If you see that some aspect of your society is bad, and you want to improve it, there is only one way to do so: You have to improve people. And in order to improve people, you begin with only one thing: You can become better yourself.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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And I typed that title with trepidation. I’ve been saying forever, “You know what you call an optimist with experience? A realist.” I suppose at some point in the past, I must have had the rosy-eyed optimism of youth— but I don’t really recall that. Also at some point, I realized I had a solidly pessimistic position. I simply spent too much time dealing with broken technology; technology is always broken. I always seemed to end up having to fix it. But lately, my mood has certainly shifted. Is that because my “outlook” shifted, or is it vice versa?
The first time I saw speculative futures used to shape cities, I was standing on the work. It was an April evening years ago, and I was headed to a client meeting. I hustled from my car toward the building in question, my arms full of rolled paper, when I noticed a series of questions chalked in block letters on the sidewalk below my feet.
~ Johanna Hoffman from, What If The Best Times Are Still To Come?
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I once QM’d 2km across the Williamsburg bridge. A fellow adventurer had started the morning by buying a croissant with the express intent of not eating it. (Aside: In the French origins or Parkour, they used to say [but in French of course] “…it’s okay, head home, put your feet up, and have a croissant.” As a way of hazing each other into pushing themselves a little harder.)
We had each taken a piece of sidewalk chalk with us. When we were ready to quit (ie, stand up and walk) we planned to write our “excuse” for stopping on the bridge pathway… and then continue on in QM, moving over and beyond our excuse.
I was over the middle of the river, pretty alone, in the chilly October drizzle. And thinking about quitting. And thinking about getting out my chalk… when I crawled—inconceivably! since the pathway is like 12 feet wide—directly over a freshly chalked hashtag… I was so tired I didn’t look up to read, I just stared straight down and read it as I crawled along what had been written…
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It made me laugh. It reminded me that my friends were there too. It reminded me why we were doing the challenge. Thank you Kristen. I hope you read this.
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What strategies and practices can be employed to effectively balance physical, emotional, and mental well-being in personal and professional life?
Craig Constantine and Alex Lukens discuss movement practices and personal growth as they explore the notions of finding balance, and the importance of doing less in order to achieve more.
Doing less is okay and it’s still effective… There’s an identity attached to overdoing, overachieving, and winning.
~ Alex Lukens
Craig and Alex explore the realm of movement practices and the quest for balance. They discuss the challenges of adopting a heart-centered approach and the fear attached to doing less in personal pursuits. Alex introduces the idea of developing a maximally efficient and minimally effortful movement practice by combining the philosophies of Chinese kung fu and Judo.
Your movement practice can be maximally efficient and minimally with minimal effort as long as you put the work in and the discipline up front.
~ Alex Lukens
He draws parallels between movement practices and other disciplines, such as music, emphasizing the role of repetition, simplicity, and discipline in achieving profound results.
Takeaways
Discussing different approaches to journaling — Journaling can be used for various purposes, such as personal reflection, organizing thoughts, planning, and emotional processing.
Balancing ideas in journaling — It’s important to balance the flow of ideas coming into and out of the journal, ensuring a productive use of journaling.
The role of intuition in journaling — Journaling based on how one feels at the moment can lead to more authentic and effective entries.
Emptying the mind through journaling — Journaling can create a negative space, allowing for a clearer and more focused mindset.
Morning anxiety and rewiring thoughts — Addressing and changing the initial thoughts upon waking can significantly impact the rest of the day.
The connection between movement and thinking — Movement can be a tool to process and organize thoughts, leading to a clearer mental state.
Impact of journaling on daily interactions — A clearer mind from journaling can lead to more engaging and enjoyable interactions throughout the day.
Creating a personal style in coaching — Developing a unique approach to coaching that balances the heart and mind, influenced by martial arts philosophies.
Working with high achievers — Helping overachievers find balance and avoid burnout by addressing both physical and mental aspects of their lives.
The misconception of physical exertion — Understanding that exertion is optional and not always necessary for effective movement or exercise.
Fidgeting and natural movement — Incorporating small, natural movements throughout the day can maintain mobility and physical health without structured exercise.
Integrating martial arts philosophies into coaching — Using principles from kung fu and judo, such as hard work over time and maximum efficiency with minimal effort, to guide clients.
