There is one aspect of parkour I have grown to love; one
that I believe has eluded many practitioners. I'm talking about self-discovery.
Parkour isn't just a physical activity (if you think it is I will soon correct
you). It's about building the body AND the mind, simultaneously finding one's
spirit; one's essence, the force that drives you in life!
This is something that should not go overlooked in our
training. True, there are those that adopt parkour solely for the fitness and
health benefits, for showmanship, for fun, or to add it to a repertoire of
items on a résumé. These persons are not truly training parkour; they are
merely grazing the surface - taking only the movements and missing the concept.
They are missing out on an amazing opportunity to discover something new about
themselves, a chance to discover their limits and simultaneously strive and
succeed to surpass them, to discover what is really important to them in life!
Personally, parkour helped me realize that I was not living
the life that I really wanted. It has helped me to make many “big”, important
decisions lately. The biggest of those decisions? I quit college and not one,
but TWO jobs this year. I was on a predefined track that all too many are
following these days: a college education complete with a large debt, an
unwanted job working for a company that didn’t care about me, and a greed for more
money and “better” things. I hadn’t even realized how caught in this I was! I
was following what the media and society say we should do with our lives.
Finish 12 years of school, head to college and work a part-time job (or a few),
finish college, look for a job with a reputable, stable company (which it seems
these days will likely not even be in your field of study), and so on and so
forth. Sure, this track is right for some people – but my point is that parkour
helped me recognize that it wasn’t for me!
With all of that said, I leave you with this thought to
consider the next time you go out and train:
Find yourself. Be that person. Run with it.
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