Literally for writing, but metaphorically in general. Discipline is the only way. Discipline does not mean one has to be austere; It implies clarity and fidelity about one’s goals. Discipline is deeply tied to affecting real change within oneself and to personal integrity.
Discipline, primarily, is our capacity to make a commitment in time.
Motivation will get you out the door, but it fades over time. A good book or podcast might give you the momentary impulse to take your first steps along a path, but when the road gets tough only discipline will keep you moving forward.
Without discipline I’m the pinball in the pachinko machine: I’m clearly directed (me by my goal, the pinball by gravity) but buffeted randomly (me by everything, the pinball by the pins) ending up in an uncontrolled final position. The critical thing to combine with discipline is ease. Not bashing, not self-loathing and certainly not self-violence. Ease within training.
I’ve been creating and capturing conversations for the Movers Mindset podcast for over 5 years. In the beginning the people and the content were directly related to Parkour. But it soon became apparent that there was something more. (Actually, it became apparently that there are two somethings. My general love for the art of conversation is one something. But here, I’m just talking about the other something.) Over the years, the podcast name and descriptions shifted to center on the word “movement” as I tried to point at the something more that I couldn’t identify.
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Physical literacy is often described as the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding that provides human beings with the movement foundation for lifelong participation in physical activity. Importantly, it incorporates elements that are beyond mere physical development, such as motivation and confidence to move, and ranks them just as highly as attributes like strength and speed. Anyone who trains in parkour for even a single session soon understands just how fundamental these non-physical elements are to our natural movement capabilities, and our potential.
I’ve been saying for years that in the Movers Mindset podcast, “I talk with movement enthusiasts to learn who they are, what they do, and why they do it.” People often ask me, “what’s the podcast about?” and I’ve always felt that my description doesn’t quite explain it.
But now I know what it’s about.
This article has given me a new phrase: Physical literacy. Thanks, Dan. This isn’t the first thing you’ve given me. (Dan joined me on the podcast back in 2019 for a wonderful in-person conversation titled, Dan Edwardes: Motivation, efficacy, and storytelling.)
The future of functional fitness is an evolution into functional movement.
We see this already in the explosion of more complex movement practices like parkour happening all over the world and being adopted slowly by the mainstream fitness world. Organisms are not machines, and the era of training them like machines will give way to an age of treating them like organisms, leading to longer health-spans, fewer injuries and even greater potential.
Thanks, Dan! Thanks for the teaching, for the training, for conversation, for asking good questions, and for just being the sort of person who keeps showing up. Showing up publicly, sure. More importantly though, showing up to do the hard work of self-improvement. And for showing your work.
This is a ubiquitous problem. Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “stuck in the doldrums“? It’s a literal place where there isn’t much wind, and thus the bane of old-timey sailors. But the metaphorical doldrums are just as real. You can avoid the literal doldrums. You can at best only try to avoid the metaphorical ones. Whether it’s literal or metaphor though, the way out is the same: Concerted, intentional effort to go somewhere else.
Motivation will get you out the door, but it fades over time. A good book or podcast might give you the momentary impulse to take your first steps along a path, but when the road gets tough only discipline will keep you moving forward.
Edwardes is a well-known figure in the world of Parkour. He’s someone I’m proud to call a friend. A little over a year ago, I had a quiet, private, late-evening conversation about businesses and movement and Parkour and I’m pretty sure we touched on motivation. …or at least, I know motivation was something bouncing around in my head. Specifically: lack thereof. I’m not even sure that I realized that at the time, but it’s clear to me now.
At the time though, I definitely experienced a sort of ground-shifting sensation. I don’t generally fan-boy on Parkour people, and I’m pretty sure I never did that with respect to Edwardes. No, it was more like—something I’ve experienced on several occasions with Parkour luminaries—I was suddenly aware that I hadn’t been fawning [for years] over this person. No, here I was, once again, in a cool conversation with a fellow human. Being.
These days, I’m doubling-down on discipline and that quoted blog post and that conversation conspired to inspire me to make a fresh post.
How can individuals develop a personal culture of excellence that enhances their leadership, goals, and daily habits?
