Do this before January

I never gave a bad book report…

Because I never gave a book report.

When Mrs. Arrigo, my 5th grade teacher, called my name, beckoning me to the front of the room, my head started spinning.

I stood up, unsure of my own legs as gravity shifted from left to right until…

Darkness.

When I woke up in the nurse's office I was embarrassed, having bruised both my head and my ego. But more than that?

I was relieved.

At least now I wouldn’t have to face dozens of judging kids while my hands visibly shook, making it impossible to read what I’d written while stammering through half-baked sentences about some book I didn’t understand.

I was 10 years old and absolutely terrified of public speaking. Not just in front of a group, but in general.

Shy to begin with I hardly had any friends, and passing out in class didn’t help my popularity.

Transformation

Not 6 years later I’d be performing card tricks at house parties, getting paid even!

By 19 I was telling jokes at open mics, and by 21 I was a full-time professional magician.

Today I’ve spent nearly two decades on stages and in the public eye across 5 continents as a comedian, magician, and speaker.

Everything I’ve done would have been an impossible dream to that 10-year-old boy who face-planted a desk from anxiety over reading 3 sentences about a book none of us will ever remember.

What’s the secret? How did I do it?

One card trick at a time. One joke at a time.

One small step outside my comfort zone at a time. Just enough stretching to make me uneasy, but not so far that I’d pass out - a state psychologists call “optimal anxiety.”

If there’s one thing you know for sure, it’s that you can survive failure.

How do you know that?

Because you’ve failed, and you’re here. It was never as bad as you thought. It was never the end.

Leap of Faith

Whatever seems impossibly out of reach today is just another experience you’ll look back on and think…

Why was I ever scared to do that?

So whatever you’re dreaming of, take the first step today. No need to wait until January 1st.

If a little boy with debilitating social and speech anxiety can become an internationally touring professional speaker and consultant on the topic of human connection…

You can do anything. Maybe not everything, but certainly anything.

And you should.

Our experiences, not our results, define us.