Mastery — George Leonard
“Life is filled with opportunities for practicing the inexorable, unhurried rhythm of mastery, which focuses on process rather than product, yet which, paradoxically, often ends up creating more and better products in a shorter time than does the unhurried, excessively goal-oriented rhythm that has become standard in our society.”
Start — 2/20/17 Finish — 2/22/17
Thoughts:
Originally published back in 1992, Leonard’s Mastery definitely has an old-school vibe. The frequent references to society watching too much TV certainly feel outdated (although they could be easily replaced too much time spent on social media), the practical wisdom Leonard presents the reader is more timeless. It reminded me quite a bit of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in its tone and driving themes.
Leonard, a long-time practitioner of aikido, often uses martial arts to convey his points. He references trying to explain to someone why you would still go to aikido classes after you’ve attained your black belt, the point being that most people are so goal-oriented they lose sight of the value there is in practice and process. If there is one main idea that Leonard tries to emphasize, it is certainly process over outcomes. This concept is frequently referenced in books on investing, but I think it is widely applicable to any type of skill you are trying to master. While it is important to have ambition and goals on a general level, they shouldn’t be sought after just for their own sake. You should also feel somewhat comforted by the fact that you are doing everything in your power to improve, even if the outcome is not optimal. Moreover, there is real value in enjoying practice and discipline themselves, and it ends up that most of the masters we recognize today approach practice in such a way.
The book, which is a quick read that originated as an article, revolves around five “keys:” instruction, practice, surrender, intentionality, and edge. Anyone on the journey to mastery should have a solid teacher with good credentials. They should learn to love deep, repetitive practice for its own sake, regardless of whether we see immediate improvement or not. In fact, the journey towards mastery involves most of our time being spent on plateaus where there is no visible progress — that’s something we have to get used to. Surrender means we must allow ourselves to be foolish by making mistakes and admitting that our teacher know better. Intentionality involves having a clear vision of what achievement looks like, and being mindful during your daily practice. And lastly, we have to learn to strike a balance between pushing ourselves hard beyond our current capabilities and growing slightly complacent with where we are on the mastery curve.
Leonard goes on to provide some practical advice for your journey: how to counter backslides, how to maintain your energy, and common pitfalls along the way. I can’t say any of it is incredibly original (or perhaps it was at the time) or out of the ordinary, but there are certainly good reminders. I think someone interested in becoming really competitive at a new skill would be better off reading Peak by Anders Ericsson, and maybe using this as a more philosophical guide. Both books stress practice and mindfulness, but Peak seemed much more backed by data rather than just common sense wisdom. However, I will say Leonard’s idea of “loving the plateau,” that is, learning to enjoy process without rewards, was quite new to me. I’ll be mulling that one over whenever I feel impatient about getting what I deserve in the near future.
Score: 6/10
Directives:
· Get a good teacher and be willing to admit you know nothing. The willingness to look stupid, make mistakes, and have our egos bruised is part of the path to mastery.
· Progress is not a straight line. We will spend most of our long journeys of improvement on plateaus that are interjected by brief spurts of progress. We need to come to love the plateaus.
· Process over outcomes. Goals and ambitions can be useful, but ultimately, we will have to learn to keep practicing in spite of achieving neither at times.
· Be willing to negotiate with your own resistance to change. Sometimes we need to take a step back before we can push towards the next level of proficiency.
· Positivity, honesty, and consistency will go a long way in maintaining our energy on the paths we choose to take.
