Mastery (Part 1: Discover Your Calling)

Robert Greene has done it again with Mastery.

All of us are born with an essentially similar brain, with more or less the same configuration and potential for mastery. Why is it then that in history only a limited number of people seem to truly excel and realise this potential power?

We are a one time phenomenon in the universe – our exact genetic makeup has never occurred before nor will it ever be repeated. At your birth a seed is planted, that is your uniqueness.

This is Part 1 of our 3-part series, in this episode you’ll learn about how to develop your uniqueness and find Your Life’s Task.

Mastery (Part 2: The Ideal Apprenticeship)

In this episode we cover part 2 of our 3-part series, The Apprenticeship phase. We will learn about the 3 Modes of the Apprenticeship Phase, strategies for completing the ideal apprenticeship, and the Mentor dynamic.

Mastery (Part 3: Unleashing Creativity)

Now that we’ve discovered our calling in part 1, then went through an apprenticeship in part 2, it’s time to bring in creativity to make something new and original and masterful. Using historical examples, Greene gives us some strategies for developing something unique.

Grab a copy of the book here: https://www.bookdepository.com/Mastery-Robert-Greene/9781781250914/?a_aid=adamsbooks

Mastery – by Robert Greene

All of us are born with an essentially similar brain, with more or less the same configuration and potential for mastery. Why is it then that in history only a limited number of people seem to truly excel and realize this potential power?

The common explanations for Mozart or a Leonardo da Vinci revolve around natural talent and brilliance. How else to account for their uncanny achievements except in terms of something they were born with? But thousands upon thousands of children display exceptional skill and talent in some field, yet relatively few of them ever amount to anything and achieve Mastery. Whereas those who are less brilliant in their youth can often attain much more, natural talent or high IQ cannot explain future achievement.

‘Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it’s the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others. We are merely born with the capability to do it. The skill to mould the material not what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated’ – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

THE SAME BASIC ELEMENTS APPEAR IN MASTERS LIVES

The basic elements are repeated in the lives of all great masters in history. A youthful passion or predilection, a chance encounter that allows them to discover how to apply it, an apprenticeship in which they come alive with energy and focus. They excel by their ability to practice harder and move faster through the process. All of this stemming from the intensity of their desire to learn and form the deep connection they feel to their feel of study

They excel their ability to practice harder and move faster through the process, all of this stemming of their desire to learn and from the deep connection they feel to their field of study. At the core of this intensity is a  quality that is genetic or inborn – not talent or brilliance, which is something that must be developed and a deep and powerful inclination toward a particular subject. This inclination is a reflection of a person’s uniqueness. It is not merely poetic or philosophical, it is a scientific fact that genetically every one of us is unique

With those who stand out by their later mastery, they experience this inclination more deeply and clearly than others. They experience it as an inner calling. It tends to dominate their thoughts and dreams. They find their way, by accident or sheer effort, to a career path in which their inclination can flourish. This intense connection and desire allows them to withstand the pain of the process . The self doubts, the tedious hours of practice and study, the inevitable setbacks, the endless barbs from the envious. They develop a resiliency and confidence which others lack

Evolution of Mastery

Animals are locked into a perpetual present. They can learn from recent events, but are easily distracted by what is in front of their eyes. Slowly over a great period of time, our ancestors overcame this basic animal weakness

Humans evolved the ability to detach and think as their primary advantage in the struggle to avoid predators and find food. It connected them to a reality other animals couldn’t access. Thinking on this level was the single greatest turning point in all of evolution – the emergence of the conscious, reasoning mind

The second biological advantage is subtler, but equally powerful in its implications. All primates are essentially social creatures, but because their intense vulnerability in open areas, our earliest ancestors had a much greater need for group cohesion. Through the elaboration of visual and social traits, primitive ancestors were able to invent and develop the complex skill of hunting some 2-3 million years ago. Slowly they became more creative, refining this skill into an art.

