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

[Music] [Applause] I didn't want to say it I did not want to say it I was standing on stage in a luxury Cruise liner 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 they were only thinking but I knew as soon as I did it would ruin the next 10 minutes of my performance and the worst part was this was the 13th show in a row that this had happened we'll come back to that in just 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 power ball of yarn it's going to pick a few of you at random so if I could get just a little bit of house lights I'm going to toss this out it's important this doesn't fall on the ground because it's going to make a lovely garment down the road so here it comes ready catch it oh good catch very good could you stand up where you are if you don't mind I need somebody to read some things do you need reading glasses or are you good you good can you just turn around and toss that ball to someone else good catch it it's important to catch it and stand up when you catch it but would you mind uh the first person here yes would you join me here on stage come right up as everybody greets you with a nice Applause right over here you're going to write down some information here for us we're going to write down six numbers five in a row then one here okay we're going to call them out in a minute but whoever has the ball now I just want you to stand up if you don't mind all right yes I want you to try uh and just catch what I'm throwing to you mentally I'm sending you a number between 1 and 69 what is the number that's coming to your mind 52 write the number 52 nice and big toss the ball gently to someone else good catch it yes very good stand up if you don't mind good catch by the way a number between 1 and 69 say it now 45 yeah that's very good wonderful next next person just toss it to someone else nice and gentle coming at you catch it yeah very good stand up if you don't mind a number between one and 69 the number three the number three good toss it this way to someone else at random catch it very good stand up 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 once more toss it to someone else oh that was almost a catch it was very close good stand up and a number between 1 and 69 the number 18 right there and one more time toss it one more time to one other person we're going to add the last number here 1 two 3 four five stand up if you don't mind right there good you're the power number as it were I'm going to have you name only between 1 and 26 what number would you like number 25 add that right here big and bold you have the power ball of yarn and that power ball of yarn now is yours to knit a lovely winter hat or as they say in Canada a toque and you could grab a seat right there if you don't mind very good I'm going to have you come over to this side of the stage we have here uh this uh plastic container with a note inside I want you to take the note if you don't mind and open it up and come to the microphone over here and tell everybody what that is it's Powerball ticket it's a Powerball ticket and you and do you see what state it's from I guess it's it's uh yeah Pennsylvania from Pennsylvania Pennsylvania yeah very good and the date is passed it's yeah back back in July when I was invited here I had it sent to me July 15th very good now the thing that we're most interested in is the numbers right so you're going to name those numbers out one at a time oh there's the pen you're going to call them out one at a time very clearly and go three three 18 18 32 32 45 45 52 52 and what's the power number 25 25 let's go woo thank you so much you can take your seat big round of Applause take her back to her seat [Applause] yes thank you so very much all right that's the way we start that's impossible no not what I did entertaining you through mentalism is what I do winning the lottery is actually impossible it's like 0% I could predict it influence you but the Lotto machines if I could don't you think I would have done it already and quietly it's statistically absurd to win the big one is one in 300 million give or take so you're saying there's a chance a better strategy let's do the math would be to take 20 years of weekly Power Sphere investment and to go to Monte Carlo you have about 20 grand put it all on red win you'll have 40 Grand Let It Ride win again in fact Let It Ride 10 times in a row and you'll have over2 million and the odds are only 1 in 1376 one in 300 million one in 1376 that's the math orders of magnitude better odds for the exact same money but how many of you would go to Monte Carlo and put 20 grand and let it ride 10 times in a row I didn't think so but the lotto now I stopped playing the lottery for another reason and to explain it to you I'll take you back to that cruise ship stage with 2,000 eyeballs all bearing down on me I had a spectator on stage thinking about a dream they had for their life and I was about to reveal it but I didn't want to say it the next 10 minutes of my performance was all about the power of dreams and encouraging this person to pursue their dreams but their dream for the 13th show in a row was to win the lottery look I had swelling music in this ornate little box that were going to write out their dream and put it inside so they could take it home and put it on the shelf and look at it every day to remind them to chase their dreams but win the lottery and it 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 have zero AG agency to actually make