a.k.a. The Keys to Long-Term Success and Fulfillment
by George Leonard, founder of Aikido of Tamalpais in Mill Valley
TL:DR; Mastery and the path to mastery are the same. Practice mastery and forget trying to…
practice primarily for the sake of practice itself
But recognition is often unsatisfying and fame is like seawater for the thirsty. Love of your work, willingness to stay with it even in the absence of extrinsic reward, is good food and good drink.
Goals and contingencies … exist in the future and the past…. Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present. … To love the plateau is to love the eternal now….
Present yourself to the mat to the desk to the canvas to the cutting board to the page
Forget progress and look within for the next move the next step the next stroke the next bite the next word
… [l]ook at credentials and lineage. Who was your teacher's teacher? Instruction demands a certain humility. fifty-fifty ratio between reinforcement and correction, with exceptional enthusiasm the instructor's art lies in the ability to work with beginners
If you study calligraphy, you will find that those who are not so clever usually become the best calligraphers. Those who are very clever with their hands often encounter great difficulty after they have reached a certain stage. This is also true in art, and in life. Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki, from Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
The path to mastery levels the playing field. Early talent eventually dilutes. A great instructor pays exquisite attention to the slowest student on the mat.
Those who can't do may teach gym to beginners so hard, so poorly for so long so as to reinvent the very mastery of gym from the non-marking soles up the crotch-riling rope
At the heart of it, mastery is practice. Mastery is staying on the path. Practice is the path to mastery. To stay on the path to mastery, we must love to practice.
"How long will it take to master [aikido]?" "How long do you expect to live?"
Who but a fool would embark … ?
The essence of boredom is to be found in the obsessive search for novelty. Satisfaction lies in mindful repetition, the discovery of endless richness in subtle variations on familiar themes.
We must put down the cup of milk to pick up the quart.
For the master, surrender means there are no experts. There are only learners.
Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo, asked to be buried in a white (beginner's) belt.
aka intent, vision, character, willpower, attitude, imaging, the mental game
The realm of the mind and spirit were the undiscovered lands.
VMBR (viseo-motor behavior rehearsal) combines exercises in deep relaxation with vivid mental imaging of the skill to be learned.
Matter, experience, both, or pure information
More and more, the universe looks like a great thought rather than a great machine. Sir James Jeans, astronomer
Become, belong, beyond.
Catharsis, community, ecstasy.
Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.
[M]asters share her stupid, heroic desire to use herself to the limit, to finish at all cost, to attain the unattainable.
When mastery is the only goal we can't tell when to stop; the path is narrow and winding, endless but not edgeless.
Life resists change. It does not distinguish good change from bad. Life resists all change. Maintaining core temperature. Staying hydrated. Keeping your feet under you. Lying awake. Having sweet dreams. An alcoholic's periodic binges. This is homeostasis. To change your life, first understand homeostasis.
That old, familiar backslide, unconscious self-sabotage, surprise resistance, sudden backlash: homeostasis at work.
Negotiate with resistance. To surmount the stillness, the chilling effects, of homeostasis, you must be willing and able to negotiate with your resistance to change.
Play the edge. Use pain not as an adversary, but as the best possible guide to performance. Two steps forward, one step back, or vice versa.
Enlist support. Play together. Compete healthily.
Follow a regular practice.
Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning.
Learning how to learn is to change.
Learning is willing change. Life seeks balance, equilibrium, homeostasis, in every dimension life explores including learning itself. So wean yourself on to mastery slow-like, with friends, with rhythm Life also seeks a beat.
If we are made of anything, it is limitless potential. Yet why do we so often feel drained? Why do we procrastinate? Culture is why. From infancy on, we curb our children's energy. We quiet, and cuff, and control, and restrict, and punish.
Six-year-old Johnny wants to sing a song to the class. "Not now, Johnny. We have work to do. Don't be silly, Johnny." That teacher's voice still resonates in forty-year-old Johnny's subconscious whenever he's tempted to be spontaneous.
Conformity is valued. High energy is feared as a threat to conformity.
Many very successful people had had "an obnoxiously high level of praise piled on them in childhood—praise to the point of embarrassment." Here's what I like about what you're doing. And here's how you might improve it.
if we take our anger out of the bag simply to indulge it, if we let anger become a knee-jerk response, we dissipate its considerable power. [take] the fervid energy of indignation, even of rage, and [put] it to work for positive purposes. … work furiously on your favorite project, or transmute the energy beneath your [[anger]][into] fuel that you can use on your journey of mastery.
You can't do everything. But you can do one thing, and then another and another.
- You must choose what to master.
[T]here's nothing quite so immediately energizing … as the intermediate goal of a tough, firm deadline
Increase your energy, starting now. Take a step. Set a priority, doesn't matter what. Cast a drop-dead-date-line with a big sharp hook at the end, sunk up yr ass. Let it make you mad. When life gives you ass-ripping rage make ragerade and pour it in your eyes. Truly, only ever truly, and positively. Run on dark matter.
Never marry a person who is not a friend of your excitement. — Nathaniel Brandon, psychologist
When you reach the top of the mountain, keep on climbing.
Avoiding serious injury is less a matter of being cautious than of being conscious.
Consistency of practice is the mark of the master. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The master is the one who is willing to try, and fail, and try again
- Mastery is about the process, not perfection.
To be a learner, you must be willing to be a fool. Whatever your age, your upbringing, or your education, what you are made of is mostly unused potential.