“Self-mastery is the DNA of life mastery.” ~ Robin S. Sharma, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
Mastery Quotes
“Self-mastery and the consistent care of one’s mind, body, and soul are essential to finding one’s highest self and living the life of one’s dreams. How can you care for others if you cannot even care for yourself? How can you do good if you don’t even feel good? I can’t love you if I cannot love myself.” ~ Robin S. Sharma, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
We cannot master everything.
Picture Quote Text:
“We cannot master everything, taste everything, understand everything, drain every experience to its last dregs. But if we have the courage to let almost everything else go, we will probably be able to retain the one thing necessary for us – whatever it may be. If we are too eager to have everything, we will almost certainly miss even the one thing we need.” ~ Thomas Merton, Monk
“It is well known that expert meditators develop the capacity to see life in slow motion, observing objects (including their own thoughts) in minute detail, as if seeing every individual frame of a movie. It turns out that masters in every field develop the same capacity. Master baseball players, for example, when at bat, see the ball coming at them as if in slow motion – even though the ball is actually traveling 90 miles an hour. Not only can the master batter see the ball in ‘individual frame’ detail, but he can at the same time see the meaning of those details. How low is the ball to the ground? Over what quadrant of the plate will it pass? Is it spinning? In what direction? How will all of this detail influence my decision about how and where I want to hit the ball? This is mastery.”
Stephen Cope, The Great Work Of Your Life
“[The Master] doesn’t glitter like a jewel… [but is] as rugged and common as a stone.” ~ Lao Tzu, Tao te Ching
“Our work can be motivated by obligation, by hunger for the external rewards of accomplishment, or by strongly reinforced ideas about who we should be in this lifetime. But none of these motivations has the authentic energy required for mastery of a profession.”
Stephen Cope, The Great Work Of Your Life
“To reach an audacious goal, we sometimes benefit from having it lie just beyond our grasp.” ~ Sarah Lewis, The Rise
“Masters are not experts because they take a subject to its conceptual end. They are masters because they realize that there isn’t one. On utterly smooth ground, the path from aim to attainment is in the permanent future.” ~ Sarah Lewis, The Rise
“The pursuit of mastery is an ever onward almost.” ~ Sarah Lewis, The Rise
The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery [Book]
Book Overview: It is one of the enduring enigmas of the human experience: many of our most iconic, creative endeavors from Nobel Prize winning discoveries to entrepreneurial inventions and works in the arts are not achievements but conversions, corrections after failed attempts. The Rise explores the inestimable value of often ignored ideas the power of surrender for fortitude, the criticality of play for innovation, the propulsion of the near win on the road to mastery, and the importance of grit and creative practice. From an uncommonly insightful writer, The Rise is a true masterwork.
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Post(s) Inspired by this Book:
“Finding your creative genius is easy: do the work, finish something, get feedback, find ways to improve, show up again tomorrow. Repeat for ten years. Or twenty. Or thirty.” ~ James Clear, Blog
“No single act will uncover more creative genius than forcing yourself to create consistently. Practicing your craft over and over is the only way to become decent at it. The person who sits around theorizing about what a best-selling book looks like will never write it. Meanwhile, the writer who shows up every day and puts their butt in the chair and their hands on the keyboard — they are learning how to do the work.” ~ James Clear, Blog
“Human potential is the same for all. Your feeling, ‘I am of no value,’ is wrong. Absolutely wrong. You are deceiving yourself. We all have the power of thought – so what are you lacking? If you have willpower, then you can change anything. It is usually said that you are your own master.” ~ Dalai Lama