This is the first part of a long conversation with Aidan. We mostly focus on mastery, goals, motivation and direction in climbing. To access the second half of the conversation where we further explore mastery, discuss flow in bouldering and talk about how Aidan focuses become a Podcast Community Member at strongmindclimbing.com/podcast

0:00 - 6:54 | Intro and chat about the Strong Mind Podcast Community

6:59 - 11:00 | Chit chat

11:01 - 13:58 | Aidan and Hazel’s routine

13:58-19:13 | Pro climbing and balancing time

19:13 - 33:17 | Game theory and Instagram, body image and objectification

33:17 - 39:02 | Podcasting

39:02 - 41:21 | Aidan's goals, motivations and finding his limit

41:21 - 46:42 | Burden of Dreams

46:42 - 50:00 | Gravitating towards a style niche versus being a broadly accomplished climber

50:00 - 58:44 | Mastery in climbing - what is it and do Aidan and Hazel have different conceptions of mastery

58:44 - 1:03:55 | Collective mastery and the difference between mastery and difficulty

1:03:55 - 1:05:16 | Exposing weaknesses

1:05:16 - 1:06:13 | Enjoyment and preferences in climbing

1:06:13 - 1:08:16 | Tools to understand where your motivation comes from

1:08:16 - 1:11:39 | Aidan’s aversion to extrinsic motivations

1:11:39 - 1:14:57 | Authenticity

1:14:57 - 1:24:45 | Psychological traps in goal setting and the projecting process

1:24:52 - 1:28:29 | Outro