Simplicity through repetition — Achieving simplicity in movement and practice through consistent, disciplined effort.
The importance of lessening mental exertion — Recognizing that reducing mental strain can be as important as physical practice for overall balance.
Developing a movement practice — Encouraging clients to create personalized movement practices that are efficient and effective with minimal effort.
Curiosity about others’ movement practices — An interest in learning about different approaches to movement and how others develop their practices.
Challenges of guest outreach in podcasting — Identifying the logistical and relational challenges involved in scheduling and conducting podcast interviews.
Exploring themes through podcasting — Using podcasting as a method to explore and understand various themes and ideas from different perspectives.
The concept of minimal effective dose — Applying the principle of minimal effective dose to various aspects of life, including movement and journaling.
In-person training and connection — The value of meeting and training in person to enhance understanding and connection in coaching relationships.
Resources
fortysevenstyle.com: The web site for Alex’s Fortysevenstyle work.
Exercised: Book Alex mentions, by Daniel Lieberman.
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(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
Many stupid things are uttered by people whose only motivation is to say something original.
~ Voltaire
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What are the primary creative and technical challenges faced in podcast production, as discussed by experienced podcasters in terms of editing, scheduling, client management, and creative mindset?
Explore the interaction of audio and video, as Craig and Jason discuss the crucial importance of nonverbal cues, the frustrations of unreliable Wi-Fi, and the irreplaceable value of face-to-face interactions in the world of podcasting.
I had that [imposter syndrome] with my clients too… They can’t start their first episode because they don’t like the sound of their voice.
~ Jason Tieri
In a captivating conversation, hosts Craig and Jason dive deep into the realm of podcasting, sharing their personal reflections and experiences. They explore the reasons behind their aversion to listening to their own work, discovering the mix of imposter syndrome and the fear of uncovering mistakes.
I’m always surprised at actually how good [my episodes] are.
~ Craig Constantine
I think I just don’t want to listen to [my own work] for a third time.
~ Jason Tieri
With a humorous touch, they discuss the perils of vocal quirks and mouth noises, shedding light on how some hosts may unintentionally overlook these aspects. They also touch upon the significance of video in podcasting, highlighting the benefits of nonverbal cues and the challenges of unreliable Wi-Fi. Ultimately, their discussion serves as a reminder of the constant learning and growth that podcasting entails.
Takeaways
Imposter Syndrome — Both Craig and Jason discuss experiencing imposter syndrome, highlighting a common struggle among podcasters and content creators. This psychological phenomenon adds a layer of relatability and vulnerability to their conversation.
Importance of Video — Jason emphasizes the importance of video in podcasting, not only for visual cues but also for better communication and understanding between hosts and guests. This insight sheds light on the multifaceted nature of podcasting and the role that different mediums can play in enhancing the overall experience.
Personal Growth — Jason mentions going through therapy during the course of his podcast, “Threads Podcast: Life Unfiltered.” This indicates that podcasting can be a transformative journey, leading to personal growth and self-reflection for hosts and guests alike.
Balancing Self-Criticism and Appreciation — Craig expresses both surprise at the quality of his podcast episodes and a persistent self-critical mindset. This internal struggle highlights the delicate balance between recognizing one’s accomplishments and constantly striving for improvement, which many podcasters can relate to.
Technical Challenges — The conversation briefly touches upon the challenges of internet connectivity and bandwidth, particularly when recording interviews with guests from different locations. This showcases the practical difficulties that podcasters face and the importance of stable internet connections for a seamless recording experience.
Resources
https://www.heyguysmediagroup.com: This is Jason’s production company, Hey Guys Media Group.
https://gigeconomyshow.com: This is The Gig Economy Podcast, which focuses on gig work and covers topics related to platforms like Uber, DoorDash, Lyft, and Instacart.
https://threadspodcast.com: Threads Podcast: Life Unfiltered is the show Jason recently completed.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
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Hedonistic adaptation ensures that I continuously cycle back and forth between, “If this isn’t nice I don’t know what is!” and rage-quitting all my self-assigned should’s. Two things help temper my intemperance: Journalling provides me with some—albeit subjective—perspective, and reading about the reality of people’s actual lives and work ethics relaxes my self-criticism.
