• Goodreads: https://goo.gl/fwTPwp

My Notes

The master’s journey can begin whenever you decide to learn any new skill.

With the introduction of each new stage, you’re going to have to start thinking again, which means things will temporarily fall apart.

Learning any new skill involves relatively brief spurts of progress, each of which is followed by a slight declines to a plateau somewhat higher in most cases than which preceded it. You have to be willing to spend most of your time on a plateau, to keep practicing even when you seem ti be getting nowhere.

You practice primarily for the sake of the practice itself.

The path is always long and sometimes rocky, and it promises no quick and easy payoffs.

Path of patient, dedicated effort without attachment to immediate results.

You must enjoy, even love, the plateau, the long stretch of diligent effort wit no seeming progress.

When you discover you own desire, you’re not going to wait for other people to find solutions to your problems. You’re going to find your own.

Love your work, willingness to stay with it even in the absence of extrinsic reward.

Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present.

The human individual is equipped to learn and go on learning prodigiously from birth to death. Man is a learning animal.

Five Master Keys

Key #1: Instruction

The best thing you can do is arrange for first rate instruction.

The best teacher generally strives to point out what the student is doing right at least as frequently as what she is doing is wrong.

Wooden was observed to maintain approximately a 50/50 ratio between reinforcement and correction, with exceptional enthusiasm on both side of the equation.

Knowledge, expertise, technical skills, and credentials are important, but without the patience and empathy that go with teaching beginners, these merits are nothing.

When you learn too easily, you’re tempted not to work hard.

Key #2: Practice

They love to practice. The better they get the more they enjoy performing the basic moves over and over again.

The master is the one who stays on the mat five times minutes longer every day than anybody else.

The master of any game is generally a master of practice.

Practicing becomes a treasured part of your life.

Practice is the path of mastery.

Key #3: Surrender

Willingness to surrender. This means surrendering to your teacher and to the demands of your discipline. It also means surrendering your own hard-won proficiency from time to time in order to reach a higher or different level of proficiency.

The early stages of any significant new learning invoke the spirit of the fool. It’s inevitable that you’ll feel clumsy.

Just surrender. Give it a try.

There are the endless repetitions, the drudgery, the basic moves practiced over and over again.

Satisfaction lies in mindful repetition, the discovery of endless richness in subtle variations on familiar themes.

You might have to take your game apart before putting it back together. This is true of almost any skill.

Key #4: Intentionality

Arnold Schwarzenegger said, “The first step is to create the vision, because when you see the vision there - the beautiful vision - that creates the ‘want power’. For example, my wanting to be Mr. Universe came about because I saw myself so clearly, being up there on the stage and winning.”

Key #5: The Edge

They are zealots of practice, connoisseurs of the small, incremental step.

Exploring the edges of the envelope.

Before you can even consider laying this edge, there must be many years of instruction, practice, surrender, and intentionality. And afterwards? More training, more time on the plateau: the never-ending path again.

The resistance to change is called homeostasis. It doesn’t distinguish between change for the better or change for the worse. It resists ALL change. The resistance to change is proportionate to the size and speed of the change, not to whether the change is favorable or unfavorable.

Don’t panic and give up at the first sign of trouble.

Follow a regular practice. Practice is a habit.

Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning.

If you want to get something done, ask a busy person to do it.

A human being is the kind of machine that wears out from lack of use. We gain energy by using energy. Why do we sit for hours in the babbling bath of television while life’s abundant opportunities drift past unseen.

Physical fitness contributes enormously to energy in every aspect of our lives.

Acknowledge the negative and accentuate the positive.

They value a positive attitude and the effectiveness of praise and other forms of positive feedback. They are unwilling to tolerate the negative stuff.

“Here’s what I like about you’re doing, and here’s how you might improve it.”

The best way of reaching goals is to cultivate modest expectations at every step along the way.

Surrender to your teacher, but only as a teacher, not as a guru.

The ultimate responsibility for you getting good instructions lies not with your teacher but with you.

Competition can provide motivation. Take competition as an opportunity to hone your hard-won skills to a fine edge. Failing to play wholeheartedly with a will to win degrades the game and insults the opponent. Winning graciously and losing with equal grace are marks of a master.

Humor not only lightens your load, it also broadens your perspective.

Consistency of practice is the mark of the master.

Nothing is more destructive to creativity than perfectionism. Mastery is not about perfection. The master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after year. The master is the one who is willing to try, and fail, and try again, for as long as he lives.

To be psychologically balanced and centered depends to a great extent on being physically balanced and centered.

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