Follow the Fear
By Julian Franklin
[...]
When times get lean, it is easy to get scared. Actually, it's quite okay to be scared. The secret is to use your fear to push you harder, not to allow it to cause you to shrink and cower.
For most of us, it is easy to remember the nervous feelings that often rise before going on stage. For some performer these butterflies never die. For some the fear of public performance is so great that they spend their lives in the audience dreaming of what it would be like to be on stage. For others, we embrace the fear, the nervousness, and the anxiety and push through it. We walk on stage when our knees feel like jelly, and we do our best.
And something amazing happens after just a few minutes. Our bodies relax and give in, and we begin to enjoy what we are doing.
In studying improvisation, you are taught to "follow the fear." By doing the thing that most frightens you, you are most able to grow and develop. Your biggest breakthroughs come from the things that frighten you the most. Your fastest growth comes rom doing that which intimidates you the most.
At the very least, step outside of your comfort zone. If your magazine reading is limited to four or five magic magazines, add a few to the mix that have nothing to do with magic. The truth is that you probably don't need another way to force a card, and you definitely don't need three more clever ways to reveal a forced card. Instead, study what your customers find important. Read what they read. Learn some marketing. Read the works of great advertises like David Ogilvy. Read magazines like Psychology Today.
Take a class on prov, if you've never done so, it will make you uncomfortable It might even frighten you at some point. But it will definitely make you a better performer.
Get back in the gym. It doesn't matter if you are too out of shape and feel embarrassed. Do it anyway.
Write a magazine article and submit it for publication. You will get rejected. There. Now you know. The worst part is already over! So go ahead and do it. Don't worry about success, do it just because it is scary. Do it because you will grow for doing it, regardless of whether it is accepted or not. Then when you get n acceptance letter after you've submitted ten or twelve articles, you'll be surprised and excited, and maybe even a little scared. Good, again!
Eleanor Roosevelt suggested that you should "do something every day that frightens you." Victory goes to the bold. And the truth is that you don't need to do things that are terribly frightening. The simple act of stepping out of your comfort zone can open breakthroughs beyond your dreams.
[...]
When times get lean, it is easy to get scared. Actually, it's quite okay to be scared. The secret is to use your fear to push you harder, not to allow it to cause you to shrink and cower.
For most of us, it is easy to remember the nervous feelings that often rise before going on stage. For some performer these butterflies never die. For some the fear of public performance is so great that they spend their lives in the audience dreaming of what it would be like to be on stage. For others, we embrace the fear, the nervousness, and the anxiety and push through it. We walk on stage when our knees feel like jelly, and we do our best.
And something amazing happens after just a few minutes. Our bodies relax and give in, and we begin to enjoy what we are doing.
In studying improvisation, you are taught to "follow the fear." By doing the thing that most frightens you, you are most able to grow and develop. Your biggest breakthroughs come from the things that frighten you the most. Your fastest growth comes rom doing that which intimidates you the most.
At the very least, step outside of your comfort zone. If your magazine reading is limited to four or five magic magazines, add a few to the mix that have nothing to do with magic. The truth is that you probably don't need another way to force a card, and you definitely don't need three more clever ways to reveal a forced card. Instead, study what your customers find important. Read what they read. Learn some marketing. Read the works of great advertises like David Ogilvy. Read magazines like Psychology Today.
Take a class on prov, if you've never done so, it will make you uncomfortable It might even frighten you at some point. But it will definitely make you a better performer.
Get back in the gym. It doesn't matter if you are too out of shape and feel embarrassed. Do it anyway.
Write a magazine article and submit it for publication. You will get rejected. There. Now you know. The worst part is already over! So go ahead and do it. Don't worry about success, do it just because it is scary. Do it because you will grow for doing it, regardless of whether it is accepted or not. Then when you get n acceptance letter after you've submitted ten or twelve articles, you'll be surprised and excited, and maybe even a little scared. Good, again!
Eleanor Roosevelt suggested that you should "do something every day that frightens you." Victory goes to the bold. And the truth is that you don't need to do things that are terribly frightening. The simple act of stepping out of your comfort zone can open breakthroughs beyond your dreams.
This article was excerpted from the column "The Business of Magic" in the October 2009 issue of The Linking Ring.
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