There is no person on this planet, who has never dreamed of one day being big and great; there's no one person who always wants to be and live below other people - everyone has this inner thing in them to be great and powerful even if it may never happen. This is how you were created, you were designed to rule, you were designed to be a MASTER hence that thing in you.
When I was younger, we liked watching kung-fu movies. Every weekend, there was what used to be called a martin show - specifically for younger audiences such as ours. What I noticed in the kung-fu movies is that, there was always one person called MASTER otherwise also known as TEACHER. The most unfortunate part is that the master would always get killed somehow and then the main star of the movie would go on to avenge the death of his master. The point however, is that the master in the movie, was the man with the greatest skill of kung-fu; he was the teacher and role model of the main star in the movie.
The master did not become master by simply reading a kung-fu book. Today we have people with masters degrees all attained simply by reading books. A real master is one that can demonstrate his mastery.
To attain mastery, you must combine your theory with practice; you must perfect your theories by actually putting them to use.
The other thing I noticed in the kung-fu movies is that, the Master always had his own method of fighting; he had devised his own ways of always winning the fight. It was this skill that he would transfer into the main star of the movie.
A master always demonstrates his own peculiar method of achieving goals. A master is not a copy cat; a master develops the formula which others use to solve the equation.
The greatest obstacle to mastery is lack of focus. You cannot master multiple skills at the same time - and yet this is what we always see in many people. Ever heard the phrase:
Jack of all trades and master of none?
It is because the art of mastery requires being focused and persistent.
Remember, if you do not believe you can do it, you cannot do it. Choose to become a master at what you do; let your name be synonymous with your skill.
So, what really is the key to mastery?
i) Mission
You cannot be a master and not know what your mission is. What do I mean here? Your mission is your reason, your purpose or your why. There must be some driving force that causes you to pursue a life of mastery without which you will have no reason to move from an average lifestyle. A clearly defined mission must be your blueprint in the development of a master in you.
What is it that you want to achieve at the end of it all? What is your goal and passion? It is dangerous to live life without a passion. Many people who end their lives after some frustration are people who never were passionate about anything. Many companies display on their walls what they call a mission statement. This document defines what the company wishes and plans to achieve in the market. It reminds them about their role and existence. This is a guideline which sets boundaries of operation. Immediately a company forgets its mission statement, the competitor takes over.
You need to clearly define your goal which is your mission - what you want to become. Do not leave it to chance; and to always remind yourself about it, put it down on a piece of paper and frame it as your mission statement, then hung it in your room so that your eyes will always look at it each time you wake up. The definition of your mission is the number one step in the pursuance of your mastery.
ii) Abilities
Each person is endowed with abilities to help them achieve their mission. These are what we sometimes call talents. You may have heard some people who are called multi-talented and others just talented. Well, the truth is that every person is multi-talented; you do not only have one ability in you!! There are inert multi abilities in you but you need to try them out to prove this. Other people are called disabled - this does not mean they are deprived of any abilities; NO ONE IS DISABLED. If one person does not have the ability you have, it does not mean they are disabled.
Ignorance is the only disability a man can successfully have; and this is a disability of choice.
Let's take a blind man for instance who reads brail using his fingers, and a man who can see but can't read; who should we call disabled? The blind man because he can't use his eyes to read or the other man because even if he's got eyes but can't read? The truth is that these two people each have abilities except they are differently talented.
It is when you accept your condition of disability that you kill the genius inside you. Do not let anyone take advantage of you because your abilities are not their abilities. Explore those hidden abilities in you that will help you achieve your mission statement.
You are disabled only if you choose to.
iii) Select
Even if you are endowed with many abilities, not all are there to help you achieve your mission. If your goal is to become the best saxophonist, your ability to translate Chinese may not be exactly the one you want to spend your time on. You need to carefully choose what you can improve on and can help you with your mission. You need to realize that all this goes back to achieving your mission - what and who you want to end up.
The point to note here is that, this venture is entirely your choice - you need to select. Just because you can sing does not mean you must end up a singer, but if you choose to, then the abilities in you that can make you the best singer are what you must select. You will not select to become everything because you cannot become everything. To become master, you must choose or select what you want to master or you'll end up Jack of all trades and master of none.