Understand: This long stretch of time played critical elemental role in our mental development. It fundamentally altered our relationship to time. For animals, time is their great enemy. If they are potential prey, wandering too long in a space can spell instant death. If they are predators, waiting too long will mean the escape of their prey. Time also means physical decay.

To a remarkable extent, our hunting ancestors reversed this process. The longer they spent observing something, the deeper their understanding and connection to reality. With experience their hunting skills would progress and with continued practice, their ability to make effective tools would improve. The body would decay, but the mind would continue to learn and adapt. Using time for such effect is the essential ingredient for mastery.

Part 1 – Discover Your Calling: The life’s Task

Many of the greatest masters in history have confessed to experiencing some kind of force or voice or sense of destiny that has guided them forward. For Napoleon it was his “star”. For Socrates and Einstein it was a voice

Such feelings can be seen as purely mystical, beyond explanation, or as hallucinations and delusions. But there is another way to see them – as eminent, real, practical and explicable explained this way.

All of us are born unique. This uniqueness is marked genetically in our DNA. We are a one time phenomenon in the universe – our exact genetic makeup has never occurred before nor will it ever be repeated.

For some the inclination might be an attraction to a particular physical movement, spatial arrangement or visual patterns. How can we explain such inclinations?

They are forces within us that come from a deeper place than conscious words can express. They draw us to certain experiences and away from others. As these forces move us here or there, they influence the development of our minds in very particular ways

This primal uniqueness naturally wants to assert and express itself, but some experience it more strongly than others. With masters, it is so strong that it feels like something that has its own external reality – a force, a voice, or destiny. In moments when we engage in an activity that corresponds to our deepest inclinations, we might experience a touch of this. We feel as if the words we write or the physical movements come so quickly that they are coming from outside us. We are literally “inspired” – which is hte Latin word meaning something from the outside breathing inside us.

At your birth a seed is planted – that is your uniqueness

It wants to grow, transform itself and flower to its full potential. It has a natural assertive energy to it. Your life’s task is to bring that seed to flower, to express your uniqueness through your work. You have a destiny to fulfil – the stronger you feel and maintain it – as a force, a voice, or in whatever form – the greater your chance for fulfilling this Life’s task and achieving Mastery.

What weakens this force, what makes you not feel it or even doubt its existence, is the degree to which you have succumbed to another force in life-social pressures to conform. This counter-force can be very powerful and destroy your dreams of attaining Mastery.

You want to fit into the group – unconsciously, you might feel that what makes you different is embarrassing or painful. Your parents often act as a counter-force as well. They may seek to direct you to a career path that is lucrative and comfortable. If these counter forces become strong enough, you can lose complete contact with your uniqueness, with who you really are. Your inclinations and desires become modelled on those of others.

This can set you off on a very dangerous path: you end up choosing a career that doesn’t really suit you, your desire and interest slowly wane and your work suffers for it and you come to see pleasure and fulfilment as something that comes from outside your work. As you’re increasingly less engaged in your career, you fail to pay attention to changes going on in the field.

At moments of important decisions, you flounder or follow what others are doing because you have no sense of inner direction or radar to guide you. You have broken contact with your destiny as formed at birth

At all costs you must avoid such a fate. The process of your Life’s Task all the way to mastery can begin at any point in life. The hidden force within you is always there and ready to be engaged.

The process of realising your Life’s Task comes in 3 stages.

First, you must connect or reconnect with your inclinations, your sense of uniqueness

The first step is always inward. You search the past for signs of that inner voice or force. You clear away other forces that might confused you – parents and peers.

