How I Stumbled On The Road To Mastery (And What I Learned!)

This is my reflection paper for my Advanced Training for Coaching Mastery Course that I’m taking up.  Thought of sharing it to you.

Almost a year ago, I chanced upon a book that spoke to me at that time in my life.  I bought it immediately.

Imagine my surprise a year later, it would be one of the reading assignments I was given in a course I’m taking.

That moment onwards, changed my life.

How could this happen?

I was unsure of what I was doing, where I was going, and how I felt about it.  I was afraid to admit to myself that I was either getting nowhere, or building momentum in the wrong direction.

My fear lead me to doubt all that I did.  I kept beating myself up – “How could this happen, to me?!”

Then, I stumbled upon Robert Green’s book, Mastery.  From reading the book, several things became clearer for me.

 

Mastery is an adventurous journey, not a fixed path

I used to believe that it was more important to do all in your power to be perfect.  A perfect life, a perfect career, and a perfect you, was necessary.  I also believed that if all the conditions I needed were met, I can just coast through life, without a care in the world.

I learned that not only were those beliefs wrong, but believing in them limited me, my growth, and the opportunities and options that I took.

From reading the book, a truth that was budding inside of me was confirmed and strengthened – that life is not as clean as we want it to be.

Life will be messy, unplanned, disorganized, and surprising.  Life will not bend down and adapt to what you want.  It will not create the fixed path for you.  It is never as simple as a math equation, where if you put in the right inputs, you are assured of the same result, every single time.

Becoming a master is a journey.  There are so many experiences and skills that go into developing the second-nature intuition and practice that masters have.  Not everything will go right, not even my relationships with my mentors.

Most of the time, it is the failure that proves to be the greater teacher.  I stumble, often, on my journey of mastery, and that’s OK.

The journey of mastery requires charting your own course, and finding what works for you best.

Mastery isn’t simply connecting the dots. 

It’s learning how to draw.

 

Simply being self-aware, is not enough

Once I was aware of what I wanted, and needed to do, I needed to act on them.

I’ve known truths about my situation and my beliefs for quite some time.  It was only when I stopped complaining, blaming, and began accepting, trusting, and doing, did my life and journey change for the better.

Before, when I heard the word: Mastery, people most often believe it refers to a specific area of expertise, to a technique, or a set of skills.

I’ve learned that underneath all of that, The journey of mastery, the the journey of mastering one’s self.

Developing awareness alone is not enough.  Key to this self-mastery, is developing the control and power over one’s own thoughts, habits, passions, talents, and tendencies.

One point echoed several times not only in the book, but in the stories of my mentors is this:

Mastery if a journey, and a journey is not something you just think or dream about.  It is something you do, and keep on doing, along with the boredom and the challenge.

This is only possible, if my “why” is clear.

 

What you commit to, is paramount

Because it is what you commit to, and how clear and determined your commitment is, that will make all the difference in your journey.

I wandered in my career, haphazardly, chasing after what I was committed to at the time – money and comfort.

And in chasing money and comfort, in making a commitment to chasing those, I had inadvertently chased them away, and not developed the skills not only to achieve them, but to sustain myself.

I did not grow better physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, because I realized that the path I had been on was not making me happy.

I knew deep down inside that there was another path that called out to me – one that had my interest ever since I was a child. One that I had maintained a relationship with amidst all the different paths I tried and took.

All the different areas of my knowledge, skills, and life, fell into place when I finally committed to this path of being a coach

It is what you commit to, that determines the path you take, and your motivation and determination for doing so.

I found it so easy to commit to the wrong paths. That only served to lead me further away from my own path to mastery.

Above all, the commitment to mastery, is the commitment to one’s self.  To listen to one’s own inner voice, act on one’s passions and desires, and share one’s wanted contributions and dreams.

Mastery is a commitment.

 

The truth beckons

So does the path to mastery.

And call, beckon, and invite it will, until the day we have drowned them out with our ignorance, neglect, and distractions.

When that time comes, it is only in the silence, and in the listening to one’s self, can we begin to reconnect with our own path to mastery.

In hindsight, I didn’t stumble onto my path of mastery.

I answered its call.

Combining what I know and what I have experienced, with what the book has taught me, one thing is clear:

Our own paths to mastery, which are deeply intertwined with our uniqueness, talents, and dreams, will always call out to us, and invite us to follow them.