Ethan has always wanted to do parkour. Parkour being the street activity where traceurs (practioners) attempt to get from one spot to another spot in the most fluid, and often most acrobatic, means possible. He used to watch youtube footage when he was younger and then replicated what he saw in our living-room, bedroom and garden. A friend recently recommended a gymnastics school that offered parkour classes and I signed Ethan up. Needless to say, he is loving it.
Today is his first ‘mission’ or grading. Its works on a martial arts type system where the student’s progress is assessed, and they increase their rank via the rewarding of a coloured headband. The school promotes the mission as an opportunity to “build self-esteem, resilience, and motivation” as well as “celebrate hard work, effort, and commitment”. It is more of a formality than anything else but taken very seriously none-the-less.
I seem to relate these types of things into my own journey. If I was to do a ‘mission’ and attempt to level-up, what would the criteria for that mission be? Nearly 10 months down the line, what are the training activities that I have repeated over and over to increase proficiency? Is it working through grief and emotions, raising two well-adjusted and happy children, keeping it together and pushing forwards? Also, who gets to decide whether I can move up to the next level and earn the next stripe on the belt?
I realise that this thought process over complicates things un-necessarily. However, the promotion of the mission sparked the thought. One does needs to celebrate hard work, effort and commitment. One does needs to build self-esteem, resilience and motivation. It’s what keeps us walking forward and making progress. I needed the reminder and like the idea. Ethan deserves the headband in recognition of his dedication and effort. He deserves to level up and be proud what he has achieved. Maybe I do too.