When it comes to masters of their craft, we see the result. We rarely see what went into getting there. However, when we start to dig deeper, we see that mastery results from a combination of factors: purpose, practice, performance, recovery, and of course years on end, possibly a lifetime. Becoming a master of your craft is a decision that the juice is worth the squeeze.
One of the most ludicrous ideas that society drills into our heads is that we should know what we want to do with our lives when we’re 18 years old. It’s the rare 18-year old that is self-aware enough, and experienced enough to make an informed decision about what their purpose is.
How do you look back at the proudest moments of your past and say, “in this proudest moment, what were you doing, and who were the people that were benefiting from the work that you were doing, and what was the impact on their lives? Once you have those two ingredients, you can very simply flip that around into a simple purpose statement or question in which you ask “how might create more of this impact for these people. — Joe Brown
Don’t find your passion. Instead, make a note of what engages you and do more of it. Keep collecting data points. You can only connect the dots by looking backward. But you can only collect those dots by looking forward. As the dots begin to connect, the purpose will gradually reveal itself.
When a sense of purpose drives us, we’re more likely to persist in the face of challenge, our motivation will be much stronger, and we’ll derive far more satisfaction from our work. A sense of purpose amplifies grit, ambition, focus and virtually every other characteristic that is needed to achieve mastery. Given that the pursuit of mastery will mean a lack external rewards, possibly for a very long time, we have to be driven by something deeper.
A person could have all of the natural talents in the world, but without practice, that talent will never enable them to achieve mastery. In fact, many soon to be masters of their craft don’t appear to have very much natural ability on the surface.
Regular training leads to changes in the parts of the brain that are challenged by the training. The brain adapts to these challenges by rewiring itself in ways that increase its ability to carry out the functions required by the challenges. — Anders Ericsson
Click here to find out the 5 steps of becoming a Master of Your crafts :)