a lottery come true zero one in 300 million it's a wish and wishing inoculates us against actually dreaming because it feels like you're doing something that's just an illusion I spent the next 15 years since that day trying to understand what a dream is and how to actually make them come true and it's so simple anyone can do it even me you see I believe we were born knowing how to dream but we forget busyness stress Broken Dreams failures we stop or at least we shrink them down and yes some dreams don't work out against the popular wisdom of every superstar and every award show some dreams die my first dream was to play in the NBA thank you for laughing I tried hard to accomplish that dream but some dreams die it turns out I have just average athletic ability and in spite of my very best efforts some dreams die but that wasn't the end because that dream became the seed for my next dream some dreams die but seeds don't Sprout and grow unless they die so it's not never give up on your dream but never give up on dreaming and if we observe children at play we see we need to dream like children imagine two children on the beach one turns the other and says what if we built a sand castle the other yeah with three towers yeah we'll build a moat and put water in it yeah and then a tunnel through the middle so we could drive our Hot Wheels cars through the essence of dreaming is found in this exchange the children are expressing a creative desire they're creating through a question and the question is what if what if this singular question is the simplest way to begin dreaming ask a meaningful question that you creatively want to know the answer to so our kids come up with this idea this dream but if they don't move forward that dream dies or becomes a wish like I wish somebody would build a sand castle I wish the Lifeguard would build a sand castle a dream isn't a dream unless you're willing to do something about it Wishing on a one in 300 million chance that you purchased is Just an Illusion to move from the imaginative stage to making it real there are two further phases the dream leads to Direction and the direction leads to discipline dream Direction discipline first Dream what if we built a sand castle second Direction the kids move to gather an understanding of what it would take to build a sand castle they get information gather supplies they set goals you build that Tower and by the time you're done I'll be done the moat by the way goals are targets we create on the way to realizing a dream and this is an important phase to realizing our Dream isn't it but we don't stay there we don't just watch YouTube videos about the thing we want to do we have to actually start to act that leads to the third thing discipline the kids have to use their effort and their tools to move the sand they have to get their hands dirty they have to put their back into it and it is here that a dream is realized dream Direction discipline let's imagine a dream we might have for our lives dream what if I play guitar in a rock band Direction well what would that take what is a guitar where do you get one how do you play it and how do I do my hair like a rock star discipline you take lessons you begin to play with people you meet other musicians interested in forming a band and you begin to spike your hair it could be further broken down in these three phrases dream what if Direction I will discipline do this what if I played guitar in a rock band I will develop a path of understanding to realize this dream and so now to progress I must do this I must practice I must put in the work what if I will do this put it together what if I do this what might 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 what if I do this and then find out I wonder if we might have the courage to dream again if you have a dream use it for direction and create action put discipline in place but my hunch is most of us adults have stopped dreaming altogether now your dream may not be to play guitar in a rock band but what if you started that business you always wanted to what if you started to work with that charity what if you started to learn that language or what if you started to really work on that idea what if and instead of casting our dreams on Impossible processes like buying a lottery ticket let's try this get a simple sticky note and write what if I start there let your imagination flow what could be and then from that sticky note let it give you Direction and from that direction put action and discipline in place what if I do this this I'm sharing this with you for selfish reasons of course I want you to be happy and fulfilled and dreaming does that it provides meaning in life but selfishly I want you to dream because you have the solution of problems in your dreams and Lord knows we need some solutions you have art in your dreams you have new music in your dreams you have a business or or a way to help people or or an invention we could never have imagined in your dreams the more people that dream the better this world becomes George Bernard Shaw once said life is no brief candle to me it is a sort of Splendid torch of which I have a hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing on to Future Generations burn brightly my friends

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 28,061

Keywords: Creativity, Dreams, English, Goal-setting, Life, Personal growth, TEDxTalks, [TEDxEID:53247]

Id: KbWfeu_3NFQ

Length: 15min 49sec (949 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 19 2024