Cross your Personal Threshold into the Magic Zone

Hi this is Mike Lipkin and I’m inspired to share this breakthrough with you. The shoebox is a metaphor for life. It’s called a comfort zone. It’s clearly defined. We know how much it can hold. We know what it should do. It even has a lid on it. It’s small. The view is inside is crappy. There isn’t much room for movement and it’s easily broken.

Outside the shoebox is where the magic happens. This is where the possibilities live. This is where we spread our ideas and make them fly. It seems so obvious but anything is obvious once you see it. However, first you have get outside the box to get it. So here’s my primary question: Are you in the box or out of it? It’s that binary. You’re in the box or you’re out of it.

The box also keeps changing. As we grow, it grows. In fact, we keep looking for ways to get back in the box. That’s where it’s safe. That’s where we can keep a lid on things and be in control. But control can incarcerate us with our own limits. So don’t limit your control, control your limits.

I was motivated to create this message by TEDx Toronto. This year their theme is Thresholds. It’s my new favourite word. Even saying it creates a sense of excitement. Threshold means so many things: an entry; an exit; a beginning; an end; a boundary; a breaking point; a catalyst; an event or even a new age.

But I believe the definitive meaning of threshold is: the intensity that must be achieved for a certain result to occur. Let me repeat that: the intensity that must be achieved for a certain result to occur. That result is magic. Another great word, right? Magic means it’s so good it can’t even be described with ordinary language.

It’s awesome, incredible, spellbinding, fabulous, fantastic or amazing. These adjectives are not hyperbole, they’re expressions of joy and wonder.

The Magic Zone is the space in which magic happens. It can be physical, like a beach, a mountain, a gallery or close to someone you love. It could be conceptual, like a thought, an idea, an understanding or an appreciation. It could be emotional, like a passion, a conviction, a freedom, a gratitude or a hunger. You know you’re in the Magic Zone when you’re acutely aware of your epiphany. All your senses are animated. You are totally focused and fully engaged. Nothing else matters but the moment you’re experiencing. You can feel yourself becoming the next version of yourself. It’s a beautiful thing.

Here’s another powerful distinction: It’s impossible to push yourself across your personal threshold. You can only be pulled across it. It takes a cause, an idea, a person, a community, a vision, a touch, a taste, a smell or a sound to draw you across. If the pull is strong enough, you’ll push yourself with everything you have.

When was the last time you crossed your personal threshold into the Magic Zone? Was it last week? Last month? Last year? What pulled you? As importantly, whom did you pull?

The 2014 Environics Social Values Monitor reveals rising levels of anxiety in the face of economic uncertainty and massive change. Throughout Canada and the US, people are seeking to safeguard their wellbeing and control their anxiety. In other words, the external environment can tempt you to stay in your box. It could dissuade you from experimenting with the ideas and strategies to enter the Magic Zone.

Safety first is the motto of mediocrity. Unless you’re at physical risk, you have to take the risk. Fear is never a good strategy but courage always is. The word Courage comes from the Latin word “cor” which means heart. Only when your heart is stirred will you break out the box.

Now is the time when other people are depending on you to pull them across their personal threshold. We all depend on others being there for us when we need them most. I’m only here because amazing people pulled me out of the black box of clinical depression three times in my life. That’s why I became a motivator – to help myself as much as anyone else. To paraphrase Victor Kiam, I liked the message so much I bought the company.

So here are the seven distinctions to help you cross your personal threshold into the Magic Zone:

1. Be cognizant of your comfort zone. Recognize that the walls you’ve built to keep out the bad things out can also be the hurdles that hem you in. Your way may be working but there is always a better way. If you look for it, it will find you.
2. Get out there. Literally. Take a walk. Visit a place. Attend a meeting. Have a conversation. You don’t always know what you’re looking for, but you will know it when you see it. Consciously collide with opportunities. Prepare to be surprised. The Magic Zone is a space of movement and exploration.
3. Get close to state-shifters and mood-uplifters. We become the company we keep. Choose to be around people who are happy to be alive. Give them more than you take. Earn their affection and loyalty by being the kind of person with whom they want to be. Generosity and Reciprocation go together like peaches and cream.
4. Champion something. We’re bigger than anything when we serve anything that’s bigger than us. Champion is both a noun and a verb. It means being the best but it also means defending or fostering a cause. I’m committed to inspiring people into action with powerful insights and words. That’s what pulls me across the threshold. What about you?
5. Use all the resources available to you. Information has been democratized. There’s always an app for that. The infrastructure is designed to support you if you know how to use it. Work the system and the system will work for you. Get the right things right and don’t get the wrong things wrong.
6. Plan to breakthrough. Be intentional in your actions. Begin with the end in mind: enter The Magic Zone. If you go off course, simply course correct and carry on. Expect miracles and celebrate them when they happen. By the way, a miracle is anything that is wonderful, marvelous or pleasurable. Remember that every setback or adversity carries within it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.
7. Train to win. We are all athletes in the Olympics of life. If you love to win, you must love to train. Olympians are not born that way. They become worthy of their gifts by developing their gifts – day after day, year after year. There is no lazy man’s way to the Magic Zone. Producing this video is part of my training. Later I’ll be in the gym ramping up my vitality. Then I’ll enjoy good food, wine and conversation with my wife. Then I’ll get my seven hours sleep. Then it begins all over again tomorrow. It’s always day one.

Hey, I want to thank you for sharing this moment with me. It’s always magical when people tell me about the thresholds I pulled them cross. Share your breakthroughs with as many people as possible, including me. Until the next time, remember, you will reach a point that you think is the end. That will be your beginning.