Micromastery and Drive

Stephen Walker
Jul 21, 2017 · 3 min read

How learning to do something small can help us understand our motivation when doing the bigger things in life, both at work and at home.

I saw Robert Twigger talk about Micromastery at the Off Grid conference last week. I also had the chance to meet Robert and chat with him which was really good fun. I felt like I got a good sense of what he’s about; an amplified version of his talk. Ace.

The idea of Micromastery is that you can learn to do something well in a short space of time. The clue is in the name.

The example which Robert gave was around cooking. Not wanting to be a great chef, but being able to cook one thing really well. Really really well. In his case, an omlette.

This got me thinking about two things:

  1. the many things which I’ve tried to master
  2. my drive to do those things (made up of Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose — If you’ve not read Dan Pink’s “Drive” book, get on it now!)

An example of something I’ve “micromastered” is bending and soldering copper pipe to make things like showers and towel rails. Let’s be clear; I’ve not nailed plumbing (although I’ll have a go at fixing anything), I’ve just got really good at two parts of a bigger process. Mastery; check.

Onwards to the rest of the drive trio! I’m fortunate to have some motor skills, a design background and the freedom to make things. This gives me a big tick in the autonomy box. Lastly, the purpose of my plumbing adventure was to make a shower that was both awesome and cheap for our home.

The shower. Behold my tight bends and neat joins.

Making the shower was enourmous amounts of fun. Once I’d finished, I was so buzzing with excitement with a new sense of achievement that I set up an Etsy shop with a view to living the designer-maker dream (complete with rainbows and unicorns). My drive had clearly been well balanced.

The shop is still there, so why am I not living this dream? Because I’ve lost the motivation to do it. Mostly due to a drop in one of the essential 3 ingredients; purpose. I no longer needed to change my world with a new shower, and I wasn’t trying to change the whole world with showers either (unlike showertothepeople.net).

That’s OK though, this is micromastery! I’m not supposed to take it on as a full-time thing, and it’s useful as one of many side-lines that help to keep my interests diverse and varied. Also, should I feel like revisiting the idea, I know that I just need to search for some new purpose. Magic.

What this really demonstrates is the value of keeping an eye on autonomy, mastery and especially purpose.

Losing interest (drive) is a behaviour that I’m sure we all encounter at some point. It’s not hard to imagine losing some of your freedom through external forces, or for your skills to become out of date or to lose sight of the reason you got started in the first place.

Taking on the challenge to master a new thing, on an achieveable micro scale is just the thing to keep you fresh and give you new perspectives on your self and the other things you do too. It’s also fun!

Added bonus; here’s a list of the things I’ve tried to master:

  1. Making a really good flat white coffee
  2. Making fresh pasta
  3. Growing potatoes
  4. Mig welding car body work
  5. Building an engine
  6. Making copper showers (and towel rails)
  7. Tying climbing knots

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Stephen Walker

Written by

Designer / Cyclist / Scooter Rider / Mini Driver / Systems Thinker — See Think Do http://seethinkdo.it/

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