Subject: Lifescope TIPs & QUIPs [25] "Mastery"

I've wanted to share some thoughts on this issue's topic for some time --
the idea that perhaps everything in our world can't be quick-fixed like
advertisers like to suggest. This week I'd like to draw your attention to
the concept of MASTERY. It's the idea that to really learn something well
-- to the point of becoming a master of it -- involves finding a
knowledgeable guide, steadily practicing, tolerating plateaus and
back-sliding, and staying motivated. Traits which often make people of 
the instant-gratification generations (that's us) recoil with horror.

George Leonard has written a succinct and easily-read book on the master's
journey, outlining the tools you need and the five master keys which
accompany success in any pursuit of mastery. He also paints profiles of
the three personalities which abandon the master's journey in their own
style: the Dabbler, the Hacker, and the Obsessive. We can have a different
style for each of our paths: You might be a Dabbler in relationships; a 
Hacker at painting; an Obsessive at tennis. But regardless of your stalling
style, the keys to mastery remain the same. I'm pleased to be able to share
some of this knowledge, here.     -- Lee Lukehart

TIPs & QUIPs, the free occasional email of helpful hints and quotes (and
sometimes challenging suggestions) for getting the most from life.

In this issue:
     *** WiseWords
     *** This Issue's Theme
     *** Suggested Resources
     *** Thrive On! Recommended Site


*** WiseWords ***                                     [TOP]
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"Few things are impossible to diligence and skill...
 Great works are performed, not by strength, but perseverance."
  --Samuel Johnson
  
"Every noble work is at first impossible."
  --Thomas Carlyle
  
"Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time."
  --Voltaire

(For a collection of some of our favorite WiseWords, see our web page at
<http://www.lifescope.com/pages/WiseWords.html>.)


*** This issue's theme: MASTERY                                  [TOP]
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WHAT IS MASTERY?
It resists definition yet can be instantly recognized. It comes in many
varieties, yet follows certain unchanging laws. It brings rich rewards, yet
is not really a goal or a destination but rather a process, a journey. We
call this journey mastery, and tend to assume that it requires a special
ticket available only to those born with exceptional abilities. But mastery
isn't reserved for the supertalented 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 and stay on it--regardless of age, sex, or
previous experience.

THE MASTERY CURVE
There's really no way around it. 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.

THE FIVE MASTER KEYS

    Key 1: INSTRUCTION
    Instruction comes in many forms. 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. But there are also books, films, tapes,
    computer learning programs, computerized simulators, group instruction,
    the classroom, knowledgeable friends, counselors, business associates,
    even "the street." Still, the individual teacher or coach can serve as a
    standard for all forms of instruction, the first and brightest beacon.
    
    Key 2: PRACTICE
    Here's an old joke that appears in many versions but always sends the
    same message. A couple on their way to a concert are lost in New York's
    Lower East Side. They stop to question a bearded elder.
    
       "Excuse us, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?" they ask.
       "Practice!" he tells them.
    
    For one who is on the master's journey, however, the word is best
    conceived of as a noun, not as something you do, but as something you
    have, something you are. In this sense, the word is akin to the Chinese
    word tao and the Japanese word do, both of which mean, literally, road
    or path. Practice is the path upon which you travel, just that. A
    practice (as a noun) can be anything you practice on a regular basis as
    an integral part of your life--not in order to gain something else, but
    for its own sake. It might be a sport or a martial art. It might be
    gardening or bridge or yoga or meditation or community service.
    
    Key 3: SURRENDER
    The early stages of any significant new learning invoke the spirit of
    the fool. It's almost inevitable that you'll feel clumsy, that you'll
    take literal or figurative pratfalls. There's no way around it. The
    beginner who stands on his or her dignity becomes rigid, armored; the
    learning can't get through. This doesn't mean that you should surrender
    your own physical and moral center or passively accept teachings that
    would be bad for you. But you must trust your instructor to some degree,
    and now's the time for a certain suspension of disbelief. So your
    teacher asks you to begin by putting your finger on your nose and
    standing on one foot. Unless there's some compelling reason to contrary,
    just give it a try. Don't fight the process; surrender.

