuinely about other people and consistently tried to offer help whenever and wherever possible.  Even at his most cantankerous, he was never mean spirited, would never dream of doing anything intentionally hurtful, and in fact had a huge and compassionate heart that served as his moral compass.  I would have trusted him with my life.

I can't help but think that in his need to be contrary he's finally gotten the last laugh:  he left us long before we were ready to be done sharing our lives with him.  I just can't believe I'll never again be able to walk across the street to get his advice on something, and I suddenly feel this big hole in my life where Wayne used to be.

Thanks for sharing with us, Wayne, we'll miss you more than you could have imagined.

Magic in Our Day

As previously announced, my new self-improvement book (tentatively titled, A Life of Magic) is set to be released later this year.  As I write this, we're about half way through the editing process and beginning work on cover design.  Over the coming weeks, I hope to share a few previews and "sneak peaks" into the subject matter in the book.  One of the things I talk about is the powerful transformative quality of "magical moments", or moments of awe, wonder, and what psychologist, Abraham Maslow, referred to as "peak experiences".

Allowing ourselves to "lose ourselves" in a moment in which we appreciate the beauty of a sunset, in which we are immersed in meaningful work, or where we simply rest in a moment of stillness can be incredibly empowering and transformative.  So this is just a little reminder to stay alert to the extraordinary that's all around us all the time as we go through our day.

Professional Entertainment or Not Professional Entertainment?

In my March client newsletter, I wrote an article about a customer who was struggling with whether to have entertainment at their event.  I was just reading it again and realized it had some good information that was worth repeating here, so here it is:

I had an interesting phone conversation with a client yesterday. She's on a committee interested in re-hiring me for a graduation lock-in event for a class of high school seniors at a school where I worked the same event last year.  The event last year went really well, and the students were absolutely raving about my performance.  The planning committee is made up of different people this year, though, and the client told me that they were asking her some tough questions about why they should hire me for the event.

She said the committee members were asking her questions such as:

• "In some years in the past, we didn't have any entertainment--why should we pay to have it now?"
• "Why are Mitch's programs so expensive, and why should we pay that much for entertainment?"
• "What's the point of having entertainment at all, when we already have plenty of activities for the students?"

These are all valid and even valuable questions to ask when planning for an event.  If you don't know why entertainment is important for your event, and how it will enhance your event, you should be cautious before committing significant portions of your budget to it.  And when choosing an entertainer, it's also important to know what you're getting and what the value will be for your event.  Not all events need entertainment, and not all entertainers are appropriate or desirable for all types of events, including me.

Part of my job in advising clients is to first determine whether they need entertainment at all, and if they do, whether I'm the right fit for what they need.  Here are my answers to some of these questions:

• If you want your event to be more than just a series of activities, but also a truly memorable and fun experience that your guests will remember with fondness and enthusiasm, good entertainment can fill that purpose.
• However, if you have an extremely low budget, you may want to pass on the entertainment in favor of better food or other services and instead use some creativity to come up with fun activities.  If your budget allows, though, hiring a skilled, professional entertainer is tough to beat.
• Food and interactive activities are great, and for some events, they're all you need, but the right entertainment can make an event an exciting, uplifting, and unforgettable experience!
• My entertainment programs are unique in that I lived in Los Angeles for ten years, one of the most competitive entertainment markets in the world, as well as traveling throughout the United States and several other countries.  In order to work the markets that I have, I had to develop entertainment programs that could compete favorably with other world class entertainers.  I'm not just another local entertainer, and my programs show it.  I can literally guarantee that your guests will have an absolutely astounding and unforgettable experience that they'll be talking about for months or even years to come.
• While my programs are more expensive than other local entertainers, the prices of my programs are actually lower than other national entertainers of my caliber.  I feel strongly that the value of my programs far outweighs the price of the investment in them, and I consistently exceed my customers' expectations.  All of my programs come with a money back guarantee.  I virtually guarantee results for your events, something most local entertainers would never even consider offering.

As for the high school senior lock-in, the question would be, "Do you just want to have a safe environment with a few fun activities to keep the kids occupied for a few hours?"  For some, this may in fact be enough... "Or do you want to make the event a truly unique and special, emotionally uplifting experience, and have the kids walking away going 'Wow!  That was AWESOME!!!"  That's the difference I can provide.

I'll be the first to admit that my programs are definitely not appropriate for everyone's events, and I pride myself on helping clients to determine whether we're a good fit, and if not, I do my best to advise them on other options.  But for those whose events can benefit from what I offer, my programs are excellent (even if I do say so myself), and I thrive on offering the best programs and customer service I possibly can at a competitive price.

Event Planning Gets Sophisticated, and Simpler

Here's something my event planning clients may find useful.  It's a short article on new trends in planning special events.  The article is actually written for law firms in Canada, but it has some practical ideas that can be applied to any business events.  Enjoy! Event Planning Article.

Playing in Peoria

I had a blast last week doing a photo shoot with photographer extraordinaire Craig Stocks.  He's doing a series of art photos of local artists and performers, and I'm his most recent subject.  You can see a large image of the shot he did of me, along with a profile on me and my work, on his Playing Peoria website.  And if you'd like to see how he was able to catch me floating in mid-air, Craig also has a "behind the scenes, 'making of'" description and short video on his blog: http://craigstocksarts.com/blog/

Pretty cool, eh?

The Arts Astound Me

I attended a meeting in Peoria yesterday for planning local activities during National Arts and Humanities month in October, and to focus around the opening of the new Riverfront Museum, also in October. Some exciting things are going to be happening, including an inspiring marketing campaign over the coming months, which I'll be helping to coordinate.

 ArtsPartners of Central Illinois is spearheading the various planning, and one of the things we're trying to do is build a massive following on the ArtsPartners Facebook page.  So if you're on Facebook, and haven't done so yet, please "like" ArtsPartners on Facebook.

Here's a photo of me (showing the back of my head, don't you know), chatting with Kathy Chitwood, Doug Leunig, and a few other arts advocates at the meeting.