Personal & Profesional Mastery...THINK Like a BLACK BELT!

Mastery is not just for the masters. Or think of it this way: which comes first, the master or the mastery? Master is just what people end up calling you when they recognize a certain level of experience, wisdom, or performance. Mastery is how you get there. Mastery is a process. It's accessible to everyone, and it's exactly what Martin Luther King was teaching us when he said, "If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michael Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, "Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well." I'll be blunt. Not enough people think this way anymore. And you might be one of them. It's much more likely now you'll run into somebody who feels stuck in a dead-end job, or is holding a sign at the Occupy Fill-in-the-Blank rally complaining that the man controls everything. I once felt that way, too. Later I learned— there is no "the man" and I ain't working for him. Years ago, I was a disgruntled, underappreciative producer/copywriter at a local television station. It was a great job, but my attitude sucked and my heart just wasn't in it. At the time, my whole passion was music. What I couldn't or wouldn't see at the time, until my supervisor dressed me down, was that my job was providing me the means to pursue my passion. Anyway, my supervisor called me out good. I could have gone home after that spanking and just been miserable and taken out my angst against the man in melody and lyrics. Instead, I realized he was right. Thankfully, I was shocked into a true moment of enlightenment. I woke the hell up. I went back to the office that Monday with a new attitude, and I dedicated myself to being the best writer and producer I could possibly be. I studied my craft and I found new levels of expression. And those talents and skills I developed at that time serve me to this day. Listen, I didn't lick it from a rock. What I learned to do was embrace mastery. I learned to apply discipline and focus and to be fully engaged in whatever I was doing at the time. I learned that mastery is not the ends, it's the means. I don't care if you're stocking shelves, flipping burgers, or pushing Dr. King's proverbial broom. The key to your next job, if you have ambitions beyond where you are now, is to embrace mastery today. The path is mastery, and there's nobody in your way. Think like a black belt for yourself, for your business, or your next conference or event. Learn more at ThatBlackBeltGuy.com.