A fairly short book, published in 1992, by George Leonard, an Aikido trainer that grew out an article he wrote for Esquire Magazine in 1987. I came across a recommendation for this book and thought I’d check it and am glad I did. It’s not a life-changing book but interesting and full of good advice.
Leonard defines mastery as “the mysterious process during which what is at first difficult becomes progressively easier and more pleasurable through practice”. There is a mastery curve which has relatively brief spurts of progress, each of which is followed by a slight decline to a plateau somewhat higher than that which preceded it. The mastery journey is one in which you must learn to love the plateau.
Model
The three character types:
- The Dabbler who loves the initial spurt of progress when attempting something new but cannot handle being on the plateau so instead quickly moves to something else.
- The Obsessive is a driven bottom-line type of person. He also cannot handle the plateau but instead of moving to something else like the Dabbler, he doubles-down - he doesn’t understand the necessity for periods of development on the plateau. He insists on continuous upward progress but instead crashes when ultimately he cant make it happen.
- The Hacker, after getting the hang of something, is happy to stay on the plateau and doesnt seek any further improvement.
Those on the path to mastery work hard while on the plateau but at the same time learn to love just being there and taking pleasure from working on the platau. Goals and contingencies are important but the exist in the future and the past. Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present.
The Five Master Keys:
- Instruction
- Practice
- Surrender: Surrendering to your teacher and to the demands of your discipline.
- Intentionality
- The Edge: Take risks for the sake of higher performance.
Quotes
“…the essence of boredom is to be found in the obsessive search for novelty. Satisfaction lies in mindful repetition, the discovery of endless richness in subtle variations on familiar themes.”
“In the woords of the ancient Eastern adage: ‘Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water’”
“To be a learner, you’ve got to be willing to be a fool”