A Journey Worth Taking

Mastery can be a difficult concept to wrap a mind around. It is easy to confuse intent with action, action with progress, and excuses for reasons.

Making your intentions public adds accountability that goes a long way in keeping motivation strong and in focus, but that is only the first step. This is where most people lose sight of the issues. Intention is only the motivation not the action. It is the action you take that brings you closer to mastery.

Effort does not always bring results. Mastery is result dependant so it is imperative that the master continually evaluates where he is at and knows where he is going. This is part of the eye for detail that eludes so many people. We do not equate engine speed (rpm) with road speed and so we should not equate effort with results. As the cliche goes — work smarter, not harder.

When a student lists off excuses as to why their attendance or efforts have been lacking, I remind them that those excuses are the same reasons I will give them when they ask me why they did not earn a black belt from me. We all care about the turmoil and carnage a personal and professional life can bring to the best of plans and intention, however mastery does not. Mastery is either a yes or no proposition. Mastery does not recognize effort, only results.

All these points are common sense. Everybody knows them to be fundamentally sound yet it is those very points where most people fail on their journey to mastery. It is very easy to spend more time selling yourself through your words of intent to get the recognition that comes from earning a black belt than to consistently complete the most basic of tasks that define what it means to BE a black belt. Once you understand that mastery is about the quality of the journey, the way is clear.

“The journey is the reward.” - Chinese Proverb