Magic 101

Long ago and far away, I read a book called

Where I began my journey of making magic through writing goals.

It's not that I'd never heard of the concept before, it's just that until this particular time, I hadn't had any... goals.

One exercise the book suggested was to write a list of things to do before you die. Which I now know that people refer to as a

But I'd never heard that particular term before. So I made my list. The first thing on it was "Go to Greece."

When you were a teenager, did you ever read books by Christopher Pike?

They were like the "Twilight" series of people my age... All mystery and vampires and paranormal type stories.

 I'll be writing books with a similar vibe when I run away to the redwoods!

Well, this one really got me.

After reading it, the only thing I ever really wanted (besides independence, I was a teenager, after all) was to go to Greece.

Specifically, the island of Delos, where the book takes place.

Wouldn't you know, a short time after I made this list, Suzy Snakeyes posted a game-show casting call. The show was called "National Lampoon's Greek Games," for the GSN.

Suzy had already been on a game show that year, so she passed it on, and I'm grateful she did!

So I go on this ridiculous game show, win the whole damn thing and get free trip to Greece out of it!

Matt & me in Greece (here he is BB; before beard)

And here's me, on ruins, in Delos!

I couldn't help but think... Godamm! Writing your goals down freakin works!

When I came home from Greece to my newly formed league, I knew I had to find ways to apply this writing magic to what we were creating. So I created goal sheets for everybody to fill out.

They looked kinda like this:

I am:

I have:

I can:

I feel: 

Not too long ago I was digging through some old stuff and found not only mine, but some that other people had "turned in" to me as well.

I told them they could keep the sheets, but I guess I felt a lot like teacher at that point. Some people even put their name at the top.     : )

I wish I could share with you what I saw, 5 years of results later.

It was like the goals we wrote back then were just tiny dreams. Stuff like learning to jump, powerslide, block...Of the ones I read, everyone accomplished their personal goals completely.

magic beans!

The biggest league goal we had, at the time, was to get a banked track. And we have two of those now!

Imagine what we could make happen if we put no limitations on our goals...

So here's my advice on goal writing, should you care to give it a try:

1) Write your goals in present tense, as if they are already happening right now.

2) Get really deep in to the emotion of what it feels like to already have them accomplished, in your writing.

3) Put a date at the top, like you would when writing a letter to someone. Not today's date, though. The date you wanna accomplish it by.

Once your goals are written, some people like to keep them handy as a reminder, some like to hide them away and be surprised by their accomplishments later. Either way.

Hope you have a rad day today, and make some magic happen!

Here's my parting gifts!