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Mastery Quotes

    “Mastery is the best goal because the rich can’t buy it, the impatient can’t rush it, the privileged can’t inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status.”

    Derek Sivers

      “When I’m asked how I define mastery or what phrase guides me in my own life or in writing a book, I say, ‘It’s getting to the inside.’ I’m always trying to move to the inside of things. On the outside, things look a certain way—kind of dead, because you’re just seeing the appearances. When you get to the inside, you see the heart beating, you understand it, you get the reality.”

      Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 86)

        “Over the centuries, people have placed a wall around mastery. They have called it genius and have thought of it as inaccessible. they have seen it as the product of privilege, inborn talent, or just the right alignment of the stars. They have made it seem as if it were as elusive as magic. But that wall is imaginary. This is the real secret: the brain that we possess is the work of six million years of development, and more than anything else, this evolution of the brain was designed to lead us to mastery, the latent power within us all.”

        Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 39)

          “In order to master a field, you must love the subject and feel a profound connection to it. Your interest must transcend the field and border on the religious.”

          Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 21)

            “People always wonder if they’re too old to do XYZ. It has been said that every 7 years, each cell in your body has been entirely replaced. Biology is my worst subject, so that could be wrong. But 7 is a magic number. It takes approximately 7 years to get 10,000 hours in to something. In any period of 7 years, I guarantee anyone you know will look back and say “Boy did I change.” It is never too late to 100% reinvent yourself. 21 to 28 still leaves most of your life. 42 to 49 still leaves nearly half of your life. Between 21 and 49 you will have lived 4 lives. That’s mastery in 4 different fields in the prime of your life. That’s important.”

            Jordan Allen, Quora

              “I read an article a few years ago that said when you practice a sport a lot, you literally become a broadband: the nerve pathway in your brain contains a lot more information. As soon as you stop practicing, the pathway begins shrinking back down. Reading that changed my life. I used to wonder, Why am I doing these sets, getting on a stage? Don’t I know how to do this already? The answer is no. You must keep doing it. The broadband starts to narrow the moment you stop.”

              Jerrry Seinfeld, via The Happiness of Pursuit (Page 162)

                “Following your bliss is a recipe for paralysis if you don’t know what you are passionate about. A better motto for most youth is “master something, anything”. Through mastery of one thing, you can drift towards extensions of that mastery that bring you more joy, and eventually discover where your bliss is.”

                Kevin Kelly, Blog

                  “The master is connected to the apprentice as though to her past. As you are to your childhood. The master knows that the process of growing, of change, of transformation, is always moving, never still. It is in the face of the apprentice that the master sees herself anew. It is in the face of the craftsperson that the master renews her pilgrimage and finds the beauty of giving herself up to work. It is in the face of the work that the master discovers anew why she is so enraptured and, in so doing, brings her rapture to the apprentice to start all over again.”

                  Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 131)

                  Tony Robbins Quote on Seeing Frustration As A Positive Sign—Not The Opposite

                    “Frustration is a very positive sign. It means that the solution to your problem is within range, but what you’re currently doing isn’t working, and you need to change your approach in order to achieve your goal.”

                    Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within

                    Beyond the Quote (125/365)

                    Frustration is the feeling you get when you try, try again; yet fail, fail again. And what do most people do when faced with ‘fail, fail again?‘ Quit. They stop trying to do whatever it was that they were failing at and move on to something else—something that they can succeed at again. Something that is most likely back inside of their comfort zone and well within their range of already proven skills, knowledge, and understanding. Why? Because succeeding feels good and failing feels bad. But, the price of giving in to frustration is steep.

                    Read More »Tony Robbins Quote on Seeing Frustration As A Positive Sign—Not The Opposite

                      “Your ultimate leverage is your craft.  Stop taking meetings, stop networking, stop trying to cut corners, and get better at what you do.  As you get better, your craft will be your leverage, and opportunities will find you.  Devote more time to your craft and become irreplaceable.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 241)

                        “You don’t get to call yourself an expert until you’ve put in the work – and the market decides, not you.” ~ Gary Vaynerchuk, Crushing It

                          “Order is not enough.  You can’t just be stable, and secure, and unchanging, because there are still vital and important new things to be learned.  Nonetheless, chaos can be too much.  You can’t long tolerate being swamped and overwhelmed beyond your capacity to cope while you are learning what you still need to know.  Thus, you need to place one foot in what you have mastered and understood and the other in what you are currently exploring and mastering.  Then you have positioned yourself where the terror of existence is under control and you are secure, but where you are also alert and engaged.  That is where there is something new to master and some way that you can be improved.  That is where meaning is to be found.” ~ Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 44)

                            “Bottom line: If you lack an underlying commitment to self-mastery and growth, even the best theory won’t help you lead yourself or a team to success.” ~ Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

                              “No person is free who is not master of himself.” ~ Epictetus