"Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment" by George Leonard

• If there is any route to success and fulfillment in life, it is to be found in the long term, essentially goalless process of mastery.
• I was surprised to discover that it wasn’t necessarily the most talented who would persevere on the long road to black belt and beyond.
• Mastery isn’t reserved for the super talented or even for those who are fortunate enough to have gotten an early start. It’s available to anyone who is willing to get on the path on stay on it.
• The master’s journey can begin whenever you decide to learn any new skill.
• If you’re going to go for mastery, it’s better to start with a clean slate rather than have to unlearn bad habits you picked up while hacking around.
• It starts with baby steps.
• For most people brought up in this society, the plateau can be a form of purgatory. It triggers disowned emotions. It flushes out hidden motivations.
• The evidence is clear: all of us who are born without serious genetic defects are born geniuses.
• Learning any new skill involves relatively brief spurts of progress, each of which is followed by a slight decline to a plateau somewhat higher in most cases than that which preceded it.
• To take the master’s journey, you have to practice diligently, striving to hone your skills, to attain new levels of competence. But while doing so -- and this is the inexorable fact of the journey -- you also have to be willing to spend most of your time on a plateau, to keep practicing even when you seem to be getting nowhere.
• Learning generally occurs in stages. A stage ends when the habitual system has been programmed to the new task, and the cognitive and effort systems have withdrawn. This means you can perform the task without making a special effort to think of its separate parts.
• How do you move toward master? To put it simply, you practice diligently, but you practice primarily for the sake of the practice itself.
• We all aspire to mastery, but the path is always long and sometimes rocky, and it promises no quick and easy payoffs.
• The Dabbler approaches each new sport, career opportunity, or relationship with enormous enthusiasm. To stay on the path of mastery would mean changing himself. The Dabbler might think of himself as an adventurer, a connoisseur of novelty, but he’s probably closer to being what Carl Jung calls the puer aeternus, the eternal kid.
• The Obsessive is a bottom-line type of person, not one to settle for second best. He or she knows results are what count, and it doesn’t matter how you get them, just so you get them fast.
• The Hacker has a different attitude. After sort of getting the hang of a thing, he or she is willing to stay on the plateau indefinitely. He doesn’t mind skipping stages essential to the development of mastery if he can just go out and hack around with fellow hackers.
• If you’re planning to embark on a master’s journey, you might find yourself bucking current trends in American life.
• Our society is now organized around an economic system that seemingly demands a continuing high level of consumer spending.
• The quick-fix, anti-mastery mentality touches almost everything in our lives.
• The achievement of goals is important. But the real juice of life, whether it be sweet or bitter, is to be found not nearly so much in the products of our efforts as in the process of living itself, in how it feels to be alive.
• If our life is a good one, a life of mastery, most of it will be spent on the plateau. If not, a large part of it may well be spent in restless, distracted, ultimately self-destructive attempts to escape the plateau.
• The Hacker gets on a plateau and doesn’t keep working.
• When you discover your own desire, you’re not going to wait for other people to find solutions to your problems. You’re going to find your own. I set goals for myself, but underlying all the goals and the work was the fact that I enjoyed it.
• Recognition is often unsatisfying and fame is like seawater for the thirsty. Love of your work, willingness to stay with it even in the absence of extrinsic reward, is good food and good drink.
• Goals and contingencies, as I’ve said, are important. But they exist in the future and the past, beyond the pale of the sensory realm. Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present.
• The human individual is equipped to learn and go on learning prodigiously from birth to death, and this is precisely what sets him or her apart from all other known forms of life.
• There are some skills you can learn on your own, and some you can try to learn, but if you intend to take the journey of mastery, the best thing you can do is arrange for first-rate instruction.
• Even those who will someday overthrow conventional ways of thinking or doing need to know what it is they are overthrowing.
• For mastering most skills, there’s nothing better than being in the hands of a master teacher, either one-to-one or in a small group.
• The search for good instruction starts with a look at credentials and lineage.
• Instruction demands a certain humility; at best, the teacher takes delight in being surpassed by his or her students.
• If at all possible, attend an instructional session before choosing your teacher.
• The best teacher generally strives to point out what the student is doing right at least as frequently as what she or he is doing wrong.
• Sometimes, strangely enough, those with exceptional talent have trouble staying on the path of mastery.
• When you learn too easily, you’re tempted not to work hard.
• Learning eventually involves interaction between the learner and the learning environment, and its effectiveness relates to the frequency, quality, variety, and intensity of the interaction.
• Still, in spite of the marvels of the computer age, the book remains a major tool for learning especially in skills that are primarily cognitive.
• The typical school or college classroom, unhappily, is not a very good place to learn.
