Values as Deliberate Practice
Fragments from imaginary dialogues
“How can I deliberately practice my Values?”
“Let’s take Gratitude as an example.
Every time you express Gratitude for something, you’re practicing it. We might call this, one ‘Gratitude-rep[etition]’.
How many Gratitude-reps do you do during a day?
I call this, practice-density.
You might do it once at the end of the day. Certainly better than nothing. However the more reps you do during a day, the better. All these little reps add up.
How you do the reps is also important.
How many quality Gratitude-reps do you do during a day?
A low-quality rep is just going through the motions in order to get it done.
A quality rep is doing it slowly and reverently, like a ritual. You might even have a physical gesture, like the bowing in martial arts, or a stance.
A quality rep is fully experiencing the feeling of Gratitude in your body – a quality rep is embodied.
In a sense, every quality rep is a Meditation.
It’s also important to gain clarity on – design – the details of the practice.
What specifically do you want to do?
What specifically do you want to think? Where do you want to direct your attention?
For instance, I think of everything I express Gratitude for as a Gift.
You might even have a theme that captures the essence of the practice.”
“What is the theme for your Gratitude practice?”
“Take NOTHING for granted.“
Life Principles: Quality
The small things are the big things.
How you do anything is how you do everything. (Josh Waitzkin)
Fragments from imaginary dialogues
“What’s the Quality principle about?”
“The basic idea is that how you do anything matters.
Expressed as a principle:
Always do your best, regardless of what it is.
With a different emphasis, how you do anything matters.
In practical terms, Quality has three benchmarks: Presence, Effectiveness and Efficiency.”
“What’s the difference between Effectiveness and Efficiency?”
“To use a metaphor:
Efficiency is about how well you climb a wall.
Effectiveness is about climbing the right wall.
Expressed as principles:
Be present in everything you do.
Seek effectiveness and efficiency in everything you do.
For me Quality also means looking at everything through two value-lenses [<link; medium read]: Beauty and Loving Play [<link; short read].
Expressed as a principle:
Do everything beautifully, lovingly and playfully.
“
Three Movement Principles
Move in all ways and always move.
Fragments from imaginary dialogues
“Brian Johnson expresses the three most important areas of one’s life as a triad:
The Big Three
Energy
Work
Love
If you were to create a triad of guiding-principles for movement, what would they be?”
“My triad would be:
Quality
Quantity
Variety
Quality expresses how well you move. This is a very deep principle, transferable to any other area of your life.
Two aspects of this principle are:
– Presence (awareness of your own body and the environment; called Touch in Parkour).
– Efficiency.
As a side note, a good way to assess Efficiency is by paying attention to how much sound you are making. The aim is to move (and land) silently, like a cat (called Stealth in Parkour).
Quantity expresses how often you move. The goal is to maximize movement throughout the day, to creatively
weave movement into the fabric of your daily life
, in the words of Frank Forenchich. This has no upper limit. The metaphor I like to use is that of ‘perpetual motion machine‘.
Two aspects of this principle are:
– Discovering movement opportunities.
– Creating movement opportunities (‘creating space’ for movement throughout the day).
Variety expresses how varied you move. The goal is to move your whole body, not just parts of it. To move in as many planes of motion as possible. To move all joints through their full range of motion (especially your spine).
Two aspects of this principle are:
– Exploring movement possibilities (climbing, balancing, swinging, jumping, swimming, dancing, etc.).
– Improvising.
You don’t need to know any fancy movements. Simple is beautiful. Make stuff up. Have fun with it.”
The greatest purpose of movement practice is to unlock profoundly meaningful experiences. (Rafe Kelley)
Dyads
Fragments from imaginary dialogues
“Focus on quality over quantity.”
“The quality/quantity dichotomy can be a useful guideline in many instances, but it’s important to also be mindful of its limitations.
When it comes to movement for instance, more is better. I’m not referring to the number of repetitions (reps) of any one movement, but the number of times you move throughout a day.
Moreover, to get better at anything you need to perform a large number of quality reps.
Both quality and quantity are important.
I like to make a distinction between a dichotomy and a dyad.”
“What is a dyad?”
“Both a dichotomy and a dyad are structures with two terms. The difference is, for the dichotomy the terms are mutually exclusive, whereas for the dyad they are not.
We might think of them as the difference between OR and XOR (eXclusive OR) in Logic.
A/B Dichotomy: OR – either A or B
A/B Dyad: XOR – A, or B, or both“
Dani Trusca 
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