On Saturday, I carefully watched the weather report and planned to leave Pennsylvania where I was visiting my parents. Snow was in the forecast and I wanted to get home before the “big event.” The weather forecasters said snow would start in Maryland around 1pm and so I left PA at 11am. Well, the forecast was off. I got a call from my daughter and Mary Anne saying it was starting in Maryland just as I left my parents’ at 11am. By the time I got to the Maryland line, snow was coming down furiously and I was now engaged in an epic battle to get home. I-95 South was treacherous the entire drive with cars sprawled all over the road and limited visibility. I kept saying to myself, “just keep moving” and that’s what I did. My usual 2 hour trip had lasted 5 hours!
I felt inside this unyielding determination to make it home. It was unshakable and unwavering and nothing was going to stop me from doing just that. The quote above made me think that that’s what mastery is. It is an unshakable, unwavering, unyielding determination to be the very best you can be, not just at what you do, but at who you are as a human being.
There are three skills that I consider essential when thinking about mastery — focus, persistence and discipline. One needs to be focused on the “end result” when it comes to mastery. Questions like “what are you trying to master?”, “what will it look like when you get there?”, and “what’s in it for me to get there?” are key to answer. Focus requires a clear vision to sustain its attention. One might argue that there isn’t an end destination for mastery; it is a life-long journey. I would agree, yet, I believe we do have a picture of what mastery looks and feels like and that is what we need to focus our attention on. Our destination may change along the way, but we need to have one to sustain our focus and fuel the second skill, persistence. To me persistence doesn’t waver when what I am working towards is so compelling and desirable that nothing can get in the way of what I am moving towards. When you answer the question, “what’s in it for me to work toward mastery?,” you can discover your compelling reason(s), if you can get to the very core of why you want what you want.
Lastly, without discipline, mastery is not attainable. By discipline I mean a series of practices or actions that I engage in that I am convinced will achieve the level of mastery I desire. Whether that is a set of goals and action steps, a mindfulness practice, or an exercise regimen, or something else, identifying what you will “do” to achieve mastery is the key. Focus and persistence are fed by discipline and vice versa. Without focus and persistence, the motivation to “do” and follow through wanes. Without discipline (knowing the “right” actions or practices to engage in), it is difficult to sustain focus and persistence.
What are you trying to master these days? Do you have clear focus of what your mastery looks like? How would you rate your level of persistence? How compelling is your desire to work toward this mastery? Do you have one or several disciplines or practices that you are engaging in to work toward mastery? Take some time to answer these questions this week. If you aren’t where you want to be or you’ve had setbacks or failures that have caused you to lose your momentum, remember failure and setbacks aren’t an option along the way to mastery, they are a prerequisite!
