being john wick — PICO|PARKER

I'm obsessed with John Wick (2014). My roommate pitched the movie to me as - "someone kills this guys dog, and then the guy goes ape shit crazy." Spoiler alert - there is no spoiler. It ended up being precisely that, with no fancy plot twists or added complexity. However, the execution was perfect. An hour an a half of pure action, where you're rooting for this tormented man, who is lamenting the loss of his wife (and now dog), hoping he will obliterate anyone that gets in his way.

With very few words, John Wick accomplishes exactly what he set out to do. Kill the guy who killed his dog.

Viggo Tarasov (to his son): John is a man of focus, commitment, sheer will, something you know very little about.

Keanu Reeves, who played John Wick, trained for several months prior to filming, studying multiple forms of martial arts, gun handling, and car racing. As a result, since Keanu did all of his own "stunt work", he essentially was John Wick.

But I'm inspired by both the character and the actor's dedication, and more so ability to get the job done.

I've been thinking about the idea of mastery, and what it would take to reach this. Mastery defined as this state in which one can perform without thinking about the actual act of performing, and can dissociate ones mind to think about how to take the performance to the next level - taking into account all of the uncontrollable, spontaneous inputs. As if you're not reacting to unexpected change, but you're able to embrace it and smoothly incorporate these variables into the "performance".

I imagine when you master something, the uncontrollable / spontaneous inputs bring more color to the situation.

I've always been drawn to the idea of mastering something, or being a specialist. From talking to people, it sounds like this is something that many people in theory want, and even are drawn to people who appear to have "mastered" something. It produces this x-factor. However even though so many people would like to master something, it seems like few of us actually do. Why is that? Is it because we lack discipline and focus? Is it possible to master something while having multiple interests? Or does the very nature of having split attention prevent one from being able to master anything.

I'm good at a lot of things, but I'm not particularly great anything. Thus, the idea of practicing something for 8-10 hours a day sounds very appealing. Sounds very simple and clean, with an alluring outcome. Typing is probably the only comparable thing I do for that long, and I am definitely not a master at typing. Therefore, I don't think it is necessarily the hours, but maybe the approach or the mindset.

My parents forced my sister and me to study martial arts to learn self-defense, and self-discipline. Five very pivotal years of my youth was spent being dragged to the karate studio. I ended up getting my black belt by the time I turned 10, but wouldn't have accomplished that without the determination of my parents.

I'd like to practice and be good at something. Now as a young professional with time, freedom, and relatively little commitments, it seems like the perfect time. But I find myself not focusing on one thing, but bouncing between activities, people, projects. etc.

Help people be happier / improve
Volunteer
Spend more time with my parents
Be a better dog mom
Learn to live without getting what I want
Give more
Be more interesting

Cooking / Dinner parties
Writing
Organizing Trips
Budgeting / Finances
Exercising
Meeting new people
Be a better friend to the friends that I have
Read more

I can't master any of these.

I just Google'd "things to master before 30" and the best thing I found was "29 Things You Should Accomplish Before You're 30" and "25 Life Skills You Should Master by Age 30". So I'm struggling with determining what I want to focus on.

Focused and committed, I'm going to try some "creative cross-training" and see what sticks.