I’m endlessly fascinated with mastery practices. I might, on occasion, go so far as to say that the purpose of life is to pursue some mastery practice or another.
If you learn to play at your edge, you learn to stop shying away from discomfort. You grow and learn in new ways. And you develop a confidence in yourself that is hard to do when you stay in your comfort zone.
If you want to be a clever person, you have to learn how to ask cleverly, how to listen attentively, how to respond quietly, and how to stop talking when there is nothing more to say.
The first time I rode one was nearly a decade ago, in Kyoto. The electric bike I rented was huge and unwieldy, but that tug of its motor never left my mind. I went to climb a hill and it felt as if a giant had gently placed his hand on my back and pushed me forward. That stupid smile has been on my face ever since.
With that name, this guy is clearly awesome, right? If you want to go down a fun rabbit hole, do some searching for “how popular is” and “usage of” with your first name. Yikes, statistics. But I also like this piece because it’s about bicycles. In particular, it’s about electric bicycles which I have been very intentionally ignoring the existence of, for fear of developing a yearning for another bicycle. *ahem* I digress.
What I really love about Mod is that a few years ago he took down everything he was doing, which was all free to read with a “hey please support me” …and he said, “hey guys, please support me, I’ll go write and photograph and I share it with you.” And it worked.
I have a sequence of daily prompts for myself. The other morning it was, “Am I an energy-giver or -taker”. (There’s more to each prompt.) I thought about the prompt—as I do with each one, every morning—and something new occurred to me related to this prompt…
Whether I’m an energy-giver or -taker depends on what mood I’m in! There seem to be at least 3 moods. OVER-REVVING: Too many ideas, or a new/big idea, on my mind. Interacting with me in this mood really drains people. There’s just too much information flowing from me, and it’s too fast for anyone to follow—energy-taker! DEPRESSED: I know well what this mood is like. I’m no fun to be around… soul-crushing for others to be around me in this mood—energy-taker! …and finally, TRANQUIL: This is the state to be in. It’s also the state where I have the energy and space to be sufficiently aware of the people I Interact with. Only in this state can I listen.
Sure, “3 moods” is an over-simplification, of course. But it feels like a simple and useful pre-flight check: “About to interact? Which mood am I in? …and how can I shift to tranquil if that’s not where I am.”
Diligence is quick to carry out what intelligence has lingered over. Fools are fond of hurry: They take no heed of obstacles and act incautiously. The wise usually fail through hesitation. Fools stop at nothing, the wise at everything. Sometimes things are judged correctly but go wrong out of inefficiency and neglect. Readiness is the mother of luck. It is a great deed to leave nothing for the morrow. A lofty motto: Make haste slowly.
Our assignment, like that of any new boss or coach, is to overhaul the organization (i.e., ourselves), strip it down to its basics, redefine its mission, its goals, its virtues and its vices. We have to fire every part of ourselves that can’t or won’t get onboard the new mission and we have to achieve buy-in from all the other parts that we have allowed to remain with the franchise.
This exercise always proves beneficial for me; systematically going through everything that I’m doing, my habits, my friends—everything. Take the time to assess, and in particular to consider: Knowing what I know today, if today I was offered this “opportunity” to allocate my time or resources, on this thing, would I take it? It’s a powerful way to work around our inherent tendency to fall for the sunk cost fallacy.
Here I have 500 books on my “read this” bookcase. Picking up one book, knowing all that I know today, would I read this book? Considering all that I know today, would I buy a TV, subscribe to Netflix, and arrange my living room in this fashion? …would I call it my sedentary entertainment room instead? Knowing what I know today, would I agree to have dinner or drinks with this person who I currently have labeled [in my mind] as a friend? How does each of these things move me forward?
What are the inherent challenges of growing and monetizing a Parkour community without losing its core values and spirit?
35 episodes and 2 years later, Adam McClellan returns to Movers Mindset. Adam deserves a large measure of credit because he was willing to be the original guinea pig for this crazy experiment. Our first interview was a simple Q&A style but in this episode we have an in depth conversation about the cycles a community goes through, the nature of parkour, and the type of people who are drawn to it. Adam explores the intersection of parkour and business, and how the two coexist, before discussing the nuances of coaching children. He opens up about his knee injury and recovery, his thoughts on normalizing parkour to the public, and different ways to design a parkour gym.
