Lauren and I have just moved from the mean streets of North East London to the UK's City of Steel, Sheffield.

Needless to say, we now have lots of boxes 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 card magic.

I dropped a few hundred quid on signed copies of these books during the Covid lockdowns. As soon as I saw them again over the weekend, a wave of memories came 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 oodles of time 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 hobbies like magic.

During Covid, my magic book collection went from the 20 odd books I'd collected during the first 35 years of my life to over 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 flicked the pages in Volume 2 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 know how long I’d be locked up for. The days where I wasn't anxious about my family catching the virus. And the days where I didn’t need to worry about running out of toilet roll.

As I pondered all this, something struck me.

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. A bit like standing in front of a breathtaking view but missing it because we're looking back over our shoulder. 

Perhaps we're trying to find our way back to a previous version of ourselves that felt fully alive doing something that really mattered.

But this feeling only exists in the present. Which means it's available right here, right now, as you read this sentence.

These really are the good old days.

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 not sure how to find that spark again, my coaching might be just the ticket. 

All the info's here:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com

To fulfilment,

Tom