Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment (book)

Great book! I found a lot of interesting concepts in here including the concept of homeostasis (forgot about that one from Biology!), how the body eventually will automatically always return to its original state as a way of protecting itself and how that also applies to the mind. The topic of practice and muscle memory and why you need to practice over and over before your muscle memory kicks in to do a particular task before it becomes second nature. And the discussion on how America has become a society of immediate gratification, without the benefit of practice, commitment and mastery, the values that are lost in this lifestyle. The author discusses learning to love the practice and finding peace and satisfaction in your daily life.

The title of Leonard's book should have been Mastering instead of Mastery. This fun, easy, fast reading book offers up intersting proverbs, great warnings of common pitfalls, what it means to aspire to mastery, and perhaps most importantly a guide to achieving the state of mastery (or the process of mastering). Although it sounds very "new age" this book is more a study of what it takes to succeed complete with potentially helpful tools than some spiritualism of the week trend. Overall - An inspiring read filled with insight and excellent suggestions for acieving long term goals and fullfillment.

A friend of mine recently reminded me of this book. She said she was about to take it on a trip to read. That comment prompted me to grab this great little book off the shelf and re-read parts of it (I plan to re-read it all soon).

The author takes his experience with the martial art aikido and applies it to helping us improve in any part of our life.

I first read this in the early 1990's when I was responsible for training trainers for Chevron around the world. It helped me get on (and stay on) the path to my personal mastery and helped me develop my philosophy of effective training and learning.

One of the major sections outlines what he calls the Five Master Keys to Mastery...
1. Instruction
2. Practice
3. Surrender
4. Intentionality
5. The Edge

And here is a one quote highlighted those years ago that displays part of the philosophy of this book:

"How do you best move towards mastery? To put it simply, you practice diligently, but you practice primarily for the sake of the practice itself. Rather than being frustrated while on the plateau, you learn to appreciate and enjoy it just as much as you do the upward surges."

This is a book well worth reading. It will cause you to think, and if you are like me, it will cause you to act on your thoughts. I recommend it very highly.

Leonard has done an excellent job outlining the case for practicing anything for the purpose of pleasure and fulfillment. Most of what we acknowledge as important in our lives revolves around the quest for wealth/status. Everything else is of little importance and so we are not present when participating. The fine arts is an obvious example. Why would someone practice 2 hours a day at piano if they are not increasing wealth or status ? Leonard shows that the furtherance of the art is the reward.

Also discussed is the focus of our society on the climax or fast/easy gains. With every climax there is a period of plateau or gradual build up to the next climax. Leonard describes how enjoyment can be had during the plateau, not in anticipation of the next climax but for its own sake.

This is very good information for learning both about oneself and about a particular skill.