A few months ago, Lauren and I moved from deepest, darkest central London to Fort Grundy and the leafy suburbs of outer London.

Needless to say, there are still a few lingering boxes which I need to unpack.

As I rummaged through one of these boxes over the weekend, I came across two huge, glossy, hardback books called Gambling Sleight of Hand Vols 1 & 2. The books are written by Steve Forte, an underground living legend of magic and cheating at cards.

I dropped a few hundred quid on signed copies of these two books during the Covid lockdowns.

And as soon as I saw them again over the weekend, a wave of memories come rushing in.

See, I was one of those people who LOVED the Covid lockdowns.

I dug the slower pace of life. I enjoyed having a ready-made excuse not to socialise. And I revelled in having more time on my hands to read, to write and to work out using bottles of wine as dumbbells.

I also loved having the time and space to indulge in my hobbies.

One of those hobbies was magic.

During lockdown, my magic book collection went from the 20 odd books I still had hanging round twenty years ago to 50+ books on sleights, tricks, stagecraft, patter and showmanship.

There were days during lockdown where I’d sit at my kitchen table, crack open a new pack of cards and spend hours flicking from page to page and book to book, trying new techniques, learning tricks, mucking about with the cards and genuinely having a whale of a time.

As I turned the pages in Volume 2 again on the weekend, I started to reminisce about these good old Covid days.

But then some other thoughts popped up.

Perhaps the lockdowns weren’t quite as rosy as I’d remembered.

Truth is, during the good old days of Covid, I was also hankering after the good old days before Covid.

The days where I didn’t need to worry about running out of toilet roll. The days where I didn’t know how long I’d be locked up for. And the days where I wasn't worrying about my family catching the virus.

As I pondered all this over the weekend, I caught the pattern.

We often look back and think "those were the days", forgetting that when we were actually living those days, we were busy looking back on the days before THEM. Just like standing in front of a breathtaking view but missing it because we're looking back over our shoulder.

It’s easy to tell if you’re doing this too.

Whenever you catch yourself saying “I wish I could go back” or “it’s not like it used to be” or even “I didn’t realise how good I had it”, that’s the giveaway.

But here's the thing:

Life isn't lived in the past.

Instead, THESE are the good old days. They always will be. Right here, right now, as you read this sentence.

So pause. Take a breath. Look around you and soak in the moment.

If you’ve caught yourself reminiscing about how things used to be and you're wondering how to find that spark now, my coaching might be just the ticket. 

All the info's here:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com