What does it take to balance creative passion, personal growth, and professional responsibility while navigating life’s unpredictable journey?

Amos Rendao reflects on what music means to him, flowing vs planning, and the benefits and importance of journalling. The conversation turns to the idea of success and what that means, before moving to Aikido, and information activism. Amos shares his insights on diet and nutrition, his journey with injuries and recovery, and how he manages self talk.

“Journaling is such an important way to develop a relationship with yourself.” ~ Amos Rendao (49:50)

The conversation covers the relationship between creativity, self-reflection, and structured productivity. Amos reflects on his deep connection with music, sharing how his early experiences in bands shifted to a hiatus as parkour and business took priority. He revisits his passion through home recording, finding renewed joy in music’s restorative power. This leads to broader discussions on the interplay between freeform exploration and the necessity of structure, reflecting on how Amos balances spontaneity with highly organized systems to maximize productivity.

Amos and Craig explore the transformative impact of journaling as a tool for self-awareness and growth. They discuss the challenges of maintaining consistency in habits, diet, and personal health while navigating entrepreneurial and athletic commitments. The dialogue also touches on the influence of aikido in shaping their movement practice, drawing parallels between martial arts and parkour. The broader theme highlights how embracing both structured goals and open-ended exploration can lead to deeper personal insight and development.

Takeaways

Journaling – A powerful tool for developing self-awareness, tracking personal growth, and identifying patterns over time.

Creativity and Flow – Revisiting creative passions can restore mental health and balance, even after long hiatuses.

Structured Productivity – Building organized systems around sleep, diet, and time management can significantly enhance efficiency.

Freeform Exploration – Spontaneous, unstructured days can lead to valuable experiences and insights, balancing out rigid schedules.

Movement and Recovery – Insights into how parkour, aikido, and other movement practices contribute to long-term physical resilience and injury recovery.

Diet and Performance – Experimenting with diet, fasting, and biohacking to improve mental clarity and athletic performance.

Community and Connection – The importance of community involvement, both in local parkour initiatives and broader projects like USPK.

Resources

APEX School of Movement — A movement school co-founded by Amos Rendao focused on parkour education.

Parkour EDU — An educational platform designed to teach parkour principles and coaching techniques.

USPK (United States Parkour Association) — A national organization dedicated to promoting and supporting parkour communities in the US.

Oura Ring — A health tracking device used by Amos to monitor sleep and activity data.

Your Personal Paleo Code by Chris Kresser — A book and program recommended by Amos for dietary experimentation and self-optimization.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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— Hello👋 I’m Craig Constantine.

In the Movers Mindset podcast, I talk with movement enthusiasts to learn who they are, what they do, and why they do it. I’m interested in the nature and philosophy of movement and in exploring themes like independence, self-direction, and human excellence. My interests color each conversation and provide some structure to Movers Mindset. But since I like to take the scenic route, every conversation ends up going somewhere unique.

The purpose of Movers Mindset is to create and share great conversations with movement enthusiasts. Each conversation feeds my insatiable curiosity, but I share them to turn on a light for someone else, to inspire them, or to give them their next question.

I appreciate your time and attention, and I don’t take it for granted.

— Thank you!

My personal mission is creating better conversations to spread understanding and compassion. And Movers Mindset is one of the things I do in service of my mission. Drop by https://craigconstantine.com/ for my weekly email, my other podcasts, writing and more.

The Movers Mindset project grew from conversations I started having as part of my personal journey rediscovering movement. The project started late in 2015, and it was initially simply a web site that shared others’ writing. The project grew, and in 2017 I started the podcast. I’ve worked extremely hard, but none of this would have been possible without so much help from so many people.

Thanks for listening!

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