Robert Greene explained in his book, Mastery, how one can achieve mastery in any skill while clearly indicating that mastery is earned not granted.
In the past , there were no books , no internet , no documents that craftsman could learn from .
Apprentices had to learn by observing and listening to masters . That is the power of mirror neurons Today , However , we are very lucky since old teachers and masters have documented most of their knowledge . Although we still have to practice , it is much easier with the information at hand . While reading this, you may have asked yourself ” Why should I care about mastery anyway ? “
Well , do you remember Mozart , thomasedison , da vinci , einstain ?
All of them, if they didn’t reach mastery, they wouldn’t be able to devise their brilliant inventions . You still can be creative and do original successful work on your own without mastery but you should know that the best and most famous authors , artists , music composers , scientists , .. , are masters .
Mastery is the Highest level of intelligence one could acquire and here’s how to achieve it :
1- The first requirement is that you must have a passion for your craft or what you aim to excel at. Once you have found your passion , you are ready to enter the first phase.
2- The apprenticeship phase: This is when you must focus more on the basics, deep observation and developing a good memory. Focus on how the masters of your craft do things they way do it and dissect all of their moves into small patterns so you can finally practice them .
3- Skill acquisition: after a good amount of practice and hard work , you will enter ” the cycle of accelerated returns “, this can only be achieved when the basics are now part of the brain, for example : when a college student is writing a sentence , he won’t think about the grammar and check the dictionary to make sure that the sentence he wrote is correct and that is because he has already learned and practiced writing that he doesn’t need to focus on his grammar anymore, he thinks of anything and the words pop into the student’s mind .
- This is where mentorship can be very useful, if you can’t afford to have a mentor then it is no big deal because it’s 2017 and thousands of masters have made their wisdom easily accessible on the web. As an apprentice you should absorb all courses, books , styles & secrets related to your field .
4- Embrace Failure: The ones who make amazing progress are also the ones who are always looking for their flaws & work to fill in between the gaps every day. Eliminate the ego inside you, accept that you are an actual beginner and revert back to an attitude of humble inferiority where learning more is your goal, not other people’s approval.
5- Trust in the process : in other words , don’t give up once you face lots of problems and doubts. The only way you can come out of all this is to remain confident and to have faith in yourself.
6- The creative active phase : this is when the apprentice has become a master after at least 10,000 hours of practice and pure hard work, this is when the master has all the information about his craft and he is willing to add something of his own on top of all of it.
Hatem Ben Gamra
Robert Greene (born May 14, 1959) is an American author and speaker known for his books on strategy, power and seduction. He has written five international bestsellers: The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, The 50th Law (with rapper 50 Cent) and Mastery.
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