Mastery isn’t some big, grand, mystical mystery.
It’s a million small mysteries, acts, efforts, practices, learnings, and habits that add up over an extended period.
Any athlete must understand the path of mastery just as any creator, artist, founder, painter, sculptor, or leader will.
I like this definition of mastery: having a full command of a subject of study or possessing a consummate skill.
What command of subjects and consummate skills have you created for yourself?
Mastery starts with learning and finding ways to educate yourself in any subject, skill, field, or sport. As you realize this, you take accountability for your actions as you walk, run, lift, create, build, train, study, and practice what is actually interesting, meaningful, and important to you.
Following your authentic curiosity in this way takes awareness of your conditioned responses to what your society and world taught you to believe about what you should master.
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To master your peace of mind, master a daily meditation practice.
You could also go live with the monks in Tibet or start a yogi school. Another more modern version would be a daily yoga practice in which you learn to breathe and live in awareness of what is pulling you away from joy.
If you want to master writing, sign up for a writing course, begin writing daily, share your work with readers and editors, and continue mastering the subject of reading and journaling daily.
Do this daily, or in eternity (or just as long as you love doing it).
But like anything, your ego will want to run from the discomfort, pain, and suffering that a daily mastery practice presents to you.
Another way of thinking about mastery is that it should only be important path to begin walking if you find it interesting, meaningful, and valuable.
If mastery is living in San Francisco, and you live in Brooklyn, then you can’t only focus on wanting to already exist in San Fran. You must start walking, biking, or driving daily to get closer to San Fran. You will run out of gas. You will get a flat tire. You will see beautiful cities and natural wonders as you travel to San Fran — this is the part of mastery people forget to enjoy.
The journey is what makes the destination worth it.
In the same way, if you want to master playing or coaching a sport, learn the micro-skills and macro-concepts that help you and your team make the right plays to give yourself the best chance at winning.
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Mastery is deciding to walk forward day after day into your light.
Mastery is simple: Focus on doing what you seek and being what you seek to be. This requires action, constant learning, adaptation, curiosity, and overcoming struggles and setbacks.
This “wanting to master” and “doing of mastery” creates a paradox because the footnotes seem to say, “Oh, hey there, you mastered something because you didn’t give up even when you felt like giving up, and you stuck with it, despite the mental suffering you felt. Kudos, kid. But will you stop now that you’ve arrived in your success or newly found mastery?”
Arriving at mastery doesn’t make you special, elevate your status, or create everlasting happiness.
No, much like art or music, you don’t put your best effort into your work to make it commercial or make money—you do it because of how it makes you feel. You paint and draw because you love to paint and draw.
The money comes later — as a byproduct of mastery.
And mastery comes from reverse-engineering a full command of what you love to do. Your craft can’t be weighed down by thinking about what everyone else will need you to do.
Just do what you do. Just create what you want to create without limitations. Just be what you want to be without reservation. And day after day, your craft will blossom. Your destination will come in time, and you may not even notice it because you are so focused on expressing the craft you love to do.
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There is no rule, structure, or timeline to mastery.
Those are whispers from your enculturation. You can master figure skating at 68 if you want. You can join a bowling league and shoot for 300. You can draw and paint pictures of your pets all day. You can run a marathon or bike across the country, or start a company that brings your value to the world.
Do it if that blows your hair back.
And if you gave up on mastery for a while, then reset and realize how much better your life is when you do the things you miss. That’s fine, too. We must clear our minds, bodies, and souls before we can begin to do what we want to master.
Mastery is a simple choice, just like love is.
If you choose to love a person, a pet, a field of study, or a sport, you’ll begin to see imperfections and have uncomfortable moments. But you’ll learn to love and grow through these flaws and imperfections over time.
If you put thought and intention into your practice and habituate discipline around mastering a skill, a thing, a relationship, yourself, or a craft, the mastery of whatever that thing is suddenly becomes your reality.
You create your destiny through habitual practice. You build your reality by building the foundation of mastery. And you can master anything through constant effort, learning, and focus.
This is why the notion of mastery is amazingly liberating.
With this I-can-do-anything-mindset, you can do anything. You can build a rocket and fly it to Mars (start the astrophysics courses now my friends). You can save the planet. You can live free from anxiety. You can become a monk. You can figure out your strengths and build them into a valuable asset. You can watch your ego and choose a different reality for the good of humanity, or you can demonize your desires and crush your soul for the sake of your status, luxury, hierarchy, and survival.
As a former amateur athlete, I chose mastery because of how the game felt when I gave myself fully to it, regardless of winning or losing, success or failure, followers or fame.
The art and science of practicing your craft are always your safe place. It is here, in your safe place, that you find mastery. Your craft allows a sort of Zen therapy, a flow of eternal existence—a place born out of dreams, love, presence, infinity, and creation.
Before I went pro in basketball, as a teenager, I would play, dribble, and shoot under the stars at my local park for hours and hours, pretending to compete against NBA legends, pretending to beat my older brother in one-on-one, or pretending to play varsity as a freshman.
This was my practice (and therapy) that happened through the path of mastery.
As I entered high school, I wanted to increase my number of reps in mastery. I would wake up before school. Then, I would dribble my basketball at lunch. And then I’d shoot after school. As soon I got my license, I was driving all over Michigan, looking for other players who had mastered the game with whom to share, learn, and build new skills.
This was my path to athletic mastery.
And your path will look different than mine.
There are a million modalities, startups, sports, skills, passions, fields, and arts to master. Still, all masters are born out of their own cultivation. Out of this cultivation, a magical path of mentors, thought leaders, friends, artists, founders, and curiosity begins a wake of reality behind you.
Whether it’s putting a leather ball into a metal ring or building a non-profit to feed starving kids, it all begins on the path of mastery.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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From The Good Men Project on Medium
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Photo credit: Ginny Rose Stewart on Unsplash