One of the things we value about Parkour is there isn’t that hierarchy and structure in place. It’s just you and me, and we’re hanging out, you don’t have to call me anything— There’s no assumed authority, right? We’re just training together.
~ Adam McClellan (21:40)
This conversation explores the growth and evolution of a Parkour community as it transitions from informal outdoor training to a structured business model. The discussion highlights the shifts in community dynamics when money and formal structures are introduced, drawing parallels between martial arts schools and Parkour. Adam reflects on how scaling up often leads to a loss of intimacy and core values, raising questions about whether Parkour can retain its spirit as it grows.
Key topics include the role of leadership in shaping community culture, the unavoidable influence of business practices on Parkour, and the challenge of teaching children while preserving the deeper philosophical aspects of the discipline. There is also a focus on personal injuries, their impact on training, and how physical setbacks shape the journey of a Parkour practitioner.
Takeaways
The growth of Parkour communities — Scaling introduces structure and money, often challenging the core values that initially attract practitioners.
Leadership’s role in community — The personality and values of leaders heavily influence the community’s trajectory and inclusivity.
Business and Parkour — Structuring Parkour as a business introduces operational necessities that can shift focus from movement and personal growth to profit and efficiency.
Teaching children Parkour — Teaching children emphasizes physical skills over the deeper self-exploration aspect inherent to Parkour for adults.
Injury and recovery — Personal injury experiences reshape one’s relationship with movement and coaching, often influencing how practitioners train and teach.
Cultural perceptions of Parkour — Public perception, especially from institutions like police or schools, shapes the accessibility and acceptance of Parkour in local communities.
Community dynamics — Communities inevitably evolve based on the personalities and shared experiences of the core members.
Parkour as self-exploration — The practice naturally fosters personal growth and reflection, often leading practitioners to deeper self-awareness.
Something beautiful happens when you develop and build a close relationship and friendship with someone. The closer you become with someone, the more you can zoom in past their story to the person they really are, and see them as someone just as complex, vulnerable, and rich as yourself.
This is a great way to sneak up on a mistake I make all the time.
In order to keep track of so many people, I have to distill them down to some sort of narrative; where are they? what do they do? in what context do I normally interact with them? …and so on. This leads to me summarizing people, and that’s good because it enables me to push my monkey sphere to a much larger number. The problem comes when I then expect (or worse, require) that the person also fit into that summary that I’ve created.
I’d like to say I learned to not make this mistake through years of thought and self-reflection. But that’s not how it happened.
I learned about this when I slowly, finally managed to make some HUGE changes in myself — and people kept jamming me into the same story. This was— well, “annoying,” would be a polite way to put it— “pushing down on my head while I feel I’m already drowning”, would be another way.
…and then, as with pretty much everything, I looked into my self-perception and realized, “oh crap! I too am doing this to everyone else.”
These days, cues on living a virtuous life are virtually absent from school or popular culture. And there are thousands of other stimuli vying for your attention. What this means is that you can’t hope to accidentally bump into cues every day that will help you remember the things that are most important to you. Instead, you have to purposefully plan for your regular exposure to those cues. You do this by regularly reading your scriptures, or personal manifesto, or books on philosophy and development, and doing other things which continually pull up all your past feelings and insights into the man you want to be, bringing them to bear on your present challenges.
The linked article is rather long and covers a wide variety of sources and ideas — some I’d venture most “modern” people won’t be interested in. But, the thread running through this is very real.
…and the Internet knocks another one out of the park. This place we visited when I was six; Right, how could any of us possible remember where it really was. <type type type> “oh! There it was!”
Nobody ever takes note of [my advice], because it’s not the answer they wanted to hear. What they want to hear is, “Here’s how you get an agent, here’s how you write a script,” … but I always say, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.'”
No, a problem only arises when instead of being a supplement to your life—an occasional relaxing indulgence–passive amusements become a substitution, a way to feel better about something you personally lack. … And this is the real danger of spectatoritis run amok—it allows us to experience vicariously the virtues of others, without having to cultivate them ourselves.
