First Steps In The Process of Mastery

When I think of mastery, I must by necessity consider it as a holistic term. It does not apply to any one thing, since there can be mastery within the realm of a truly diverse array of skill-sets humans are capable of.

Yet mastery goes beyond skills, practices, and disciplines. It extends into character too. The intangibles about a person. These elements are much harder to find, to actually work on. Even to understand, since they are more abstract by nature. Abstract aspects of character, minute habits of mindset and attitude.

Master also must apply to our environments. A clean, and organized space. An elegantly designed and balanced life (even if you choose to go to the extremes in work and endeavor, which itself, along with and deep focus and true passion, by nature imbalances a life. Yet ideally in a positive direction).

In addition, and of equal importance, the body must be trained and mastered too. Physical fitness, physical skills, sports – whatever appeals to you. Basic fitness. Clean diet of unprocessed foods, intentionally (thoughtfully, and as a result of trial and error), gravitated according to your body and lifestyle to somewhere on the spectrum of keto, carnivore, vegetarian, vegan, or balanced (the main extremes of macro-orientation).

Train The Mind

The most elemental step in everything that we do is to train our minds. How we think and our ability to orient our minds in a direction of our choosing is the greatest determining factor in anything that we do.

Taking the time to learn to Train the Mind has nothing to do with knowledge. Training the mind is concerned more with how we think, while cultivating knowledge changes what we think about, the levels, depth, and complexity of information that we can think about. We are not filling the mind with knowledge, or equipping it with skills. We are developing the mind itself.

This concept is at the heart of all mastery, personal development, and spiritual development (yoga).

Train Character

Training character is more difficult. Training character in many ways requires you to find situations where your character is tested.

In a way, it is like martial arts. You spend all these years learning martial arts, and yet never get a situation where you need them. Ironic. But life is like that. If you are always doing the same routine every day, you are not getting that much stimulus that forces you to grow in new ways.

Train The Body

To be thorough, we also need to ensure that we are training the body. Keeping our body in peak physical condition and health — or as best as we can achieve — ultimately to maintain peak performance in life for as long as possible.

You can also make the arguments of health, mitigating disease, lowering the rate of the breakdown of the body. These are important too. These are a part of the foundation of Personal Mastery. Nutrition, Fitness, Sleep.

However, physical pursuits are an excellent avenue to train the deeper elements of character within a person. If you desire a truly tough mindset and strong will, you need to actively find ways where you can achieve your limit in endurance, pain, effort — an intentional, (relatively) safe place where you can challenge your limits.

If you need to face your fears, then you need to be on your own. Carefully learning skills and practicing, towards a well-planned 3-day hiking trip into the wilderness for solitude can make you face your fears really quick. Leaving the protection of people in the cities, and the known behind, where you are a single human in a great vast wilderness can change a great deal about a person. About your perspective.

There are no substitutes for actual experience.

You can test your will by running distances (or cycling, swimming, hiking). There is a unique wall in endurance activities that bring you right to your limit. Running for 3 hours will do that to you. When you are faced with your whole body and mind telling you to quit.

These are excellent ways to challenge yourself. To put yourself in situations emotionally, mentally, and physically where you can grow. Where you can address those flaws, which don’t often reveal themselves in many other situations.