New Bruises
A life-changing story
Chapter 0: The Context
presented by
The TerraDome
Sports Science Research Centre
This is The Story of how
The Creative Director of
The TerraDome
Sports Science Research Centre
developed training methods,
using himself as the subject,
to demonstrate
their efficacy and that
they’ll do no harm to you.
Experience: Go deep.
Reflect: Refine insights until you conquer consequences.
Express: Speak only The Truth, no matter how ridiculous.
This is the story of how The Masters appear. They are everywhere. In subtle places that you can only see when you’re in ritual.
This is the training method developed and validated by The TerraDome Sports Science Research Centre.
“Find your Masters”
I see The Stoke in all the things in The World.
I look for 43.
The Masters appear when I do.
Habits are like water running downhill.
The water cannot help but cut deep.
It happens over time.
It happens with little effort.
The water just follows gravity.
Habits are easy to develop. They can manifest without you even noticing.
Avoiding danger here. Avoiding punishment there. They develop over time as you live in your world.
Whose world do you live in?
Look around you right now and determine who constructed the place you’re in right now.
Is it a room?
Is it a vehicle?
Is it a natural landscape?
Who put you where you are right now?
Are you in a building?
Are you in a state of a union?
Are you in a state of mind?
Where are you right now and who put you there?
Where are you headed now?
Where are you going next?
Why are you going there?
Who is putting you there?
What is your next choice?
What do you want to be when you grow up?
A fire fighter?
A happy fire fighter?
A happy, wealthy fire fighter?
What do you want to feel?
What do you want to know?
I want to know how to invent and learn tricks that feel magical.
I want to master this capability so that I have a high probability of being happy in any situation I find or put myself in.
Then I can do anything I want.
One thing I learned along the way is that my world gets structured one choice at a time. It does this over time.
It does this naturally. As I make simple choices, I structure my world and that world gives me structure that, in turn, reinforces my habits.
Another thing I learned is that I can choose the things in my world that I will naturally interact with and will reinforce habits.
When I realized this, I had a moment of clarity. I know where only a portion of my world came from. The other portion is reinforcing habits I don’t notice.
If I stay busy developing habits intentionally, I won’t have time for my hidden habits.
Just by intentionally practicing a craft, I can discover my hidden habits and correct them.
Discovering hidden habits does two things:
For good habits, I can make them better and reap the rewards.
For bad habits, I can correct them and avoid the risks.
This mystery unwinds naturally when I consciously correct one habit all day every day.
Like the bad habit I have of missing my rear pegs when I jump from my front pegs.
I did a trick on a bike when I was 43.
It felt so magical that I posted it on YouTube for my friends.
Then I conquered RedBull ClashEm with it.
I show it now to technology audiences as a metaphor for a platform.
But there’s a catch.
At the very end of that video, at the most-boring part of it, I made a mistake that almost no one cares about.
Not no one. Almost no one.
The people who made the world I love care about that mistake.
They know the dangers of accepting praise without fully delivering the goods.
They also know the rewards of delivering the goods before you accept praise.
They know I carry debt.
They know I don’t like debt.
They know I pay my debts.
It is a really hard trick.
I pulled it when I was 43 years old.
It’s so hard that no one else has done it. People have tried. They told me it’s terrifying and dangerous.
I told them I know.
My life depends on doing it without mistake. To be who I want to be when I grow up, I have no other choice but to stop everything else and commit myself to doing it without mistake.
Imagine that.
Small town kid gets a bike and falls in love with it.
Sells the bike and moves to South Miami Beach to begin his working life.
Buys another bike when he gets flashbacks from playing a bike video game.
Finds under-utilized buildings to rent so he can ride all the time.
Then makes silly videos of friends having fun riding bikes. Then gets kicked out of amateur class and has to compete pro. Then rides against his heroes and gets his ass handed to him.
Then works with a sports psychologist.
Then makes videos of having new kinds of fun riding bikes.
Then does a trick no one believed was possible.
My name is Joe Cicman. In my bike videos, I introduce myself as The Creative Director of The TerraDome Sports Science Research Centre.
I am living a beautifully happy life. It’s the life I dreamed of enjoying.
I’m working on a new bike video.
Today, I’m filming behind-the-scenes footage, like how Stallone got in shape before the cameras filmed the training scenes in Rocky.
You are about to read the outline for that video.
I don’t know how long it will be.
I don’t know how many of the characters will be hidden in subliminal elements of the sets and wardrobe.
The outline explains what’s been on my mind about this project. It highlights the characters and their significance.
Like Rocky, the production process is part of making the story believable.
Please enjoy.
