Ashrita Furman has spent much of his life breaking world records. He’s done this so much that he holds the world record for holding the most world records: over 600 across his life and 530 simultaneously at the time of this writing. His creativity and collection of skills both seem to grow endlessly over time.
Although I’ve never broken a world record and I’ve not come anywhere near Ashrita in terms of skill acquisition, I still seem to collect increasingly more random, niche skills as I go through life. Juggling, unicycling, and swing dancing have been my main skills for years now. There are also the skills I’ve developed with Rubik’s Cube, rola bola, and imitating a cricket by whistling. My newest interest is card tricks, which I’ve been learning for the past few months. With any one of those skills, sometimes I demonstrate it for onlookers, sometimes I teach it to someone interested in learning it, sometimes I learn more about it from someone else, and sometimes I simply watch a master at work. I love being in any of those positions.
I find immense joy in learning how to do cool things and then sharing them with others. The joy isn’t in being able to show off, fool them, or one up them. For me, the joy comes from having fun in the journey we share through the cool thing, both the destination and the path that takes us there. Even something as simple as sharing pictures, videos, or stories of my dog Sawyer with someone who cares is wonderful.
My recent journey with card tricks has gotten me back in beginner’s mind, which, in addition to being a wonderful place, is somewhere that I haven’t visited in a long time. Since I started going to a local magic meeting back in January, I’ve mostly watched in amazement as those who’ve been doing this for many years have dazzled me with their hard-won skills. After a few months, I learned a handful of easy tricks and have, for the most part, performed them successfully in casual settings. On a few rare occasions, I’ve gotten to teach some of the easier tricks to people close to me, whether they wanted to be able to do them or just wanted to know how they’re done. I’m loving all of this. Even as I continue learning and improving at this skill, I doubt that it will shift toward wanting to show somebody up or another kind of attempt to make myself feel superior. I’m certain that the joy and satisfaction I feel from learning cool things and then sharing them with those who appreciate them will remain the core elements of my journey.