Success Verses Mastery

My thoughts tonight are applicable to everyone – every trade, every skill, every hobby, every pursuit.  My visual is musical, but the content spreads its wings and reaches a broad audience. 

And so we read …

What is the difference between success and mastery? 

~Success means you sometimes hit your goal.

~Mastery means you hit your goal again and

again. 

It’s that simple.

When we operate in the zone of peak performance, it is like visiting an old friend and our conversation picks up where we last ended.  Mastery is simply operating in the zone of perfect performance.  We keep hitting our stride, our mark, or whatever metaphor one may wish to apply.

Success is good.  With a success mentality we have some good highs and we ride them like the wind.   But with mastery we are so in touch with our mind, our muscles, and our skill that we effortlessly deliver to perfection time and again.

And what is the path to mastery?  It is the gap between where you are and where you want to go.  I’m going to borrow something you’ll see dozens of times in London when riding the subway – MIND THE GAP!

The bottom line is this … we pay the price and do the skill with perfection that we seek to master.  It has to flow naturally and perfectly.

Examples:

In typing on the keyboard, some words just seem to flow naturally for me, as in most of the words in this sentence.  I don’t slow down and falter or search for the proper key as I type the words in this paragraph. 

On the other hand, I have to slow down with the word “inquiry.”  I use this word a dozen times a week at the bank.  I’m faster at it today than I was one year ago, but I haven’t reached mastery level. 

In golf, perhaps you have a nasty slice to the right when using your driver.  Will you continue practicing your slice, or will you self-analyze and perhaps seek some coaching to master this particular club? 

In music, if you were asked to perfect the E-Major scale how would you proceed? 

In both instances, the experts suggest that you first slow down the process.  Take the golf swing at a snail’s pace.  Have an instructor analyze every inch of your movements - feet placement, elbow position, grip on the club and on and on.  The idea here is perfecting the movements, not winning a race.  And then repeat perfectly until mastery takes over and the slice is eliminated.

The same is true with the E-Major scale.  You slow it down to turtle speed.  Make sure every note is played correctly and every finger position is properly executed until you can play this scale with perfection every time.

Success is good.

Mastery is where 

the professional lives.

P Michael Biggs

Words of Encouragement

Words of Inspiration