Earlier this week I found (via Daniel Ilabaca) a TED Talk by TahRiq Almawi that felt like the perfect way to start this blog out. Have a watch:

What did you think? There were several ideas that stood out to me. For one, the supreme value of practice (and lots of it) is something I seem to forget at times. It is so easy to get frustrated about not being good enough at some skill, say in my case dive rolls or rail to rail precisions, when the solution is right there in front of you: practice it more. Practice that skill enough and you will become good at it, although that may take weeks or months, not days to achieve.

Fear and doubt as inhibitors to our success seemed to be a continuous theme in TahRiq’s speech. Specifically about that “crowd” in our minds that tells us we cannot or should not do something. When we heed those thoughts we give them power, and that power actively inhibits our ability to perform our best. Often times all you need to do is “push harder” (best piece of training advice ever) to make that leap; to achieve your goal. If you get that crowd on your side, or at least get them out of the way, then it becomes easy to give it your all. To add on to this, Dan Edwards made a particularly relevant point: let the crowd in your head win often enough and you may find yourself unable to call up the drive necessary to succeed. It is important to ignore those thoughts and try, whether it ends up as a success or failure, more often than not. Consider it to be a form of mental practice; the more often you succeed in getting past that fear and hesitation the better you will be at doing it again the next time.

The topic of being “sucked in” to the system and pursuing a passion is something I may leave for another blog post (maybe). I know that I am dealing with some of those issues myself, though fortunately to a lesser degree than before. Coincidentally I can also thank Parkour for pushing me towards better direction as well.