The Northwest, where I grew up, is an easy place to live for resourceful people. You can basically live off the land. Being Russian immigrants, my parents took advantage of that. Their obsession during my childhood was fishing. Fishing bored me, so I came up with my own version of what is now known as parkour: I’d find a rocky jetty along the Columbia river and jump from one giant boulder to another at a rapid pace, never knowing what was ahead. In retrospect, my mother probably should have been concerned. But she was an intense fisherman who never took her eyes off the end of the pole, and I was fortunately a very sure-footed child.

The sport of Parkour originated in France (though many in my family will argue the Russians do it better). The primary characteristics of the sport are efficiency and speed. It has its historical roots in military training. What makes it thrilling to watch is seeing someone leaping without knowing how or where they’re going to land. But the jumper, to be successful, has to visually connect reliable landings and think ahead while living very much in the moment. It’s a physical manifestation of a nimble mind.

Being a creative person means having a nimble mind. The best creative people I know have the skill to leap from idea to idea, making connections and seeing stories others may not have seen. Part of that is the ability to make connections between seemingly unrelated subjects. But equally important, going back to my version of Parkour, are the boulders, which are the landings between the leaps. Landings are springboards towards new perspectives. As a creative person, I thrive on idea exchange – which I think of as landings. In my mind, landings are the collaborative and engaging moments I have with inspiring people. Sometimes they are people I know. Sometimes, they are strangers I sit next to on a plane, or experts in a very specialized field. They all become an exponentially growing network of insights and inspiring points of view. They are the landings that enable the leaps.

I still like jumping, but at this point in my life, I call it cerebral leaping. The boulders in my life today are my family, colleagues, clients, and friends. If you’re fortunate like me, you’re also surrounded by boulders. Start jumping.

Who are the boulders in your life?

- Olga Arseniev is a creative director at Freeman, specializing in new business development. To learn how Freeman’s creative capabilities can help your business, email olga.arseniev@freemanco.com