How To Master Anything

Do you really want to become all that you're capable of becoming in life to reach your full potential? Or maybe you're terrified that you're going to squander your potential and not become all that you can be, as I once was. Hi, I'm Eric Partaker, and I help CEOs, entrepreneurs and individuals break through their barriers and reach their highest potential. Now, this was a struggle for me for quite some time. I remember coming across Abraham Maslow's work where he talked about the hierarchy of needs and how that our path to deepest fulfillment was in becoming all that we could be, but that in his estimate, it was only about 1 or 2% of people that actually reached their full potential in life. And I thought that was terrifying and exciting at the same time. But what most people don't realize is that your path to reaching your fullest potential is essentially the path of mastery, of becoming incredibly good at something. And most people think that they can't achieve mastery, that they can't unlock their fullest potential, that they can't become everything that they're capable of becoming, because they think that a life like that, that achievement like that, that it's reserved for someone else. You know, maybe. Maybe you think that, maybe you think that, well, that's reserved for the Hollywood stars, or, you know, that's the famous politician, or that's for Olympians, or that's for the CEOs of billion dollar companies or the legendary entrepreneurs and founders of the world. But then you'd be wrong.

Because actually, anyone can achieve potential like that. Everyone has genius in them. Everyone can achieve mastery in at least something. And today I want to tell you about a tried and true process that I've used to achieve mastery and that you can use to achieve mastery as well, to achieve your full potential in whatever it is that you're doing. So the first step in the process is mindset. As with so many other things, it's about getting your thinking right. Because if your mindset isn't right, you have no chance to do any of the other things. There's a fantastic book called Peak, written by Anders Ericsson, that is built on over 30 years of research. And the central premise of the book is that ordinary people can become extraordinary, that we all can achieve great things, that we can all achieve mastery in something, that we can all reach our fullest potential in one thing, in something. That it's not reserved for the top performers, geniuses or stars of the world. That, in fact, all of these people are not born, they're made. And once you embrace that from a mindset point of view, then you have the opportunity. And if you pursue it, because a journey of mastery is a lifelong pursuit, you have at least the opportunity to begin embarking on that journey and closing that gap between who you are and who you're capable of being. The next thing that you need to embrace is, well, what does a mastery path look like? You know, what does it look like and what does it feel like? And one of the concepts that I love is the concept of loving the plateau, which is something discussed in the book Mastery by George Leonard. The concept is simply that a lifelong pursuit of mastery is the realization that we have these spurts or moments of achievement when all of the skill comes together. Perhaps we win a competition, or we publish that book, or we hit all the results that we're wanting. But as all of those things are a moment in time, that moment passes, and then life continues. And our next spurt like that might not be for some time. And it's the plateau where we spend most of our time. So we spend a lot of time trying to get good at something. We get a little bit of a bump up, and then often we drop back down a little bit, but we're dropping back down at a plateau that's slightly higher than the previous one, and then we're continuing on. I've had this experience, for example, when it comes to learning a language, you'll be beating your head against the wall forever, feeling like you're making absolutely no progress because it doesn't feel linear at all. And then suddenly, boom, you're able to speak a lot more or understand a lot more, or read a lot more, or write a lot more. And then you go back to that plateau for a while. And you really need to understand this, because you have to love being on that plateau, you know, to pursue a life of mastery, to pursue that opportunity to really become the best of the best within whatever interests you. Because it's those that embrace that plateau. It's those that embrace that. That plateau. Experience with those spurts intermixed in between is the majority of the Master's journey. You know, this is what separates the Olympians. This is what separates the top performing CEOs and entrepreneurs and founders and politicians and Hollywood actors from everyone else, is that they're willing to endure those long spells of what feels like purgatory for those moments of heaven. And most people are. Aren't willing to go through that at all. And so they never experience those moments of heaven. You know, they Just stay on Earth, if you will. And this point of the plateau is really, really important to understand so that you appreciate why most people don't achieve mastery. The reason most people don't achieve it is because when they enter that plateau of that, that feeling that, oh, my skills aren't developing as much as I would like right now, or I'm not getting the results that I wanted, or this is taking too long, some of them just jump ship, or some of them, they get to that plateau and they think that somehow if they just pour more into it, if they fight harder and longer, they'll break through it faster. And they don't respect the fact that mastery takes time and then they burn out. Or some, they just do the minimum required to kind of stay at that level and be fairly good, but never great, right? So they, they just about qualify for the Olympics, but they never win a medal, for example, or they get that company created, but they never build it into the business that they had always dreamed of, right? Or they have these aspirations to be a great spouse or parent, but when you look at it, they're just kind of doing the bare minimum, or they're being fairly good at it, but not doing what it takes to be great at it. So with all that in mind, I want to talk to you about the five things that you can do to accelerate your mastery journey, to unlock your full potential and become absolutely world class at whatever it is that you want to do. And step number one is that you need to be willing to become an apprentice. Seeking out top tier instruction is the number one thing that you need to be doing. This goes back to medieval times, right? You had a master and you had an apprentice. And if you really want to learn, you have to look at, well, who is doing things at a world class expert or phenomenal level already, and how can I learn from them? And ideally, you would love to be coached by them if you could, but at the very least, you want to learn from them. And what I mean by at the very least learning from them is, well, how might you look them up, how might you model them? How might you read whatever it is that they're doing? And you know, how might you try to emulate the mastery that you see within them? Even if they can't teach you directly, you know, what, what underpins their success? The second thing you need to embrace is practice. That is the path to mastery. It's constantly doing what others won't do. It's constantly seeking out that discomfort. It's constantly noticing the the things that create resistance, Right. Almost like a resistance practice. So if you're trying to develop mastery in something, it's noticing, well, where are the pain points? Where are the things? I go, ooh, you know, that I'm not sure I want to do that. That feels like a lot of work that's going to take me out of my comfort zone. Those are your signals. It's in that direction, therefore, that you must run. Right, counterintuitive to everyone else. Warriors, for example, elite warriors, are trained to run towards the sound of gunfire. And that might again seem counterintuitive, but they're trained to engage in battle, to seek the discomfort, to step forward into it. And it's the same with practice when it comes to mastery. But it's not just about seeking discomfort for discomfort's sake. It's about understanding where are the leverage points? So what are the skills that you really need to develop? You know, the 20% of things that you could be doing within your area or body of work that that would create 80% of the benefit. And how are you planning those things in? How are you setting up coaching around those activities? Remember the first point about instruction, because when you're trying to develop mastery in something, really what you want to do from a practice point of view is that you want to be practicing purposefully on the things that matter most, the things that cause the most discomfort, the things that will really move the needle. But you also want immediate feedback, as immediate as possible. Number three, when it comes to seeking a path of mastery, is be the fool. So Abraham Maslow, in his work, he noticed that those who have achieved the very top of whatever it is that they're doing, they had the freedom to be foolish. They were willing to make a mistake. They weren't worried about what other people would say. They just put themselves out there, and they work tirelessly.

