Magic of Compounding: The One-Year Road to Becoming the Magician You Want to Be
It’s highly probable that in 365 days you’ll still be around—if you’re thinking about adding a bullet catch routine to your show, that probability may be slightly lower, but we’ll be optimistic. Hopefully, by this time next year, you’ll also still be a magician. And the magic you’ll be performing will either be better than what you perform now, exactly the same, or maybe even worse. Because of the Compound Effect, the tiniest actions—positive or negative—you’re taking today will have an astronomical impact on your future magic.
In his book, Darren Hardy calls the Compound Effect “the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices.” Those choices may seem small on their own, but with the power of time, their effect is exponential.
Have you ever heard of that old illustration of compound interest, where you have to choose between $1 million today, or a penny doubled every day for a month? As tempting as it seems to take the million and run, when the math is done, the penny doubled every day would be worth over $5 million by the end of the month ($10 million, if it’s a month with 31 days!). It seems impossible at first, because our brains aren’t wired to think in terms of multiplication; that’s why it’s easier to mentally add 23+7, than it is to multiply 23*7, and why a single penny can become $5 million in a month.
Well, your magic is exactly the same as those pennies; the smallest actions you invest (or fail to invest) compound over time, and what you do on a regular basis will have an outsized impact on the type of magician you’ll be in a month, year, or decade.
To illustrate how this financial concept works for other parts of our lives, imagine the common New Year’s resolution of losing weight. If, on January 1st, you made one tiny change—like choosing to drink water in place of a sugary drink—you wouldn’t even notice a difference the next day, or a week later. But if you repeat this one tiny action until December 31st, you will see substantial results (hey, maybe you can finally squeeze back into that leather jacket from your Copperfield phase). The consistency over time is what allows the Compound Effect (just like compound interest) to drive exponential results.
And if your goals are magic-related, rather than health, it works exactly the same way. You probably won’t develop a great second deal or perfect the script for your 12-phase linking ring routine (please don’t do a 12-phase linking ring routine) in a week, or even a month. But if you spend 10 minutes on it every single day, it will be unrecognizably better in a year. And a year after that, it’ll be far better again.
Consider two fictional magicians—Sigfreud and Ray. Both have dreams of performing a magic show in Las Vegas, but their small, daily habits will set them on different paths. Sigfreud adopts a simple habit—spending just 30 minutes every morning in dedicated rehearsal, research, and/or planning to improve his show. Ray makes no change. He continues to practice occasionally, when he has a show coming up or when he’s feeling inspired, but he hasn’t dedicated any specific time to his sparkly, neon goal. Rather, he spends his half hour every morning scrolling through TikTok or Facebook (or worse, catty magic forums). In a few weeks, both wannabe-stars are in more or less the same places they started. In 3 months, a whole lot hasn’t changed; maybe Sigfreud’s show is starting to become a little more polished (after all, he has already dedicated 45 hours to it). Give it time, and one year later, Sigfreud will be a hell of a lot closer to a Vegas stage than Ray, who, despite starting with the same goal, lacked the consistency required for the Compound Effect to work its magic. Within a few years, if they stay on these paths, Ray just may be buying a ticket to Sigfreud’s show at The Mirooje.
If you’d prefer to be on the path to exponential improvement, rather than stuck on the straight-line path to sameness like Ray, the first step is to figure out where you want your path to lead. This could be a specific goal (“I want to have this stack memorized next year”), but it could also be a little more vague (“I want to be the kind of magician who connects with my audience and shares meaningful magic”). Regardless of your personal magical goals, the first step to achieving them is thinking about where you want to go, what you want your magic to become.
Once you know where you’re going, it’s all about finding the small, daily actions that will get you there. Whether it’s a daily practice session dedicated to a specific sleight or a time-block for generating ideas for a new show you’re writing, choose something that—when performed every day—will move you a little bit closer to your goal. Try not to think about immediate payoffs. Remember the pennies versus the $1 million from earlier; it’s tempting to go for the big win, but it’s the slow building-over-time that pays off in the long run. You won’t see progress immediately, and you don’t need to choose a habit that feels like a $1 million ticket to transforming your magic. Instead, find a habit that slowly builds upon itself, moving you in the right direction, inch-by-inch.
Whatever daily habit best aligns with your goals, it’s important to make sure it’s something you can easily do every day (or at least most days). The crucial element of the Compound Effect is consistency over time; if you choose an action that isn’t ultra-easy, that friction will make it harder to keep going, and you won’t see the exponential growth that will take you toward the magician you want to become. So choose something you can commit to, then try not to miss a day.
It’s hard to force our brains to think in terms of compounding, but whether you think about it or not, the Compound Effect¹ is working behind the scenes in every part of our lives, including our magic. No matter what you choose to do, your actions today are watering (or starving) your garden of magic for tomorrow. If you identify simple actions that align with your goals, commit to working them into your daily life, then never miss a day, you’ll become exponentially closer to the magician you want to become. And one year from today, you will undoubtedly be a better magician.
“When it comes to practice, we generally overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do in a year.”
¹To learn more about the concept of compounding, and how we can harness its power to achieve our goals—whether they’re related to health, money, or magic—check out The Compound Effect.