Parkour is the art of overcoming obstacles using only your body with the objective of getting from point A to point B as efficiently as possible. Watching it is almost like watching a dance or circus acrobat’s routine except it’s in the middle of city using found spaces and objects.

Here’s a video of it, skip the first minute or so to get to the good stuff:

What interests me about it is that practitioners report a mental change when they become experienced. Their world ceases to be walls, buildings and fences and becomes an easily navigable landscape. The physical world changes for them because obstacles are no longer obstacles, but tools that they can use to launch themselves. After a while, they start to think that way as well.

Here is a quote from Andreas Kalteis as it appears on Wikipedia :

To understand the philosophy of parkour takes quite a while, because you have to get used to it first. While you still have to try to actually do the movements, you will not feel much about the philosophy. But when you’re able to move in your own way, then you start to see how parkour changes other things in your life; and you approach problems — for example in your job — differently, because you have been trained to overcome obstacles. This sudden realization comes at a different time to different people: some get it very early, some get it very late. You can’t really say ‘it takes two months to realize what parkour is’. So, now, I don’t say ‘I do parkour’, but ‘I live parkour’, because its philosophy has become my life, my way to do everything.

Imagine if all your problems and obstacles were just a playground for you!

We can treat our mental landscape as they treat the world. Sliding, twisting, jumping and ignoring what has been set up before us. Instead of a mental block against something, it becomes a springboard for a backflip. Instead of taking the safe route to a conclusion, what if we just repel down the side of it.

Mental parkour can be a powerful metaphor. I am going to experiment with it for a few days and see if anything happens. Anyone want to join me?

Here’s a rule from improvisational theater that I think applies to everything you do.

Always work at the top of your intelligence.

Don’t talk down to your audience. Don’t feign ignorance or actively ignore what you know. Don’t pretend that you’re saying something deep when you know it’s just repeating a casual observation you heard on NPR. Always use everything you know and every bit of your understanding when you’re working.

Bring your unique perspective to everything you do. Every experience. Every opinion. Everything that makes you who you are.

Also, admit to not knowing things. Sometimes exploring your own gaps in knowledge produces great revelations and interesting work.

Always working at the top of your intelligence is the key to producing things that you are proud of.

Have you ever been discussing a problem with someone and hit a dead end? Neither one of you can come up with any possible solution. Then, one of you says, “You know, if we were smart we’d just (insert solution here).”

Notice the phrase “if we were smart”. Now, obviously the solution to the problem came from the person making the statement, but they don’t feel like it did. They feel like it came from outside themselves. Most of the time people stumble on answers like that, but how do you make it happen?

Here’s a question that does wonders. Just ask yourself:

What would I do in this situation if I were smarter?

This question depersonalizes your problems and removes any self-doubt you might have. The answers that come from the question are often shockingly straightforward and obvious. As if you knew the answer the whole time and were just refusing to acknowledge it.

There’s a great visualization exercise for doing this as well. Imagine that inside your head there is a deeply buried bunker with nothing it in but a computer.  This computer contains all the answers and information you need, all you have to do is sit down in front of the computer and type your question in. Seconds later, the response will appear on the screen.

If you prefer, another extension of this exercise is to depersonalize the answer even further and ask, “What would I do in this situation if I was Albert Einstein?” Not that you have to use Einstein, pick someone who you admire and who you are familiar with.

This question gives you access to abilities and resources far beyond what you think you have. In fact, it might prove once and for all that you are smarter than you think you are.

Could it be that you are already a super genius?