The Qualifier – First of all thank you so much for the gift of your time.

Hello steemians ! I'm Tah Riq today is my BIRTHDAY and I've literally just turned 32! I'm the founder of the SuperHero Factory Bali, TEDx speaker, classical and flamenco guitarist, International slam poetry winner, parkour athlete and trainer and street-spiritual manifestation coach. I've dabbled with all kinds of things in my years on this beautiful planet.

I was born Tariq Amawi from Jordan, though most know me now as simply Tah Riq. I like to dissolve barriers and limits through living by example. I'm a student of change and talent reverse-engineering. I implement change into my life then share the methods that worked. I want to show people that you can do anything and become good at everything you enjoy and how. We all have unique dreams so why not go for what we want? I want to live in a world where more people enjoy themselves and what they do, because that's better for EVERYONE and I'm someone who revels in the success and happiness of others.

So Why Steem?

So, I've been writing articles on Facebook for the last couple of years, out of a genuine desire to help those who may receive value from my self guinea-pigging and to document my thoughts on this thing called life. I was tired of seeing status updates of food pics and mundane musings on sunsets and pets and began with little inspirational status updates. These developed into full-blown articles and over time I've become somewhat of an authority on self-improvement/transformation and I only ever share that which I've done myself and have been through personally and what has worked.

I'm eager to let my thoughts play inside this discerning and curating community. Thank you @rok-sivante for introducing me to steemit ! I've shared openly with anyone willing to read, from posts on intermittent fasting to reversing biological age to the meta-physics of starting a business to how-to's on deliberate manifestation to relationship dynamics and...the list goes on. I play to turn steemit into my blog and port over the good stuff. I never asked for money, but well, $ince you brought it up....

I truly welcome the opportunity to have my writing compensated based on the value it brings people. That sounds hella-fair to me and just feels good inside really and the cherry on the cake is to embrace the MIGHTY BLOCKCHAIN and be an early adopter of the disruptive technological platforms that will shake society, banks and if we're lucky, lead us all into a post governance, kumbaya utopia...or something like that. That is just too cool a prospect to ponder, a little sci-fi even. Power to the people.

My Origin Story

To understand how I got this way or why I'm doing this lifehacking stuff, I've got to share a little bit about how I became this latest version of me.

Once upon a time, in an era long since passed, no one told me to "grow up" or "get real" - Those were good times.

- That's me age 7. A real SuperHero.

I was always an extremely creative kid, inventing card games, drawing, writing poems and using my imagination. I believed I could do anything and be anyone. I had a childhood of successes, pouring myself heart and soul into all my hobbies and passions and entering and winning competitions. I even wore a cape around the house a lot of the time. I was young so no one told me to grow up or get real. I rode bikes, swam regularly, did karate and rollerbladed around our complex in Houston Texas.

- self portrait, 15 years old

My early teens however were filled with angst and upheaval. Being forced to move country (America to Jordan to England) several times, abandoning friends, ways of life, changing schools like socks and so on, ungrounded me deeply. I began questioning how to relate to people and had very few friends. I began to gain weight, stopped all sports, got depressed, went reclusive and lost myself in poetry and Spanish guitar. I practised guitar so much (some 5 hours a day) that 2 years later upon moving from Jordan to the UK I got a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London. Moving to the UK was a culture shock. I looked, acted and thought differently to the other kids. I was very sheltered and naive. I didn't know about sex, how to behave as an adolescent or how to be ‘cool’ and was a bit ostracised as a result.

I was fat, awkward with sticky-out, pubescent, facial features. I felt like a 3D caricature.I began drinking quite heavily and really lost my way.

For years this happened:

"Tah Riq, I can only ever see you as a friend". - Every Girl I liked, 1998-2003

Everyone around me encouraged me to become more 'serious' and get my head out of the clouds. I went through the gamut of education. I got great grades, got my degree and masters in 3D Digital Animation like my parents wanted and then... ended up selling computers at PC World to pay the bills, purple uniform and everything.

- That's me, early 20's. A picture of health.

The Leap of Faith: How a Ubisoft Videogame Character Actually Changed My Life

This had me losing a bit of my soul every day. I went home and played video games to escape it all. I got hooked on a game called 'Assassin's Creed' by Ubisoft. It was weird but I felt like Altair, the main character was an evolved alter ego of myself. He too had a Muslim father and Christian Mother, had the same walk as me, was born in Syria where I was born in the neighbouring country of Jordan, looked like I did in a hoody and his voice, down to accent and register was EXACTLY mine. It was like hearing myself speak back at me through my TV. The difference was, he had an athleticism that was nonexistent in my world. I found out that Altair's movements were based on a real-world discipline called parkour and I took it as the universe nudging me that I should learn it too so as to be more like him.

