🤯Unknown Unknowns #103 - Get Out of Your Head
When I write, I often have moments when I’m stuck. I don’t know what to write next or where the essay is actually going. I’m getting in my own way, overanalyzing a situation. It doesn’t just happen when I’m writing, it could be climbing or catching a football.
I recently watched a video of Johnny Dawes, a British rock-climbing legend. The opening of the video is a montage of him flopping and toppling off the climbing wall. He looks ungainly, repeatedly and unceremoniously floundering and toppling.
But Johnny’s unafraid, both of physical danger and of looking foolish.
The video is from Hannah Morris, a climber whose YouTube I watch occasionally. She films the lessons she gets from different coaches. She recently had a lesson from Johnny, whose approach is to get out of your own way.
Each of Johnny’s misfires has a point. Johnny’s finding out what it feels like to be in the final position. Once he knows where he has to get to, he steps back and lets his body do the work.
If this sounds like a bunch of woo-woo mumbo jumbo, Hannah doesn’t seem impressed either at first.
Until Johnny has Hannah do an exercise of balancing on top of two unstable footholds without touching the wall.
Hannah can’t do it, until Johnny, in the middle of an attempt, asks her what her mother’s maiden name is. Distracted, she immediately pulls the move off. You can see her shock, her disbelief that she did it.
When I do a coordinated movement, I like to break motions down into smaller pieces, deconstructing a complex movement into following a series of steps. But you can’t do a dynamic physics problem in your head while you’re in motion. Johnny is saying that your body knows what to do, you just have to let it do its thing.
“If you get your attitude right, it’s incredible what your body will do for you. You know, I’ve done moves that just blow my mind away. There’s no way I could do them, but if you do the right thing your body will do them.” - Johnny Dawes
Johnny’s saying that if he consciously controlled what he was doing, he wouldn't be able to do it. But if he just sets the intention and gives space for his body, his body fills in all the intervening details.
Later, Hannah does the same exercise, but this time by running and jumping onto the wall.
“I’m not aiming at footholds, I’m aiming at feeling” - Johnny Dawes
Johnny has found a way to tap into our subconscious. He’s getting Hannah to access a flow state.
Johnny’s philosophy:
Heart tells us what we like
Brain tells us how to do it
Gut tells us when to do it
By listening to all three, we can accomplish what we don’t believe is possible.
I highly recommend watching the whole thing, I think there are takeaways for all of us. Instead of getting frustrated when I write, I’ll try to turn off the judgment and just let words show up. And I’ll try to have faith that the impossible will happen.
🔗 A UNIQUE coaching session with Climbing Legend Johnny Dawes
Discoveries:
I’d never heard of Johnny before this video, and I went pretty deep into the YouTube rabbit hole. Here are the ones I found the most interesting:
1️⃣ An interview with The Guardian, with Johnny explaining his approach and showcasing some of the climbs he’s done.
🔗 Rock climber Johnny Dawes - The Guardian
2️⃣ Johnny climbing without hands.
🔗 Johnny Dawes climbs E3 rock climb hands-free
3️⃣ Johnny climbing without hands - and in a suit jacket.
🔗 Johnny Dawes Impeccable Technique NO-HANDS Climbing....In TWEED | EpicTV Clips
Quote of the Week:
“It isn't by getting out of the world that we become enlightened, but by getting into the world…by getting so tuned in that we can ride the waves of our existence and never get tossed because we become the waves.” - Ken Kesey
You can find more of my writing at chr.iswong.com.
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Leaving you in peace,
Chris
Great insights, Chris.
This post made me think of "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin. A quote that I love:
"In performance training, first we learn to flow with whatever comes. Then we learn to use whatever comes to our advantage. Finally, we learn to be completely self-sufficient and create our own earthquakes, so our mental process feeds itself explosive inspirations without the need for outside stimulus."
There's a great book, The Inner Game of Tennis, that's all about this idea of getting out of your own way. Cool to see the same concepts applied to rock climbing!