A truer answer would have been that he was fiercely private and deeply caring. He often let other people talk, entering a conversation with a single considered sentence. He didn’t smile unless he was really pleased, and his biggest laugh was a small chuckle. His eyes would squeeze shut and his head would tip back and after he chuckled, he would look at you with delight.
~ Alison Fairbrother from, Lessons in Writing and Life from My Grandfather, E.L. Doctorow
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Without Internet cheating, I can’t name a single one of E. L. Doctorow’s works. But I have this diffuse idea that he is (was?) A Real Writer. Someone who got things written, and maybe had a few ideas worth sharing. Darn it if reading Fairbrother’s piece didn’t tug at the ‘ol heart strings, and I might have gotten something briefly stuck in the corner of one of my eyes.
But I came away with a recalibration: I now have this diffuse idea that he was A Real Writer, got things written, had a few ideas worth sharing, and it was made possible by his family and his work ethic.
(Also, maybe help this autodidact out by hitting reply and telling me one thing of Doctorow’s I must read.)
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On Castbox.fm — Justin Taylor | How to Run a Members-Only Competition
How can a members-only Parkour competition benefit both gym communities and business growth?
Find out how structured competitions drive engagement and long-term membership.
I realized: How is this benefiting me? I’m just throwing a competition for the sake of watching awesome athletes do awesome things. Which I have no problem with— that I have the West Coast Parkour championships for awesome athletes to come and push themselves. But that doesn’t push my gym, that doesn’t push my culture, that doesn’t help retain my students.
~ Justin Taylor (11:31)
The conversation explores the concept of members-only Parkour competitions designed to foster community, improve retention, and generate revenue within gyms. Unlike traditional competitions that attract elite athletes, these events focus on inclusivity, offering challenges that cater to all skill levels. Justin emphasizes the importance of creating a supportive environment where everyone has the opportunity to feel accomplished, even those who might finish last. Through tailored categories and multiple opportunities for recognition, these competitions build confidence and engagement among participants.
The discussion also highlights how such events extend their impact beyond the athletes. Parents build friendships and deepen their connections to the gym community, while participants develop personal growth, resilience, and teamwork skills. By incorporating preparatory challenges in regular classes and promoting participation through a structured framework, gyms can create a sustainable model that supports both personal and professional growth for all involved.
Takeaways
Running members-only competitions — A gym-focused approach encourages participation and builds confidence among members.
Avoiding participation trophies — Alternative reward structures can ensure every participant feels valued without diminishing achievement.
Strengthening community bonds — Competitions create opportunities for parents and students to connect socially.
Improving retention — Regular, inclusive events keep members engaged and returning to the gym.
Introducing competition circuits — Successful local competitions can serve as a gateway to regional or national circuits.
Building personal growth — Challenges in competitions can foster resilience, sportsmanship, and overcoming fears.
Focusing on inclusivity — Age-specific and skill-level-based categories ensure every participant has a fair chance to succeed.
Resources
Firestorm Freerunning & Acrobatics — A series of Parkour gyms offering classes and competitions.
West Coast Parkour Championships — A competition series for athletes of all ages and skill levels.
Parkour Professor — Instagram profile for consulting and updates related to Parkour.
FirestormFreerunning@gmail.com — Contact for inquiries and information.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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After a long conversation, stop and try to remember what you have just discussed. Don’t be surprised if many things, sometimes even everything you have discussed, were meaningless, empty, and trivial, and sometimes even bad.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment… the present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.
~ C.S. Lewis
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A couple of weeks ago I started obliterating processes. I’ve often talked about how everything is a process, and I still believe that. However I’d reached a point where I simply had too many processes (I won’t bore you with unbelievable examples) and a couple of weeks ago I decided enough was enough. I spent several days doing nothing but thinking about everything I was doing, and wanted to be doing but wasn’t “getting around to.”
We’re overwhelmed by it all: all the things we have on our plates, all the interruptions and messages and emails, all the things online and on social media, all the news and chaos of the world, all the things going on in our relationships.
~ Leo Babauta from, When You’re Overwhelmed, Simplify
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Some things I do can feel like a chore but when I was honest, they are actually things I enjoy doing. Furthermore, they pay off outsized benefits for the time they require. What then made them feel like chores? I think it was the anxiety of the other things I felt I should be doing—after all, I put those other things on a list or made a process so I could chip away at them in sane-sized chunks. I went through everything, and then started deleting things from that “everything else” space.