Personal habits and daily customs shape success more than ideas or intentions.
So a lot of this stuff is about identifying why aren’t we fixing these things? Why are we carrying on with these bad habits? When, you know, they’re bad habits? They’re not helping you. And why aren’t you changing it?
~ Dan Edwardes (4:36)
The conversation centers around developing personal excellence by cultivating better habits and self-awareness. Dan emphasizes that personal culture—daily customs and habits—determines success more than external goals or beliefs. The discussion highlights that leaders often know what they need to improve but fail to implement changes without a structured plan. By focusing on small, consistent steps, individuals can build lasting momentum that fosters larger transformations over time.
Another key theme is the importance of self-care as the foundation for leadership and goal achievement. Neglecting self-care can undermine professional success, and Dan draws parallels with athletes and entrepreneurs, showing how each group handles this differently. The conversation stresses the importance of personal reflection and recommends small, actionable changes that compound into significant progress.
Takeaways
Self-care as foundational — Prioritizing self-care is essential for sustaining personal and professional success.
Small, consistent actions — Incremental changes lead to lasting improvements and create upward spirals of growth.
Leadership as coaching — Effective leadership involves guiding others through questions rather than dictating solutions.
Culture of accountability — Building team habits around excellence, like those of the All Blacks rugby team, fosters long-term success.
Judgment and empathy — Reducing judgment and practicing empathy enhances leadership and personal well-being.
Personal values — Understanding and reinforcing personal values drive consistent improvement and align actions with goals.
Resources
Dan Edwardes’ Website — Personal site for contacting Dan Edwardes and exploring his work.
Parkour Generations — Organization founded by Dan Edwardes offering coaching, certifications, and events.
Art of Retreat — A leadership and education retreat for Parkour and movement practitioners.
How can people maintain discipline, stay motivated, and effectively manage distractions to pursue personal growth and self-improvement?
Dan Edwardes explains the value of playing games, and unpacks what motivates him. He discusses the struggle of choosing where to spend your time and energy, and the difficulty of distractions. Dan shares his insights on parkour’s relationship to self efficacy, and the power and importance of storytelling.
When asked: How do you manage to get up every day and keep doing what you do to live your life? How do you stay motivated?
It’s a good question. And it’s not one that I’ve ever had to really ask of myself, I think, in great depth. […] Because of the stories I grew up on and what I exposed myself to when I was very young, the concepts I exposed myself to and took very seriously when I was nine, 10, 11 years old. And then throughout my teenage years, that’s just how I think. And I can’t really remember being alive before that because I don’t remember being that young. That’s just the way my life has always been.
~ Dan Edwardes (8:30)
The conversation explores the intersection of discipline, motivation, and the challenges of maintaining focus in a world full of distractions. Dan shares insights from his lifelong journey through martial arts, parkour, and various forms of training. A key theme is the importance of grounding oneself in simple, repetitive practices—like sweeping the floor in martial arts—as a foundation for developing broader skills.
Edwardes emphasizes the role of storytelling in shaping experiences, both in training sessions and life. Whether through parkour or verbal games, the practice of crafting narratives enhances learning and engagement. The discussion also touches on practical ways to manage modern distractions, such as altering how one uses their phone, reinforcing the importance of small, intentional changes to promote clarity and focus.
Takeaways
The importance of foundational practices — Sweeping the dojo teaches humility, discipline, and attention to detail.
Storytelling as a training tool — Stories enhance memory, engagement, and emotional investment in lessons.
Managing distractions — Clearing the home screen or limiting phone use can free up time and reduce mental clutter.
Self-efficacy through parkour — Parkour forces honest self-assessment and builds competence by exposing limitations.
Training as a means to greater life skills — Physical fitness and movement training are not ends but vehicles for broader personal growth.
Resources
Robert McKee’s Story — A foundational book on the principles of storytelling and narrative structure.
What are the most effective methods for understanding and managing fear in physical and mental practices?
Exploring how fear shapes movement and mindset in Parkour and beyond.
The stories can be changed, but fear as a raw emotion is a good thing.
