I recently had the honor and pleasure of presenting at Zach Even-esh’s “Underground Strength Coach Conference.
Zach and I have been friends for a decade now and it’s been very interesting watching the transformations we’ve gone through together.
This was my first time presenting on my newest project the “Pathfinder Method” and I wasn’t quite sure how well it would be received.
Pathfinder Method is my system that’s structured around 11 pillars. I like to call these pillars my “Pathfinder Performance Pillars.”
I’ll be going over these pillars in greater detail in future post and online guides…how to use each one to help you uncover the joys of human movement and the art of expressing the human body and how to use each one in your daily practice. In fact, practice is one of those pillars.
The Pathfinder Performance Pillars are:
- Pleasure – Pleasure makes everything easier, including exercise, movement and play. Less mental and physical friction = more momentum. Simple enough to understand and we all realize this but for some reason we’ve been brainwashed into thinking training and movement has to be about suffering to be effective. Absolutely not true. Pleasure makes everything easier. Easy is productive.
- Purpose- “Purpose is a path to high performance.” Roy Spence Jr. Why do you do what you do? Could be internal, could be external or a combination of. Internal is usually more fun and long lasting. Play is internal, there are no external rewards from play, you do it simply to do it.
- Persistence & Patience- Little drops of water wear away stone, not because they’re intense, but because they are persistent and patient. Everyone is in a rush. 30-day skinny jean transformations are the latest craze but whatever happened to a lifetime of physical vitality ? Of mastery? Let’s forget the quick fixes and focus on our longevity.
- Practice- Practice as a verb but more importantly “Practice” as a noun. What is your practice? What is your Way? Do you even have one? Have you even given this any thought?
- Play-based Living- Maintain a fun loving attitude in the face of difficulty and daily life.
- The Path- Keep your eyes on the Path. Enjoy every step. Obsessive goal setting takes the pleasure out of human movement and play. Good tasty human movement is irreducible. There is no other goal than moving itsely. Please see the Pleasure and Play-based Living Pillars.
- The Place- The Dojo is always open. You do not need a gym or any fancy equipment.
- The Process- Focus on being, not some external outcome.
- The Presence- Focus attention and presence. Be here now. Please see Dojo Rules.
- The People- We’re social animals. I like to be alone very very much, seriously, ask my lovely wife, but I still need people in my life to share my love, energy and time with and I need those people to help support me physically and emotionally.
- Participation- Be fully committed. Participate with more than just your physical body, engage mind, body, spirit and heart.
As I stated earlier, I wasn’t sure how well my talk would be received. But it seemed to resonate with many people in attendance. I got a bunch of awesome emails from awesome coaches all over the world including a buddy of mine from the UK, Dax Moy so I am very happy. Thanks for all the emails, the handshakes and the encouragement.
Here’s a quick video review Dax gave of my talk. I’m glad he liked it. If he liked it I know I’m on the right Path. Pun intended.
Hi, my name is Jason C. Brown, I help people uncover the magic of human movement and enjoy the art of expressing the human body.
really impressive. love what you’re doing bro!!!
Thanks Gavin! You’ll be a very important part of the growing Pathfinder tribe.
So much wisdom here. My “official” training as a fitness professional is through, arguably, the most metrically obsessed institution out there. Metrics CAN be fun, but I strongly fear many have replaced how-do-I-feel with how-do-I-measure-up. You’ve encouraged me to keep the experience, rather than the results, uppermost for my clients!
Love the site, Jason! Your insights are very inspiring and useful. Fitness is an art. One can learn how to paint but will not be a painter until one paints on one’s own. One can learn how to exercise from a trainer but if is not provided with an environment to be fit in, one will not be fit.
Thank you Joe. I would even go as far as saying living is an art. Someone told me once that there’s no such thing as “physical” fitness. We need to look at ourselves as spiritual, mental/emotional and physical beings and be fit in all of those areas. Sort of shocked me for a moment but it’s absolutely true.
Thanks for sharing!
Excellent. If only everyone understood the importance of each of these pillars and lived them. The world would be a much better and happier place. Keep up the good work.
Thank you Krista.
From my experience I agree with these concepts. Challenge but no drill sgts. Each of us travel our own path, but still need good people along the way. Just too bad I have to be this old to understand. Luckily it is not too late.
Yes Mike. You Path is not my Path but we can still support one another. I like the term “Cooperative Challenge.”
Persistence and Patience…amen to that! Shortcuts just don’t work!
Thank you Trish! And I agree. Thanks for sharing!
Awesome my bro I’m loving ya “new work” keep it up brother!!!
Jason – it was nice to meet you this weekend at Equinox. Having just finished school and spending the summer creating my own new path that is different from my classmates and maybe what people expect/want, this post was very timely for me. Thanks for that! I look forward to reading more.
Hey Shannon,
Great meeting you as well. Thanks for being so helpful on Saturday. Have you decided which path to take? What did you study in school?
[...] check out how many Pathfinder Performance Pillars this warm-up touches [...]
[...] of the 11 Pathfinder Performance Pillars is Play-Based Living, maintaining a fun-loving attitude in the face of difficulty and daily [...]
[...] Clifton Harski Jason C. Brown Hope you don’t mind, but I find your list here http://www.pathfindermethod.com/2012/06/19/pathfinderpillars/ to mesh with my own views. Training for me is my outlet, my fun, my hobby, my passion-but I [...]
Don’t mind at all and I’m very happy our views mesh.
[...] perhaps the greatest benefit was the mental relief? Two of my Pathfinder Pillars are Presence and Participation. When at the end of the workshop I asked people what they were thinking about during these [...]
[...] review Pathfinder Performance Pillar #1: Pleasure. Pleasure makes everything easier and easy is productive. Easy equals less friction and less [...]