Is this simply me oscillating between no-planning, planning, no-planning, planning? Is this a 2/3-life (or, if I pretend I’ll live long, “mid-life”) crisis? Have I said a polite-but-clear “no” to some big things? Have I been having some anxiety-free days? YES, to all of those. I’m currently trying to be vigilant to notice the first thing I get anxious about—because I’m going to delete that next.
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Could you contribute a testimonial for 7 for Sunday? I’m always on the lookout for some, “This is better than sliced bread! ~ Craig C.” testimonials. If you’re open to being quoted, please hit reply and send me a testimonial. (They end up getting posted on the front of my site where the main signup is for 7 for Sunday.)
And please consider sharing 7 for Sunday with others. Forwarding the email you received works, but you can also just point people to https://constantine.name/7-for-sunday/.
Thanks for reading! I appreciate your time and attention, and I don’t take it for granted. :)
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Reading time: About 5 minutes, 1100 words
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This issue is https://7forsunday.com/33
When a person sets to work, even if it is the most unqualified, primitive, simple work, the human soul calms down. As soon as a person starts to work, all the demons leave him and cannot approach him. A man becomes a man.
~ Thomas Carlyle
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I’ve embraced this slow philosophy for most of my professional career. As with Stearns, I too have become a believer in how much can be accomplished in normal 40-hour weeks; if you’re willing to really work when you’re working, and then be done when you’re done. It’s nice, however, to see someone so much more eminent than me also find success with this fixed-schedule approach.
~ Cal Newport from, Professio sano in vitam sanam (on balancing work and life)
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The other day I had a most surreal experience. I was at home. The weather was gorgeous and I spent most of the day on the patio. For about half of the day I did nothing in particular. And I felt—in the moments when I was doing nothing—that that was fine.
I have often experienced this surreality, but always when I have been away. Always, critically, when I had intentionally spent time planning and working to create space to be away. Think of it like getting a running start to coast through the away time; the experience of that surreality had always been while coasting.
“…and then be done when you’re done.” But the other day? I dunno. I did stuff, and then I was done, and that was okay.
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Pass on what you have learned. Strength, mastery… but weakness… folly… failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher failure is. Luke, we are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.
~ Yoda, in Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, (2017 film)
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You tell me flatly that you are too tired to do anything outside your programme at night. In reply to which I tell you flatly that if your ordinary day’s work is thus exhausting, then the balance of your life is wrong and must be adjusted. A man’s powers ought not to be monopolized by his ordinary day’s work.
~ Arnold Bennett
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When we consider consciousness, a number of questions naturally arise. Why did consciousness develop? What is consciousness good for? If consciousness developed to help us plan and act for the future, why is consciousness so difficult to control? Why is mindfulness so hard? And for that matter, if our actions are under our conscious control, why is dieting (and resisting other urges) so difficult for most of us?
Why does it appear that we are observers, peering out through our eyes at the world while sitting in the proverbial Cartesian theater? Why do we speak, in William James’s words, of a “stream of consciousness”? Can we perform complicated activities (such as driving) without being consciously aware of it?
Are animals conscious (and if so, which ones)? Are there developmental, neurologic, or psychiatric disorders that are actually disorders of consciousness?
There have, of course, been many answers to these questions over the last 2500 years. We hope to provide new answers to these and a number of related questions in this paper.
~ Andrew Budson, et al from, Consciousness as a Memory System
A longer pull-quote than usual for me. But it’s from a 30,000 word article. o_O
That list of questions reads like the Table of Contents from the Owners Manual that my body didn’t come with. It’s a big deal that there might be an answer to just one of them, let alone the claim in the last sentence, “We hope to provide new answers to these and a number of related questions.”
Having now read some of those plausible answers to those questions—including rebuttals and improvements to some others’ answers to those questions—my take away is: Oddly, I am now less interested in those questions.
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To him that waits all things reveal themselves, provided that he has the courage not to deny, in the darkness, what he has seen in the light.
~ Coventry Patmore
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What people think of as the moment of discovery is really the discovery of the question.
~ Jonas Salk
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