The Art of Living in Mastery: What is Mastery and the Mastery Curve

Mastery is a ‘BIG’ word. When someone is called a master there is a lot of prestige that comes along with it, so much so that some of us get intimidated by the word. So why am I writing about mastering life when so many people may scroll past this blog saying to themselves, “eh, too much work…”? Because what most people do is they clump everything they would have to do to master ‘fill in the blank’ together and believe they must do it all at once and right now becoming overwhelmed. This mentality is common throughout our society scaring many could be masters away.

I am writing about mastery to expose the myth that mastery is too much work. Over the next few blogs, I will show you mastery is attainable and enjoyable.

Let’s start from the beginning.

What is Mastery?

Mastery is the process of learning something difficult and making it easy and pleasurable through instruction and practice.  This does not happen overnight.  Mastery is a lifelong journey with a handful of ups, a lot of downs, and long periods plateaued.  Anyone can join the mastery journey; it is those who are willing to stay on the path that become masters.

The journey becomes difficult when we allow ourselves to be distracted by promises of instant success.

·        ‘Take this pill and loose 10 pounds in 1 week!’

·        ‘Drink this and build muscle fast!’

·        ‘Wear this brand of clothes and you’ll be popular!’ 

The common mistake in all these statements is they make you believe you don’t have to do any of the work and the results will happen magically. Taking a pill doesn’t teach you how to maintain the weight loss, the drink alone will not build muscle, and wearing a certain style of clothes won’t give you a likeable personality.

So, what do you have to do to become a master? Have patience and be dedicated to effort without attachment to immediate results.  Learn to find the pleasure in the small victories, the day-to-day routines, enjoy the work and let go the outcomes. 

Why can’t you celebrate the big wins? You can! Definitely enjoy the moment, then get back on the path, get back the normal day to day routine.  Your ego will tell you you’re great, we made it, we don’t have to work hard anymore, but that’s not mastery.  Mastery is knowing improvement is never done. 

It is important to enjoy the small things because that is where the majority of life is spent.  On the path of mastery there will be spurts of progress followed by a slight decline and then a long time on a plateau.  This is the mastery curve:

It is easy to be on the mastery journey when you are seeing progress, but jumping ship becomes easy when you experience a few failures and even easier when you don’t feel you’re making any progress at all. 

Mastery is a steady, goalless practice.  If you only focus on the big wins or are afraid of failing you will quickly be looking for something new and better to try.  Accepting a life primarily on the plateau is how you become a master.

Enjoying the plateau is also how we slow our lives down.  When we are constantly striving for the next level, the next win, the next promotion we are always looking forward and not paying attention to the amazing things happening right now.  Living in the present moment is the art of living and how you slow life down.

I am sure you have some questions like, ‘how do I get better if I don’t try to get to the next level?’. Don’t worry, I will cover that in the upcoming newsletters.