Throughout history certain people have become Masters of their art.
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You know what they all had in common? They chose to dedicate their time to their art. They showed up when it was fun and easy….. and they showed up when the training was tedious, hard, frustrating and tough.
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You too can be a Master, if you’re willing to pay the price. Because believe this: There is a price. Mastery demands everything from a person.
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“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.” – Albert Einstein
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True mastery at something requires deep knowledge, immense experience, discipline to practice, be a life long learner and the ability to pass the knowledge to deserving fellow practitioners.
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Mastery needs relentless practice – Exceptional talent is so very often attributed to being a “gifted” person. However, it is evident that the “giftedness” is acquired by sheer dedication and by relentless practice.
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Mastery demands sacrifices, but for a true devotee, it does not feel like a sacrifice. Mastery demands and takes all you have, it is an endless pursuit, a journey which may never end.
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The best way to get better at something is through something known as “deliberate practice”, which basically means practicing in order to get better: doing activities recommended by experts to develop specific abilities, identifying weaknesses and working to correct them, and intentionally pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.
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This distinction between deliberate practice aimed at a particular goal and generic practice is crucial, because not every type of practice leads to improved ability. You don’t get benefits from mechanical repetition, but by adjusting your performance over and over to get closer to your goal.
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Deliberate practice is often guided by an expert, a skilled instructor, or mentor, someone with an expert eye. These instructors and mentors are offering feedback on specific ways to improve, and without such feedback, you don’t get to be the best you can be. The feedback matters and the concentration does too – not just the hours.
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Not everyone wants or is cut out to be a master. But maybe some people simply see mastery as being the best version of themselves in their lives. There’s a huge difference between practicing something over and over a few times a week and practicing it over and over a few times a day.
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An individual that is passionate about something will not resist learning the skill to mastery but embrace it. On the other hand, an individual that is not as passionate about something and resists the work that it takes to master a skill, will under most circumstances take longer to acquire the desired end result, perhaps never reaching that goal.
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When teaching I notice that levels of improvement are only partially related to how much the student practices. Their practicing mindset and how they practice, influence improvement as much as the quantity of practicing.
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But the point is, no one becomes the best they can be without practice….. Deliberate, passionate, devoted practice. There are a lot of people who are all talk, they say they want it, they are going to work harder and be the best….. but they never pay the price.
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