At work, still wearing the uniform, I would dive roll over palettes when no one was watching and spend my breaks practising balancing on railings. Over many months, my physical abilities grew, allowing me to run up walls twice my height and my physique began to change. My matrix of limitations became unhinged inside my mind. I found a clash forming between my new found abilities and the monotony of my daily job. I called in sick and disappeared for 4 days with a group of freerunners in Liverpool, England.

The weekend culminated in a moment where I stood facing the edge of a one and a half storey church roof. I really wanted to be able to take my own leap of faith and jump. I don't know why but I vowed that the day I would do this jump, I would quit my job, I guess because both were a leap of faith, one literal and the other figurative. I thought that day would be well into the future. That weekend I pushed myself REAL HARD. I was standing on that same roof two days later having torn all the callouses on my hands from another jump and they were bleeding lots.

- this is the actual picture from that day

I realised then that even though my hands looked painful and weak, I felt strong and accomplished. I realised the difference of my physical, external world and my new inner reality. I saw they were different. For a brief moment in my life I felt fearlessness and I surrendered all control, ran to the edge of the roof, threw caution and myself to the wind and just jumped into the air. The ground came up to meet my feet in slow motion. I lingered in the air, fully present, savouring every millisecond. I landed, rolled and stood back up. I was fine. No injury. With delight I was ready to make good on my vow and take the other leap of faith I so desperately wanted. I walked into PC World the next day and I quit. That same day, such a weight had been lifted from my shoulders, I stood taller, more confident. So a few hours after handing in that resignation, I got offered a job to be the animator for Kane Kramer, who walked in to buy a computer that day! All of a sudden I saw how possibility expands when your mind does. I witnessed it firsthand.

We worked together for a while, then I took a job doing visual marketing for another company and sadly, within a month, I got made redundant abruptly due to a downsize and ended up with no job and no house overnight. I also had no money, no girlfriend and no idea what to do. I felt powerless. After a week of playing victim, sleeping on friends’ sofas, I decided to take another leap of faith and chose to see these circumstances as the Universe purging me of my anchors to a life I secretly wanted out of anyway. I packed my guitar, a pair of jeans a few T shirts and bought a one-way ticket to Bali on a friend's recommendation.

My story became a TEDx Talk called 'Taking a Leap From Desktop to Rooftop'. People wrote to me and told me how watching my talk helped them catalyse a big decision -buy a plane ticket, quit their job, leave their abusive relationship, propose to their girlfriend and so on. For the first time I saw my ability to positively inspire people through my experience.

Bringing The Story To The Present Day - Life Imitating Art

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIqJGFnARXy/?taken-by=tah_riq

Bali put me in close proximity with all kinds of spiritual practice and creative souls and proved the perfect testing ground and petri dish for my self-experimentation. Having discovered the power of deliberate manifestation and the gift of overcoming mental blocks through physical blocks, I designed my very own transformational parkour gym in South East Asia - the SuperHero Factory - a playground for body and mind.

- it went from an idea

- to a reality

We even have our very own leap of faith into a sponge pit.

Now at 32, I can finally move like Altair, that videogame character. We teach groups of adults and a growing community of kids to do the same.

I decided to go vegetarian and stop drinking alcohol a year ago. I became thin as a result– something I now see as the body releasing toxic muscle – flesh formed of years of unhealthy living. Once a certain point had been reached, it began to build back up again, stronger than before. This was all an experiment.

This way of living aligned me with a different kind of people, changed my values and goals, raised my vibration and and my quality of relationships allowing me to meet and befriend from incredible souls. I reversed my metabolic age and rebuilt my body from the inside out. Also Bali allowed me to take my personal love of guitar and go professional and I have recently released my debut album of original compositions called Taqsim.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGck4SEtcPQ/
Live Improvisation and solo in E minor.

These days I am invited to speak internationally and share on my experiences and methods for deliberate manifestation and creating a new life. I've spoken at the Stockholm School of Economics in St. Petersberg recently, on national TV in KL and will soon do the same at the Writer's Festival in Australia. My interview about parkour and overcoming fear can be found [here]https://www.facebook.com/ntv7.7edition/videos/1026535934096310/. and well...I feel I'm finally doing what I was born to do, share.

Full Steem Ahead! - In Conclusion

Somewhere along the way I began writing all my thoughts on Facebook and have had many write to me that my methods have worked for them. I now plan to move all my written efforts to Steemit. Thank you for giving me this chance and it is my sincere desire to be a valuable contributor to this rapidly expanding community. Thank you for taking the time to read and allowing me to expound on myself this way. Hope it wasn't too much but I wanted to share my story, once properly, have a cyber-home for it and then move on to other things. I want to usher others towards their own transformations if that is what they wish, because I know how happy it has made me to live true to myself and want others to be happy also. Happier people means a better world for all of us. So now, without further ado, Full steem ahead!

p.s. I'm ready to be a part of the inner #circlejerk

links
http://tahriq.com
http://www.shfbali.com
https://www.instagram.com/shfbali/
https://www.instagram.com/tah_riq/