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Mastery
How
many times have you caught yourself saying “Nah, it’s not for me” or “I can’t do this” or “crap, this sport is not my
cup of tea” or “How the hell am I supposed to quit smoking?”? Well, probably a number of
times through your entire life. Giving up is so common nowadays that it became
easily accepted and people do it on an everyday basis. So when you ask your
friend if he or she will go out for a pint, or go with you to see a gig in a
downtown, suddenly they have a handful of explanations out of the blue.
- “You know
bro, I got this bloody important exam tomorrow”,
- “Sorry
mate, my sister is having birthday I really can’t, you know?”
-
“I’m buying this super-duper ultra hd turbo time machine
dude”
We
often fall into a trap of making excuses for ourselves, to explain our
laziness, lack of energy, or… an ambition to be perfect. The 21st century is
the era of quick fixation. What does it mean? It means that your toothpaste
whitens your teeth in 7 days; after 2 weeks of using our cream your skin will
be as soft as infant’s, after 3 years of studying English philology at
university you will become a master of English with a diploma, rings a bell? :)
Well, the truth behind the curtains is that we unconsciously assimilate this
perfectionist’s mindset which tells us to do everything. Human psyche is highly
sensitive to social conditioning. Such a stance drives us to a rat race “who has a better X Y Z”
rule that keeps us blind and makes us materialists that drift from one momentary
excitement to another one.
There
are 4 types of people:
1. The dabbler - tries many things and
gets bored then tries something new
2. Obsessive - is purely result
oriented. They are inconsistent and when they hit a plateau they quit because
their results aren’t increasing linearly.
3. Hacker - is content when he’s working
on sth
4. Master…
If you
think of a sportsman or a sportswoman what is the most significant for them?
Winning and standing on a podium of course, that’s what we see on television, a
competition lasting for a relatively short time and then somebody gets a golden
trophy and there we are, fireworks in a background and pink unicorns flying
beyond, sprinkling sugar powder and magic stars all over that. What we don’t
see is a tough time a person that wins spends exercising, training his/her body
and initializing a master mindset. What I mean by that is accepting that
nothing is for free in this world and in order to get a result we need to put a
lot of effort into it.
Let’s
take as an example an ultimate Frisbee player. He performs a backhand throw and
it’s quite good. Excitement comes and he throws it another time and another
time that keeps his high level of excitement from decreasing. Then he does a
forehand throw and it’s crap. After 2 hours of throwing and picking up a Frisbee
he becomes exhausted and there is a little whisper in his ear “give it up, it’s not for
you”. Sounds familiar? If a Frisbee player is determined enough to give it another
take, he will achieve it.
Accepting
the fact that hard work and some kind of repetitiveness are main points of
mastering anything in your life is a halfway to success. It’s comparable to a
blacksmith that is crafting a sword. Such a person needs to hit a sword many,
many times with a hammer to make it a perfect weapon. Here comes meditation
which helps you develop a habit of focusing your energy on one thing at a time.
That might come in handy during your warrior’s journey to success.
Sources:
1. George Leonard’s book
“Mastery”
2. My personal knowledge
Comments
Sounds reasonable but at the same time for impatient people may be demotivating. I believe that to do something well we need to like doing it. There's no way I could devote long hours on hobby that I'm not into, just to satisfy somebody or follow the trend.
Obviously job is an exception, lots of people suffer each day in their offices..
Link to this article: http://www.wysokieobcasy.pl/wysokie-obcasy/1,115167,19430282,czego-chcesz-od-zycia-to-niewlasciwe-pytanie-o-wiele-wazniejsze.html
The author tells us that all of us want to win and experience pleasure, but he also asks us how much pain we can bear to achieve our dreams. If we aren't able to decide on the suffering associated with something, it means that we really don't want this. Often we are afraid of change and that is why we are still in the same place. The gray everyday life is frustrating so we need new experiences and changes.
So I'm definitely one of these 'looser' types, but I'm not really sure which one. There is no permanently-exhausted lazy-bum category.
There is one winner of this generic competition on TV, and there is 7 billion people on earth. And what are the statistical chances of you being this winner? Absolutely negligible.
In my humble opinion giving up is part of life. Sometimes to do something, you need to give up something another.
And if you wont give up, you may waste your whole life on thing you'll never be good at. This, and sometimes you'll be passing by people who are way better than you in this thing with no effort.
And this happens because people have limitations. You have limitations. And despite your ability to adapt, there may be not enough time or resources to accomplish your goal. Or it may be just impossible for you, cause biological limitations.
And If you're an ultimate Frisbee player, contain your training in some sane time frames. Otherwise the only thing you'll accomplish will be hurting your own hand.
Hard work, determination and perseverance always give satisfactory results. It is more important than party, film etc.
I think that sometimes it's ok to just try something for a short while. We don't need to stick to it if it doesn't suit us - I tried, I didn't like it, I gave up. And it's alright, we don't need to master every thing we do.
Also according to those people types I'm definitely an Obsessive - no immediate results!? Screw it... And I'm not proud about it :)
Of course, sometimes I make myself do something repetitevely even though I don't see the results right away (like going to gym, for example), but I'm really not happy about it. It's one thing to accept the repetiveness, but another to enjoy it! :)