Second, with the connection established, you must look at the career path you’re already on to begin with

The choice of this path or redirection of it is critical for Mastery. To help in this stage you need to enlarge your concept of work itself. Work is often seen as a means for making money so we can enjoy that second life that we lead. Even if we derive some satisfaction from our careers, we still tend to compartmentalize our lives in this way. This is a depressing attitude, because in the end we spend a substantial part of our waking life at work. If we experience this time as something to get through on the way to real pleasure, then our hours at work represent a tragic waste of the short time we have to live. Instead, you want to see work as something more inspiring, as part of your vocation

Third, you must see your career path more as a journey with twists and turns rather than a straight line

You begin by choosing a field or position that roughly corresponds to your inclinations. This initial position offers you room to manoeuvre and important skills to learn. On this path you discover certain side routes that attract you, while other aspects of this field leave you cold. You adjust and perhaps move to a related field, continuing to learn more about yourself, but always expanding your skill base. Eventually, you hit upon a particular field, niche, or opportunity that suits you perfectly. You will recognize it when you find it because it will spark that child like sense of wonder and excitement, it will feel right. Once found, everything will fall into place. You learn more quickly and more deeply.

5 Strategies for finding your life’s task on the journey to Mastery

It might seem that connecting to something as personal as your inclinations and Life’s Task would be something simple and natural, once you recognize their importance But in fact it is the opposite. It requires a good deal of planning and strategizing to do it properly, since so many obstacles will present themselves on the road to Mastery.

1. Return to your origins – the primal inclination strategy

When Einstein was 5, his father gave him a compass as a present. Instantly he was transfixed by the needle and how it changed direction. The idea that there was an invisible magnetic force touched him to the core. What if there was other invisible forces in the universe?

You must understand the following. In order to master a field, you must love the subject and feel a profound connection to it. Your interest must transcend the field itself and border on the religious

2. Occupy the perfect niche – the Darwinian strategy

The career world is like an ecological system. People occupy particular fields which they must compete for resources and survival. The more people there are in a crowded space, the harder it becomes to thrive there. Working in such a field will tend to wear you out as you struggle to get attention, to play the political games, to win scarce resources for yourself. You are seduced into such fields because you see others there making a living

The game you want to play is different: instead, find a niche in the ecology which you can dominate. It is never a simple process to find such a niche, it requires patience and a particular strategy. In the beginning you choose a field that roughly corresponds to your interests. Then you have two options

Look for side paths that particularly attract you, where possible move to a narrower field. You continue this process until you end up in an unoccupied niche, OR

Once you have mastered your first field, you look for other subjects or skills that you can conquer on your own time if necessary. You can combine this added field of knowledge to the original one, perhaps creating a new field. You continue this process as long as you wish. Ultimately you create a field that is uniquely your own

3. Avoid the false path – the rebellion strategy

A false path in life is generally something we are attracted to for the wrong reasons such as money, fame, attention and so on. If it is attention we need, we often experience a kind of emptiness inside that we are hoping to fill with the false love of public approval. As the field we choose does not correspond to our deepest inclinations, we rarely find the fulfilment that we crave.

If it is money and comfort that dominate our decision, we are most often acting out of anxiety and the need to please our parents. They may steer us towards something lucrative out of care and concern. You must realize as early as possible that you have chosen your career for the wrong reasons. Secondly you must actively rebel against these forces that push you away from your true path.

4. Let go of the past – the adaption strategy

In dealing with your career and its inevitable changes, you must think in the following way. You are not tied to a particular position, your loyalty is not to a career or a company and are committed to your own life’s Task, to give it full expression. You don’t want to abandon your skills and experience you have gained, but find a new way to apply them. Your eye is on the future, not of the past.Often such creative readjustments lead to a superior path for us and improves the odds of attaining Mastery.

5. Find your way back – the life or death strategy

No good can ever come from deviating from the path you were destined to follow. Most often you deviate because of the lure of money or more immediate prospects of prosperity. Because this does not comply with something deep within you, your interest will eventually lag and the money will not come so easily. You will search for other easy sources of money, moving you further and further away from your path

The way back requires sacrifice. You cannot have everything in the present. The road to mastery requires patience.

You will have to keep your focus on 5 – 10 years down the road, when you will reap the rewards of your efforts.