Recently, I was just completing a run when I noticed in the distance a street fair going on.
I decided to walk through it as it was pretty much on the way home.
It was an extremely hot & humid summer day and there were people everywhere.
The surrounding area had that familiar pleasant smell of the various street fair foods and there were fairly big lines to just about every vendor who were all working hard and pushing their products.
As I continued through the masses, I noticed an even larger crowd congregated at the end of the street.
I continued on curious to see what was garnering such a big audience on such a warm day.
When I finally came upon the scene it turned out to be a magician who by the looks of it was about to perform his Grande Finale.
He and his assistant wheeled out an imposing looking “Bed of Nails.”
The crowd seemed fully engaged as he displayed several examples of the extreme sharpness of the nails.
Then it was the moment of truth.
The magician took a deep breath, closed his eyes and started his decent of lying back towards the bed of nails.
I saw the wide-eyed look of concern from some of the kids in attendance as he continued.
Finally, he was completely prone on the bed of nails and held the position for some time as the crowd applauded his final act.
I started back on my way home and started thinking about how any goal, result or outcome is first set in motion with beginning with the end in mind.
For this gentleman, he had the goal of finishing his show off with a “blow away” trick that would induce an emotional response in his audience and also one that would have them always remember him.
I’m fairly certain that it probably took some time for him to decide how he was going to finish his show, but I think the take-away is that no matter what he chose to end with, his goal was to capture the audience with suspense, maybe a little fear or worry and then to deliver a triumphant feat that would bring down the house with a huge ovation.
He could of chose many paths to this outcome.
Writing, performance, art, physique goals can be approached the same.
First, decided what it is that you absolutely want and you may need to break it down even further (think of how it is you want to feel by achieving this outcome.)
Then comes the leg-work of deconstructing and that is what we will discuss next time.