~ Dan Edwardes (4:26)
This conversation focuses on the role of fear in Parkour training and its broader implications for personal growth. Dan explains that fear itself is a natural and helpful emotion, distinct from the stories or narratives people attach to it over time. He challenges the conventional approach of overcoming fear through adrenaline or suppression, advocating instead for building a positive relationship with fear by understanding and accepting it as an ally.
The discussion highlights practical techniques for coaches, such as familiarizing students with the emotion of fear in controlled settings, separating the raw emotion from its associated narratives, and encouraging a focus on controllable elements of challenges. Dan emphasizes that this approach not only enhances physical performance but also fosters deeper psychological resilience and confidence.
Takeaways
Fear as an ally — Fear is a protective emotion that can be transformed into a helpful guide when understood and accepted.
Narrative distinction — Separating the raw emotion of fear from the stories attached to it is key to managing it effectively.
Coaching strategies — Coaches can help students by familiarizing them with the sensation of fear without immediate action, fostering comfort with the emotion.
Controlling the controllables — Focusing on elements within one’s control, such as technique and preparation, reduces fear associated with specific challenges.
Limitations of suppression — Overcoming fear through suppression or adrenaline may yield short-term results but lacks the depth to build lasting confidence.
Parkour as a fear practice — Parkour uniquely integrates fear management into its core, making it a valuable framework for broader life applications.
Resources
Parkour Generations — Organization co-founded by Dan Edwardes, focusing on Parkour training and education.
ADAPT Qualifications — Certification program for Parkour coaching and training, developed by Dan Edwardes.
All coaches carry out their role based on combination of their experience, knowledge, values, opinions and beliefs, likely with most unaware that they are doing this at all. This melting pot of factors amounts to what can be described as the coach’s philosophy. The question is – do you actually know yourself well enough to understand how these elements are combining to produce your own philosophy of coaching? Do you understand what your core coaching approach and methods are?
The difficulty, for we who seek it, is that as an art does grow and change this jewel can become harder to find in the confusion, the noise and the bright lights. Indeed, it can become so buried that newer generations, new audiences, who never experienced the idea in its raw form, may not even know it exists. That, to me, seems a great shame as that rough-hewn gem at its heart is the real gift of parkour – or indeed of any good art-form.
Yet in the practice of parkour there is also a war being fought: a psychological battle that we are presented with every time we step up to a jump or a movement we have not yet mastered, every time the fear of failure or falling rests its dark gaze upon us and tells us to give up, to go home, to try it another day, to excuse ourselves into accepting defeat.
For me, fitness and health are just a means to a larger end – something to enable me to live as I wish, to accomplish what I want, to face any challenge and adversity that may come my way and do my best to overcome it. Fitness isn’t the goal in and of itself; it’s just a tool, a part of my training which in itself is simply to allow me to follow my path for as long as I desire. It’s a by-product of living my life to the fullest, nothing more.
To my mind, the most important guiding star on our journey is integrity. We have to practise what we preach, and this means embodying the principles we aspire to and letting them permeate every aspect of our lives.
These lofty values and principles we aspire to in training; courage, determination, commitment, humility, honesty, quality, consistency, perfection – what good are they if we abandon them when we end the training session and return to our daily life?
For to practise parkour is to seek fear on a daily basis, to confront it head-on, to face it naked and alone. In parkour, you are stripped to your essence. There is no equipment to rely on, no safety harnesses or padding to protect you, no teammate to take the brunt when you are tired. It’s you, and you alone. The only things that prevent you getting hurt or injured are your skills, your judgement, your ability – no one else’s.
Parkour is about taking the road less travelled by, and choosing the harder path every time. It’s about understanding that excellence does not arise from simply doing what is convenient or what pays well or what advances your personal career. The Olympic Games are sponsored by Coca-Cola and McDonalds. That’s not right.
Have principles. Stick to them. Because if you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything.
Who can jump the furthest? Who can run the fastest or climb the highest? Who can face the most danger? Who can do the most twists in a somersault..? How could we get to a place in our minds where any of these things actually matter to us? Arbitrary things, all of them: quick to come and quicker to go; easily gained or lost, easily learned or forgotten.