This movie is a classic, a magic one for sure, not only because of its inspiring characters but, also because of the subjects adopted, and the story itself which drops a lot of insights, and valuable lessons. I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels this way but, the movies about magic are always something great to watch since their storyline is different, unique, it manages to keep the viewers engaged, in a state of constant wondering until the end of the film; and “The Prestige” is surely no different.

I always enjoy watching such a movie that puts you on thoughts, and I do urge you to watch it yourself before going any further into this post since you will surely not regret it.

Disclaimer: I have to note that these are my opinions, that I took from the movie, but I advise you to watch it yourself, maybe you will feel differently or pick up on something I missed.

Attention, focus, the ability to take notice of details is an aptitude hugely undervalued nowadays but highly rewarding, regardless of the industry you’re in, and extremely scarce that will only get even scarcer in the future. Because we live in this social media, and high-speed internet age, we have unlimited access to new information, to new kinds of social-validation, at the click of a button, or the tap of a screen, and they are all overstimulating our brains, deteriorating our attention.

As great as this sea of entertainment might sound sometimes, it is negatively impacting our lives at a level that we’re not even aware of. Because we can always find new, better, and more stimulating things online, we are less incentivized to invest a long period of time into a single, less-stimulating thing. Thus, we are slowly losing the ability to focus for a long time on a single, important or not so important task.

We are already used to the possibility of discovering new input in seconds thus, as soon as things get even a bit boring or challenging, people are opening whatever social media to get some new peer stimulation, and entertain themselves. Multitasking is becoming the norm, and the people are in a constant state of distraction.

The attention span people are having nowadays is 35% shorter than two decades ago, and it’s only going to get even shorter in the future, thus, being able to focus on something for longer than just a couple of seconds without getting distracted by a shiny thing down the road is going to be a highly rewarding skill. And I don’t just mean financially rewarding but, even rewarding on a personal level since that focus will immensely impact the quality of your inter-human relationships.

But, mastering attention, and focus, especially in this day and age is not something easily doable, it needs a lot of practice and conscious effort. The next time you feel an urge to open up another tab and check out your social media, just take a breath, and refrain yourself from doing it. The next time you feel the urge to check out your phone in the middle of a conversation with a real human, just kick yourself and go back to the present moment.

You might not always be able to prevent yourself from getting distracted but, once you do get distracted, catch yourself, and go back to whatever you were doing previously. Only by practicing this, and transforming it into a habit you will be able to master your focus, and eventually your attention.

And, the movie manages to capture how easy is to play with people’s attention since they are unfocused, even if the action is taking place in the past, back when people had no internet or gadgets. In the movie, as in life, only those with great focus, and attention skills are able to figure out what is going on, on this “stage,” that we call life.

Throughout the years I noticed that the majority of the people are trying to create some sort of life-work balance where they are working for a specific period of time, and are utilizing the rest of the day for themselves, their passions, and to spend time with their loved ones.

People want to work for as few hours as possible and entertain themselves as much as they have left of the day. But, the main reason they want to have such a divided lifestyle is because they don’t enjoy their work as much, they might even hate it, and, are trying to limit the time they spend at the workplace.

Many people picked careers that don’t set their hearts on fire, but if you find something that you enjoy doing, and you can manage to make enough money to live, then, you can’t have any delimitation between your work, and your life.

If you’re one of the “lucky” people that tried plenty of things until they stumbled upon something that clicks for them then, your work has to become your life, you can’t limit it to only a couple of hours a day. Moreover, if you truly enjoy what you’re doing, you will naturally want to spend more and more time working since it is what you truly like because your “craft” is your whole life.

By the end of the movie, you can easily notice that Alfred Borden, the character played by Christian Bale dedicated his whole life to his work, to magic. He had no delimitations, his work constituted his life, he was on stage at all times because he was utterly dedicated to his goals because he loved creating his art because he was obsessed positively with magic.

When you get to a point in life where you are thinking about your work the same way as Alfred Borden, you will know for sure that you’re in the right place, doing the right thing.

This movie is a piece of art, besides all the highly impactful lessons that you can get out of it, due to its storyline, and the way the film develops until the last second. I’m sure that you will love it once you give it a watch thanks to its mesmerizing ending, that surprised me even if it was the second time I have watched it.

People are not able to focus, they are not able to pay attention to details anymore nowadays but, if you manage to develop these skills, you will be rewarded more than you ever expect, both professionally but, more importantly, personally. And, if you’re also finding out what you love doing the most, and you make it your life, performing it as much as possible, only because you love to do so, you will surely be able to have a fulfilling, and happy life; and these are the main lessons that I have picked out of the movie.

Thank you for reading until here, I’m looking forward to your feedback, and movie recommendations.