With tremendous effort and repetition after repetition. Being willing to endure the pain, being willing to not look great at whatever they are doing, knowing that eventually they would turn a corner, eventually they would get better. Number four, key to mastery is the power of visualization. So if you look at those who have achieved the very top of what they're doing, they've constantly visualized what that success looks like. They do it on a daily basis. Michael Phelps is well renowned for, in all of his swim contests, before he would go into any of these contests, and this is somebody who's won, you know, more Olympic medals than anyone in the world, Michael Phelps would visualize what is the race going to look like, what is it going to feel like? How am I swimming? He would practice that whole race in his head. He would see it before actually doing it. And number five, ship before you're ready.

One of the things that holds somebody back in their quest for mastery is thinking that things aren't quite right. Right. So I'm not ready yet, or the work's not complete yet. Just ship. It's the act of shipping, it's the act of producing, it's the act of getting to that, that next, that next contest, you know, writing that next page, you know, completing that next presentation, racking up those repetitions and shipping. That's what leads to mastery in the end. So keep those five things in mind and remember from a mindset point of view that that mastery is a path open to anyone. We can all reach our fullest potential, become great, become world class. And at least one thing. It's up to you to decide and discover what that one thing is, and then apply some of those things that you learned today to accelerate your progress on that path. If you like insights like this, please head over to my website@ericpartaker.com where you can subscribe to my weekly newsletter. And if you like the video, please subscribe, comment, and like. Thank you.