• Bear in mind that on the path of mastery learning never ends.
• The people we know as masters don’t devote themselves to their particular skill just to get better at it. The truth is, they love to practice -- and because of this they do get better.
• Practice is the path upon which you travel, just that.
• “The master,” an old martial arts saying goes, “is the one who stays on the mat five minutes longer every day than anybody else.”
• The master of any game is generally a master of practice.
• To practice regularly, even when you seem to be getting nowhere, might at first seem onerous. But the day eventually comes when practicing becomes a treasured part of your life.
• Ultimately practice is the path of mastery.
• What is mastery? At the heart of it, mastery is practice. Master is staying on the path.
• The courage of a master is measured by his or her willingness to surrender. This means surrendering to your teacher and to the demands of your discipline.
• The early stages of any significant new learning invoke the spirit of the fool.
• The beginner who stands on his or her dignity becomes rigid, armored; the learning can’t get through.
• Learning almost any significant skill involves certain indignities.
• The essence of boredom is to be found in the obsessive search for novelty. Satisfaction lies in mindful repetition, the discovery of endless richness in subtle variations on familiar themes.
• There are times in almost every master’s journey when it becomes necessary to give up some hard-won competence in order to advance to the next stage. This is especially true when you’re stuck at a familiar and comfortable skill level.
• For the master, surrender means there are no experts. There are only learners.
• Intentionality fuels the master’s journey. Every master is a master of vision.
• The trick here is not only to test the edges of the envelope, but also to walk the fine line between endless, goals practice and those alluring goals that appear along the way.
• But the journey is what counts. In the words of the ancient Eastern adage: “Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.”
• The new black belt is expected to be on the mat the next day, ready to take the first fall.
• Every one of us resists significant change, no matter whether it’s for the worse or for the better. Our body, brain, and behavior have a built-in tendency to stay the same within rather narrow limits, and to snap back when changed -- and it’s a very good thing they do.
• The problem is, homeostasis works to keep things as they are even if they aren’t very good.
• Homeostasis, remember, doesn’t distinguish between what you would call change for the better and change for the worse. It resists all change.
• Just let it be said that the resistance here (as in other cases) is proportionate to the size and speed of the change, not to whether the change is a favorable or unfavorable one.
• Be aware of the way homeostasis works.
• Expect resistance and backlash.
• You might also expect resistance from friends and family and co-workers.
• So don’t be surprised if some of the people you love start covertly or overtly undermining your self-improvement. It’s not that they wish you harm, it’s just homeostasis at work.
• Be willing to negotiate with your resistance to change.
• Negotiation is the ticket to successful long-term change in everything from increasing your running speed to transforming your organization.
• The fine art of playing the edge in this case involves a willingness to take on step back for every two forward, sometimes vice versa.
• Simply pushing your way through despite the warning signals increases the possibility of backsliding.
• Develop a support system.
• You can do it alone, but it helps a great deal to have other people with whom you can share the joys and perils of the change you’re making.
• Follow a regular practice.
• People embarking on any type of change can gain stability and comfort through practicing some worthwhile activity on a more or less regular basis, not so much for the sake of achieving an external goal as simply for its own sake.
• Practice is a habit.
• Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning.
• To learn is to change.
• Education, whether it involves books, body, or behavior, is a process that changes the learner.
• A human being is the kind of machine that wears out from lack of use.
• If we could tap as little as an added 10 percent of this vast resource [passion], our lives would be significantly altered.
• Maintain physical fitness.
• All things being equal, physical fitness contributes enormously to energy in every aspect of our lives.
• Acknowledge the negative and accentuate the positive.
• The most successful managers are those who are unwilling to tolerate the negative stuff.
• Generally, denial inhibits energy, while realistic acknowledgement of the truth releases it.
• Whenever possible, avoid teachers and supervisors who are highly critical in a negative sense. Telling people what they’re doing wrong while ignoring what they’re doing right reduces their energy.
• Try telling the truth.
• When people start telling the truth, you see almost immediate reductions in mistakes and increases in productivity.
• Truth-telling works best when it involves revealing your own feelings, not when used to insult other and to get your own way.
• Honor but don’t indulge your own dark side.
• If we’ve repressed that emotion so effectively that we can’t even feel it, we obviously can’t use the energy that goes along with it in any conscious, constructive way.
• Set your priorities.
• Before you can use your potential energy, you have to decide what you’re going to do with it.
• To choose one goal is to forsake a very large number of other possible goals.
• Indecision leads to inaction, which leads to low energy, depression, despair.
• Ultimately, liberation comes through the acceptance of limits. You can’t do everything, but you can do one thing, and then another and another. In terms of energy, it’s better to make a wrong choice than none at all.
