“How good could I get at this?”
If you’ve ever asked yourself that question before, you’ve come to the right place :>
Mastery is another of these internal motivators. Wanting to become really good at something is a universal experience, I hope.
Motivation to mastery often makes the difference between good and great. And I would be offended if you aimed at anything less than great.
The Forgotten Art of Craftsmanship
Craftsmanship was the way of life throughout most of history. One’s life was dedicated to a single craft, be it blacksmithing or carpentry.
When one craft is chosen above all others, the alternatives are discarded. By narrowing the field of focus, paradoxically, the whole world begins to open up.
When one chooses to dedicate their life to smithing, and one is dedicated to getting very good at it, there are few other skills available for mastery.
Hammering at metal soon becomes something entirely different with deliberate practice; its complexities and intricacies become more interesting and endearing, you develop a relationship with the act.
It is this relationship between self and the act that acts as the basis for mastery, as well as for flow.
Once you begin to see how vast each activity and craft can become, the opportunity for mastery presents itself.
The Relationship Between Self and the Craft
“the work works on you more than you work on it"
- The goat Hormozi
‘Let’s go around the room and describe ourselves'
The dreaded introductions that accompany entering an unfamiliar environment.
What’s interesting is how we describe ourselves.
We almost always define ourselves by what we do.
The importance here is that as we have continously lost touch with mastery in crafts, so too have we lost mastery over ourselves.
This is one of the great challenges the knowledge worker must overcome.
Mastery for the Knowledge Worker
Smithing is an uncommon profession in our modern world, unfortunately. Technology and automation has largely brought an end to craftsmanship; the smith could never out-produce the factory.
What we are left with, however, are less-defined, generalist roles in offices and shops.
The smith has a clear concept of what perfection looks like in his craft. The admin assistant is not spared that same clarity.
What we are left with is a gap in the ability to find mastery. For the knowledge worker, a new approach must be clarified for mastery.
The Jack of All Trades, Master of Some
Polymathy is still an important safeguard against automation (as we’ve seen with our smithing friend), but we are missing the vastness that he found in simply forging iron.
That vastness is not to be so easily discarded. While we may never get as deep, we can still prioritze becoming elite in a few given areas.
Need to manage a social media account, sales and coaching?
Break them down into their simpliest factors, their core skills
Improve your mastery of these core skills until you are a competent generalist
Choose your favourite skills and become a master of the craft
As long as you seek out new challenges and increase your skill, you too can become a master.
That’s all for today.
I hope you enjoyed reading, and let me know what you hope to become a master in ;)
And as always, I hope you have yourself a damn good one :D