Cool!

I'd like to begin by acknowledging

something that we all share in common,

the fact that we all have obstacles in our lives

we have trials, tribulations, we have challenges,

we have things that are stopping us

from achieving some things that we want in life

whether they are our greatest ambitions, deepest desires and our dreams.

You know, the obstacles could be physical, mental, spiritual

emotional, financial...

Could be a combination of all of them.

But what if we could start looking at obstacles in a different way

what if we could start seeing them

than instead of things that are stopping us

from what we want to achieve in life

what if we could start seeing them as moments of opportunity?

So my background is an art form that

specializes in obstacles, where obstacles are our primary tool.

So, the art itself is called Parkour, and by definition it means

to overcome one's obstacles in the environment

using the body and mind.

So lucky for you guys, today I'm a bit injured

so I can't demonstrate.

But I can show you this video.

(Music)

(Applause)

Thank you.

It's not hard, it just looks hard.

But that's the thing, right?

People assume that what we're doing is crazy

a lot of the times.

To us it's normal.

People assume it's crazy, they think

that we're just out there trying to kill ourselves

to accomplish this crazy feats

and jump between buildings and do ridiculous things

just to hurt ourselves but it's far from that.

What we are really trying to do is to push ourselves

and discover what are we made of for ourselves.

For us to know what the human body is capable of

to know what the mind is capable of.

So that's the thing with the misconception

in dealing with Parkour

we have to deal with so many people that see it in a negative light.

If you look at Parkour since the beginning of time, for example,

mankind has been using it since its early days

when they were running away from mammoths

when they were having to climb trees, to hunt.

It's in our DNA, it's in our genes.

You look at kids, for example, and kids start moving from an early age.

The first form of movement that a kid does

is he starts crawling, right?

And then from crawling, he evolves into walking

into running.

Next thing you know, he is climbing and jumping

and you can't stop him.

You guys know it!

But what happens with most parents

when the kids start climbing and jumping?

They start getting a little bit afraid,

they're afraid their kid might fall or might stack it

injured themselves, seriously.

From like these kind of heights.

And to me it's disastrous, because that kind of restriction

for these kids is what's holding them back

from so many opportunities in life.

We've got to be able to let them explore their environment.

We've got to be able to let them navigate the playgrounds.

We've got to be able to let them be free enough

to make their own mistakes and learn from it themselves.

Because what happens is that, say for example this little kid,

8 years old, little boy named Johnny

I don't know why I picked Johnny but...

So let's say for example, Johnny, he gets up on these little playgrounds

on these little obstacles in his school or what have you

and let's say his parents say,

"Johnny get down from there you are going to hurt yourself."

Now, little Johnny is being like, "Oh mum, please, please, please!"

You know, it's like me.

"Please! I can do this. Just give me another try!"

"No Johnny, get down, you're going to hurt yourself.

You're going to die, Johnny!" OK?

Johnny stops playing. He stops and there it is.

Every time he comes back to this obstacle,

he'll look at it, and be like, "Hmmm..."

I can't touch that, my mama told me I'm going to die.

I am going to hurt myself really bad.

That's his perception of that obstacle, now.

So the mum is taking away his freedom in encountering that.

So, what happens to Johnny?

He's about nine, ten, eleven. Let's say he gets to 15 years of age.

He looks at that obstacle now.

He forgot that he could even overcome it when he was a kid.

He knew, deep down, that he had what it took

but now he can't do it,

because he's forgotten his body control.

He's forgotten his motion and his movement.

Let's say that this kind of fear applies to anything else in life.

What happens then?

So then, what happens really

is that these parents in our community especially around Fairfield,

they start bringing their kids to come see me.

So I'm there with my team, every Friday night, every Tuesday,

teaching these young people, teaching people from all ages

how to overcome obstacles in their lives. Physically.

Here is an example of one or our classes.

(Music)

So we all got to start somewhere, right?

You don't get to that just in one night.

Well, if you come with us, we are going to show you, well...