    Key 4: INTENTIONALITY
    It joins old words with new -- character, willpower, attitude, imaging,
    the mental game -- but what I'm calling intentionality, however you look
    at it, is an essential to take along on the master's journey. The power
    of the mental game came to public awareness in the 1970s through the
    revelations of some of the nation's most notable sports figures. Golfer
    Jack Nicklaus, for example, let it be known that he never hit a shot
    without first clearly visualizing the ball's perfect flight and its
    triumphant destination, "sitting up there high and white and pretty on
    the green." A successful shot, Nicklaus told us, was 50 percent
    visualization, 40 percent setup, and only 10 percent swing.
    
    Key 5: THE EDGE
    Now we come, as come we must in anything of real consequence, to a
    seeming contradiction, a paradox. Almost without exception, those we
    know as masters are dedicated to the fundamentals of their calling. They
    are zealots of practice, connoisseurs of the small, incremental step. At
    the same time--and here's the paradox--these people, these masters, are
    precisely the ones who are likely to challenge previous limits, to take
    risks for the sake of higher performance, and even to become obsessive
    at times in that pursuit. Clearly, for them the key is not either/or,
    it's both/and.
    
    Playing the edge is a balancing act. it demands the awareness to know
    when you're pushing yourself beyond safe limits. In this awareness, the
    man or woman on the path of mastery sometimes makes a conscious decision
    to do just that. We see this clearly in running, a sport so pure, so
    explicit that everything is likely to come quickly into full view.
    Running fast and hard almost always demands playing the edge, and it
    can't be denied that runners and would-be runners should be offered safe
    and sensible programs and warned against the dangers and pitfalls of
    their practice.
    
    But before you can even consider playing this edge, there must be much
    instruction, practice, surrender, and intentionality.
    
MASTERING THE COMMONPLACE
Our preoccupation with goals, results, and the quick fix has separated us
from our own experiences. To put it more starkly, it has robbed us of
countless hours of the time of our lives. We awaken in the morning and hurry
to get dressed. (Getting dressed doesn't count.) We hurry to eat breakfast
so that we can leave for work. (Eating breakfast doesn't count.) We hurry to
get to work. (Getting to work doesn't count.) Maybe work will be interesting
and satisfying and we won't have to simply endure it while waiting for
lunchtime to come. And maybe lunch will bring a warm, intimate meeting, with
fascinating conversation. But maybe not.

There's another way of thinking about it. Zen practice is ostensibly
organized around periods of sitting in meditation and chanting. Yet every
Zen master will tell you that building a stone wall or washing dishes is
essentially no different from formal meditation. The quality of a Zen
student's practice is defined just as much by how he or she sweeps the
courtyard as by how he or she sits in meditation.

Whatever your age, your upbringing, or your education, what you are made of
is mostly unused potential. It is your evolutionary destiny to use what is
unused, to learn and keep on learning for as long as you live. To choose
this destiny, to walk the path of mastery, isn't always easy, but it is the
ultimate human adventure. Destinations will appear, be achieved and left
behind, and still the path will continue. It will never end.

How to begin the master's journey? You need only to take the first step.
When? There's always now.
    
--from "Mastery" by George Leonard
[Excerpt authorized as Fair Use under Copyright Act of 1976, Section 107]



*** Suggested Resources ***                                       [TOP]
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MASTERY
Drawing on Zen philosophy and his expertise in the martial art of aikido,
bestselling author George Leonard explains how the process of mastery will
enable you to vault over the pitfalls of the quick fix to attain a higher
level of excellence and a deeper sense of satisfaction. 

(softcover book, 176pp) Item# D1253-BK
   SRP$11.95 -- (see links below for special prices)
   
Buy this item now from Lifescope's secure online store.
You can also buy this title directly from Amazon.com.


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*** Thrive On! Recommended Site ***                              [TOP]
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