This is very critical because this is what makes people end up who they didn't want to be. The abilities you choose to major on, are what determines your destiny. You cannot choose one thing and end up another. If you are a swimmer and also a singer but you decide to always do your swimming - you will not be known as the best singer in town, most likely the title would be the best swimmer in town. So choose carefully your abilities.
iv) Training
Once you have selected your abilities, you need to realize that you are not the best person that ever lived at your abilities or talents; so you need to take them to the gym. Abilities are like babies, if you want them to grow and become perfect, you need to feed them and train them. The best public speaker was not born like that, they took that gift to some bush and spoke to the trees; they spoke to anything and everything whether heard or not. They practiced the art until one day you saw the flare in their public speaking. But you think God somehow just blessed them with the gift and they had nothing to do with it.
Football legends don't fall from heaven, these are individuals who take their talents to the gym; even after training with their fellow team mates, they take it a little further than everybody else.
Do not be cheated, no one is born with skill - this particular thing only comes after the gym.
Haven't you ever wondered why not every man looks like Rambo? Are you telling me some men don't have muscle? Everyone has muscle but it's the muscle that goes to the gym that shows. Your abilities need training.
v) Explore
A master is not the person who only wins using one method. If your opponent steals your formula, what becomes of you? A master explores several ways of arriving at the same point. Explore your talents and discover several ways of scoring goals.
In the game of soccer, if you kick your penalties the same way, one day the goal-keepers will discover your trick and that will be the end of your goal scoring carrier. How interesting it is to watch grand masters doing their thing. People are mesmerized by magic; they will pay you for the magic you put in your skill. Become an explorer of your own abilities and let people fight to get your auto-graph. No one will ever want your auto-graph until you become an explorer of your talents.
vi) Repetition
There are no two ways about it and no short-cuts to mastery - if you want to master anything, doing it over and over, is the key. You cannot make piano master by playing one song per week; its repetition that does the job.
Back to my kung-fu movies analogy, I once watched a movie where a certain young monk wanted to learn kung-fu and he went to enroll at a monastery. His teacher's first lesson was that of discipline and commitment. The young man was eager to learn so he thought this was good enough. His initial task was to sit by a river and slap the waters repeatedly with his palms. The first day he was all good, the second day came, the third came and went. He was looking forward to a time he would start learning kung-fu; a week past and he became inpatient.
He approached his teacher rather furious and disappointed: "I came here to learn kung-fu, not to sit by a river slapping water like a fool!!" his teacher watched him and said "patience my child, patience".
Three months went by and it was time to go back on holiday to his family. At this stage he was so annoyed with the whole program that he had made up his mind he was going to quit.
His family saw him coming home and they were all excited and happy to see their son and brother back obviously with some kung-fu skills to show off to them and his peers.
At the dinner table, his family decided to enquire from him what he had learnt at the monastery. Angrily, he replied "I learnt literally nothing, am wasting my time there."
"hmmm!!, am sure there is something you have picked up to show us!!" insisted his father.
"I don't want to go back to that place!!" he replied.
"three months is a long time, you mean you were just sitting??" his mother added.
In anger, he slapped the dinner table on which they were eating from shouting "I told you I learnt nothing!!"
To the amazement of both his family and himself, the dinner table they once cherished broke into pieces after his one slap. It was then that he realized that the strength he had developed to break that strong table was as a result of those repeated slaps he was giving to that river of water.
To make master, you must overcome boredom that comes as a result of repetition.
The six points to mastery spell out the word MASTER.
Mission, Abilities, Select, Training, Explore and Repetition
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Friday M. Simfukwe is a business professional whose main thrust and vision is to transform followers into leaders, subjects into masters and mare men into the people they were really meant to be. A computer systems engineer by design with a bias towards world economics and human development. He has worked with many young people in universities and colleges teaching them how to discover their purpose and the importance of living a purpose driven life. He's married with two children and currently lives with his family in Lusaka, Zambia.
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