Notes:
· The journey
o No matter how gifted you are, you won’t achieve anything if you don’t choose the long-term journey that has no true final destination
o Learning any new skill involves relatively brief spurts of progress, each of which is followed by a slight decline to a plateau somewhat higher in most cases than that which preceded it
o You have to be willing to spend most of your time on a plateau — to keep practicing even when you seem to be getting nowhere
o Instead of being frustrated while on the plateau, you learn to appreciate and enjoy it just as much as you do the upwards surges; you learn to practice primarily for the sake of the practice itself
· Archetypes
o The Dabbler
§ Approaches each new skill with great enthusiasm
§ Overjoyed at first spurt of progress
§ The following plateau is incomprehensible and enthusiasm wanes; he begins to rationalize why the skill isn’t the right fit
§ Moves on to the next skill, career, or relationship
o The Obsessive
§ Results are all that matter, and they should be gotten quickly
§ Doubles down effort at first sign of slowing progress
§ Escalates efforts in an unsustainable fashion until inevitable downfall
o The Hacker
§ Willing to stay on plateau indefinitely at some sufficient level
§ Doesn’t mind skipping stages essential to mastery if he has an amateurish understanding
· Loving the Plateau
o We should learn to find joy without progress or the achievement of goals — practice for the sake of enjoying the process
o Ambition should be present, but should be tamed
o Goals and contingencies are important, but they exist in the future and the past; only practice and complete absorption exist in the present
· The Five Master Keys
o Instruction
§ One-on-one with a skilled teacher is probably the best option, although books, films, online resources, group instruction, or knowledgeable friends can help on the journey
§ Good teachers try to point out what the student is doing right about as frequently as what they are doing wrong
§ Remember that innate talent or quick learning can sometimes be a detriment; those who learn quickly may be quick to give up when progress stalls — get a teacher who knows how to nurture the slower ones as well as the fast ones
o Practice
§ The people we know as masters don’t devote themselves to their particular skill just to get better at it — they actually love to practice, and because of this they do get better
§ It’s only in deep, repetitive practice that we learn nuances and subtleties of our skill that could not have been revealed otherwise, and are necessary for progress
o Surrender
§ Surrendering to your teacher and to the demands of your discipline is always necessary
§ Remember the beginning of learning any significant skill comes with indignities — embarrassment, ego bruising, confusion — but these are necessary to move forward
§ You may have to temporarily give up your current level of competency to build yourself up back up to a new level of proficiency
o Intentionality
§ Vision and intention may be equally as important as practice itself — to clearly see yourself performing/achieving in your mind serves to make your practice more focused and aware
§ Visualizing your process and all of the sensory input that comes with it can be a great aid to progress
o The Edge
§ You must strike a balance between endless, goalless practice and the alluring goals that exist on the edge of your current capabilities
· Countering the inevitable backslides
o Be aware of the way homeostasis works — expect resistance and backlash to any attempts at mastery, so don’t give up at the first sign of trouble
o Be willing to negotiate with your resistance to change — don’t completely back off but also don’t bull your way through; you may have to take a step back at times when resistance is unreasonably high to make progress later
o Develop a support system — find like-minded people on similar paths that can help you along the way
o Follow a regular practice — this will provide a stable base during the instability of change
o Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning — education is an unending process
· Maintaining the energy for mastery
o Maintain physical fitness
o Acknowledge the negative and accentuate the positive
o Try telling the truth (being straight-forward with yourself and others)
o Honor but don’t indulge your dark side (use emotions like anger to your advantage)
o Set your priorities (setting out to accomplish one thing necessarily means setting aside something else)
o Make commitments and take action (externally imposed deadlines, public commitments)
o Get on the path of mastery and stay on it
· Pitfalls
o Conflicting way of life — need to find parts of your life that are easier to sacrifice for the sake of mastering a new skill
o Obsessive goal orientation — ambition is good, but you should have modest expectations each step of the way for the most part
o Poor instruction
o Lack of competitiveness
o Over-competitiveness — a narrow-minded focus on winning may lead you astray from more important things like practice and discipline
o Laziness
o Injuries
o Prizes and medals — excessive use of external motivation can slow your journey
o Vanity — must be willing to look foolish before you can look good
o Dead seriousness — without some humor, the rough patches on the journey may be too painful to bear
o Inconsistency — continuity of time and place can establish a rhythm that keeps you moving in the right direction
o Perfectionism — mastery isn’t about perfection, but the continual process of improving
Phrases/Quotes:
· America is still the most exciting of nations. Its freedom, its energy, its talent for innovation still inspire the world. But our time of grace might be running out. In the long run, the war against mastery, the path of patient, dedicated effort without attachment to immediate results, is a war that can’t be won.
· Again and again we are told to do one thing only so that we can get something else. We spend our lives stretched on an iron rack of contingencies.
· If you stay on the path long enough, you’ll find it to be a vivid place, with its ups and downs, its challenges and comforts, its surprises, disappointments, and unconditional joys. You’ll take your share of bumps and bruises while traveling — bruises of ego as well as of the body, mind, and spirit — but it might well turn out to be the most reliable thing in your life.
· Life is filled with opportunities for practicing the inexorable, unhurried rhythm of mastery, which focuses on process rather than product, yet which, paradoxically, often ends up creating more and better products in a shorter time than does the unhurried, excessively goal-oriented rhythm that has become standard in our society.