For me, my first big obstacle,

the biggest obstacle that I approached when I was a kid

when I first started doing parkour was this massive four-storey car park.

I look at that now and I just say,

"Damn, it's only four stories!"

But at the time, it was like: "Damn!"

Four stories...

So we used to go outside to play, every single week,

we used to go round around on our neighborhood,

with our friends and our family.

And we'd see these obstacles and I'd always tell myself

that I didn't have what it takes to overcome it.

I'd look at it and I'll be like, "Nah, I'll do it later when I get better

when I'm more experienced not now, I don't have what it takes."

So there is a lot of doubt, a lot of disbelief in myself.

I'm afraid of heights.

Just the very thought of it in itself, it was like...

I start trembling, my palms get sweaty. All that.

But then what happened I saw one of my mates climbing.

He came down and he showed me. He was like, "Hey Ali, check this out!"

He climbed the whole obstacle, came back down.

Saw it in front of my very eyes.

I was like, "All right! It is possible!

You bastard!"

(Laughter)

So I went up and I tried it, all right

I was like, "All right, cool, Matt, let's do this together!"

We went up together, we started climbing.

You get up to that first obstacle,

put your hands on the steel rails,

like, "All right! Let's do this!"

You look up, you just look up you see your friend's ass there too!

(Laughter)

You're just climbing.

You get to half way, you say,

"Oh, it's cool! Second level, doesn't matter!

I'm half way that's all that counts!"

You get to the third level, "Oh, there is just one more!"

That's all it is, one more story!

You get to the fourth level and "Damn! I'm here!"

You look down. Four levels up.

It's a big drop, but, you just tell yourself

"Look what I achieved!"

Do you know what I mean?

It's something that I didn't think that I had in me

but I was able to accomplish by myself

with the help of Matt.

But that's the thing!

We have so much capability and so much in us

that we don't know about, until we tap into it.

Matt turns around, looks at me and says,

"Good job man!" We hug, we look down,

says "Let's go back down!"

O.K. man....

(Laughter)

So, you know, we climbed back down, which is a lot quicker and a lot harder,

you're looking down the whole time...

There is no avoiding the height when you're coming down

you have to stare down, you see the level.

So what I do was I'd come home from these training sessions

and I'd come home and be like,

"Hey mum, yeah, I've just been training with my mates.

We've just been doing this new thing called Parkour."

She'd be seeing blood on my hands.

My clothes a little tattered and everything,

dirt everywhere and sweat. And I was so proud.

She's like, "Uh, uh, uh!

You're not going to be doing that no more!

You have to stop training. You have to stop."

"Mum, please!" "Ok, ok!"

Then I had to do with that obstacle, right? What'd I do?

I said I am going to look at this obstacle as an opportunity.

I started doing the dishes, I started vacuuming in the house

I started mowing the lawn

I did whatever I could to get brownie points.

So mama please! I stopped telling her that I was training.

I loved it too much.

For me it was like the love for it I'll wait anything else in life.

So I was like, "Oh, mum, Just going to the library today."

You know, we'd be actually climbing the library.

(Laughter)

It's be like, "Hey mum, I'm going to hang with my friends"

you know, like hanging it...

But this is some of the stuff that we've got up to.

(Music)

So I'm going to leave you guys with 3 things

3 key rules that I keep to myself

when we are out there training,

when we do with obstacles in any facet of life.

One, be creative. Use everything that you have around you.

See from a different prospective, from a different angle.

Number two. You got to look at failure as the engine of success.

When we fall twenty times, we get up twenty times.

and on the twenty first time, you are going to be down much better,

than if you haven't started it at all.

For us, our failure is our success.

When we fall is that we learn something,

we learn something about ourselves.

As long as we are willing to get back up, that's what counts.

And number three, you've got to maintain that positive mindset.

To think, for us in Parkour,

if we think we are going to fall, then we fall.

But if we think we are going to make it, then we make it.

So the mind has so much power over what we do in life.

We can crumble or we can conquer.

But either way, we've got to decide.

Thank you.

(Applause)