As someone who has devoted the majority of his life to the pursuit of mastery, I have learned a thing or two on the subject. I could make an infinite list about the dos and don’ts of achieving mastery but the ultimate tool or barrier to mastery is not something we have any control of - our upbringing.
I was lucky. My parents offered me piano lessons when I was barely five years old. The only catch was that if I took them up on the offer, I had no option for quitting until I was at least sixteen years old. I took them up on their offer and regretted the decision forty minutes later. True to their threat, my parents did not allow me the option of quitting studying the piano for at least eleven years. I hated every moment playing that instrument for those eleven years. Yet this was the greatest gift they could have given me. The tools I developed and honed through my forced commitment proved invaluable and applicable to the rest of my life. Any success that I have achieved in my life can be traced back to the commitment I naively made, and my parents held me to, when I was five years old.
As an educator, I have seen many kids with huge mountains to climb on their way to mastery. Mountains created through countless bad decisions that reinforced neither accountability or discipline. Children learn through experience and if a five year old is able to dictate what they will or will not experience, they will always pick what is easy, not what is valuable.
Mastery is difficult enough for an adult but it is nearly impossible for a child if they do not have adults in their lives who are committed to teaching them the priceless value of discipline and accountability.
“We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.” - Jim Rohn (1930 - 2009)
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