Mastery— Not a Goal. Rather, a Process, or Journey.

There's a chart or graph in The Power To Transform that displays the Levels of Competence— a stair step progression that goes up from your Comfort Zone to Self-declared ignorance to Beginner, Novice, Competent, Proficient, Virtuoso and finally Master.

On our Mentor-Coaching Call last night Katyusha spoke about the goal of achieving Mastery of being Centered (and how she wanted to pass that along to her children). A worthy goal, both of them, but I was concerned it was not realistic and in fact, could be counter productive— leading to negative assessments of falling short and frustration.

That conversation brought to mind a favorite passage I read back in the late 80s in Esquire magazine from a ppiece penned by George Leonard. Here's that piece:

Mastery
It resists definition, yet can be instantly recognized. It comes in many variations, yet follows certain unchanging laws. It makes us, in the words of the Olympic motto, faster, higher, stronger,” yet is not really a goal or a destination, but rather a process, or journey.
 
We call this journey mastery and tend to assume that it requires a special ticket available only to those born with exceptional abilities. But mastery is not reserved for the super-talented, or even for those who are fortunate enough to have gotten an early start. It is available to anyone who is willing to get on the path and stay on it — regardless of age, sex, or experience.
 
The problem is that we have few, if any, maps to guide us on the journey or even to show us how to find the path. The modern world can be viewed as a prodigious conspiracy against mastery. We are bombarded with promises of fast, immediate gratification, and immediate, and instant success, all of which lead in exactly the wrong direction.…
 
The master’s journey can begin whenever you decide to learn any new skill —  how to touch-type, how to play the piano, how to fly a plane. But it achieves a special poignancy, a quality akin to poetry or drama, in the fields of sports, where muscles, mind and spirit come together in graceful and purposeful movements through space and time. In sports, especially competitive sports, there also exists the greatest temptation to take shortcuts towards quick results in performance and winning rather than staying on the path to mastery.
 
Playing For Keeps: The art of mastery in sport and life.
Edited by George Leonard, Esquire, May 1987

Let me know what you think of it.

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