How a Magic Champion Wins at Life

The Power of Focus Blocks

I spent a decade writing my first book, Think Like a Game Designer. More accurately, I spent eight years procrastinating, then two years actually writing. During those first eight years, I looked at the monstrous task thinking I might as well have been asked to scale Mount Everest. I loved thinking about design and inspiring others to live more creative lives. I had done it countless times in seminars, at schools, and for my employees. I knew I had something to share, so why was it so hard to write it down?

When I looked at a blank page, the scope of the project froze me in my tracks. Inner demons haunted me. “You aren’t a writer,” they would whisper, “You can’t do this.” Inevitably, I would switch to a less intimidating task.

Responding to email is so much easier than writing a book.

For nearly a decade, I stared at the previous year’s resolutions and saw the incomplete goal: “Write a book.” The words glared at me like my eighth-grade teacher when I missed a homework assignment. (I didn…