• Priorities do shift, and you can change them at any time, but simply getting them down in black and white adds clarity to your life, and clarity creates energy.
• Make commitments. Take action.
• The journey of mastery is ultimately goalless; you take the journey for the sake of the journey itself.
• Take time for wise planning, but don’t take forever.
• Get on the path of mastery and stay on it.
• It’s easy to get on the path of mastery. The real challenge lies in staying on it.
• Pitfall: Conflicting way of life.
• When things aren’t going well on your path of mastery, don’t forget to check out the rest of your life.
• Pitfall: Obsessive goal orientation.
• The desire of most people today for quick, sure, and highly visible results is perhaps the deadliest enemy of mastery. It’s fine to have ambitious goals, but the best way of reaching them is to cultivate modest expectations at every step along the way.
• Pitfall: Poor instruction.
• Surrender to your teacher, but only as a teacher, not as a guru.
• Remember: the ultimate responsibility for your getting good instruction lies not with your teacher but with you.
• Pitfall: Lack of competitiveness.
• Winning graciously and losing with equal grace are the marks of a master.
• Pitfall: Over competitiveness.
• It’s said that winning is a habit -- but so is losing.
• Pitfall: Laziness.
• The bad news is that laziness will knock you off the path. The good news is that the path is the best possible cure for laziness.
• Pitfall: Injuries.
• The best way of achieving a goal is to be fully present.
• Pitfall: Drugs.
• Pitfall: Prizes and Medals.
• Excessive use of external motivation can slow and even stop your journey to mastery.
• Pitfall: Vanity.
• It’s possible that one of the reasons you got on the path of mastery was to look good. But to learn something new of any significance, you have to be willing to look foolish.
• If you’re always thinking about appearances, you can never attain the state of concentration that’s necessary for effective learning and top performance.
• Pitfall: Dead seriousness.
• Without laughter, the rough and rocky places on the path might be too painful to bear.
• To be deadly serious is to suffer tunnel vision. To be able to laugh at yourself clears the vision.
• Pitfall: Inconsistency.
• Consistency of practice is the mark of the master.
• Pitfall: Perfectionism.
• We set such high standards for ourselves that neither we nor anyone else could ever meet them -- and nothing is more destructive to creativity than this.
• We fail to realize that mastery is not about perfection. It’s about a process, a journey. The master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after year. The master is the one who is willing to try, and fail, and try again, for as long as he or she lives.
• When goal orientation comes to dominate our thoughts, little that seems to really count is left.
• Maintain full awareness of each of your movements.
• Imagine that all of your movements are emanating from your physical center of mass, a point about an inch below your navel. Go for efficiency, elegance, and grace in your motions; avoid hasty shortcuts.
• Rather than thinking about getting the job finished and going on to something else, stay wholly focused on the moment, on the task at hand. Above all, don’t hurry.
• Life is filled with opportunities for practicing the inexorable, unhurried rhythm of mastery, which focuses on process rather than product, yet which, paradoxically, often ends up creating more and better products in a shorter time than does the hurried, excessively goal-oriented rhythm that has become standard in our society.
• On the level of personal experience, all of life is seamless, despite society’s untiring efforts to break it up into compartments.
• The ability to surrender to your art is a mark of the master, whether the art is martial or marital.
• The tricky part is learning to lose your ego without losing your balance.
• The stronger you are the more you can give of yourself. The more you give of yourself, the stronger you can be.
• The path of mastery is built on unrelenting practice, but it’s also a place of adventure.
• The Five Master Keys
• Instruction
• Practice
• Surrender
• Intentionality
• The Edge
• Dealing with Change and Homeostasis
• Be aware of the way homeostasis works.
• Be willing to negotiate with your resistance to change.
• Develop a support system.
• Follow a regular practice.
• Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning.
• Getting Energy for Mastery
• Maintain physical fitness.
• Acknowledge the negative and accentuate the positive.
• Try telling the truth.
• Honor but don’t indulge your own dark side.
• Set your priorities.
• Make commitments. Take action.
• Get on the path of mastery and stay on it.
• Pitfalls Along the Path
• Conflicting way of life
• Obsessive goal orientation
• Poor instruction
• Lack of competitiveness
• Over Competitiveness
• Laziness
• Injuries
• Drugs
• Prizes and medals
• Vanity
• Dead seriousness
• Inconsistency
• Perfectionism
• Sometimes we waste our time by doing nothing but bemoaning our ill fortune.
• Consider the possibility that any sudden misfortune that befalls you during your journey can be converted to positive energy,
• To be a learner, you’ve got to be willing to be a fool.
• The freedom to be foolish might well be one of the keys to the genius’s success.
• Are you willing to wear your white belt?