#467 Why mastery is key to fulfilment and purpose, and 4 core elements of self-mastery professionals need to cultivate.

Agi Keramidas 0:02
Welcome to Personal Development mastery podcast episode 467 thank you for tuning in. In today's episode, we will explore the topic we have done before, the topic of mastery, which is, of course, one of the words in the podcast title. The inspiration for revisiting this topic today was a recent comment from my previous guest, Bob Cirino on episode 464, and the comment Bob did was about the profound challenge and beauty of self mastery. So as a focus of this episode, let's explore mastery as an ongoing journey, while highlighting the complexities of self mastery in particular, and even more importantly, let's have some actionable takeaways, insights and wisdom. So keep on listening, and let's start with the essence of mastery. So first, what is mastery? The dictionary says Master is a comprehensive knowledge or skill in a particular subject or activity, and also it is the action of mastering a subject or a skill. And this is a wonderful definition. However, let me make a point here that I can see two types of mastery, and one is the external, for example, mastering the guitar or a sport or some technical skill. All these are external mastery, mastery of something external, of ourselves. And this kind of mastery leads to unconscious competence of playing the guitar or playing football or graphic design. Actually, I remember a story when I said about the unconscious competence that mastery is, I don't know if you are familiar with Spanish guitar I once watched the concert with the three top classic guitar players in the world, and one of them was Paco de Lucia, who is a legend, really. So what I noticed, and I still remember that in that concert was that, you know, all three of them were sitting down on the stage and they were playing together, and they were all playing incredible. They all had exceptional mastery of their instrument. However, Paco de Lucia was at an even higher level compared to the the other two, because the other two were playing some incredible complex music on the guitar. But during the demanding passages, they were looking at the guitar. They were looking at what they were playing, whereas Paco de Lucia kept looking around. He was looking at the other two, looking at the audience, smiling. His hands and His fingers were completely operating in a way, you know, automatic. That's what unconscious competence is, that mastery can lead to, and I will come back now I was saying that there were two types of mastery, and this was the external mastery. The other type of mastery is internal. And when we talk about self mastery, that is internal, the thing with self mastery, and the big difference, as I see it, is that it is not automatic or unconscious competence like playing The guitar. Self Mastery requires constant awareness and constant growth. And I think it's relevant here to tell a quick story, when I first started personal development mastery podcast, and that was almost five years ago. Actually, we have the fifth birthday coming up next month. But anyway, I don't want to digress. So when I first started the podcast five years ago, I chose the title personal development mastery, because the word mastery sounded cool and it implied a certain intellectual. Depth. And it was only after I had started, the first few months after I had started, that I realized that by naming the podcast personal development, mastery I had, without even knowing, raised the bar for myself. I had set the bar quite high in some of the early podcast conversations I had with early on the topic of this being a podcast on mastery, of personal development, self mastery, would come up, and I remember I started wondering whether I had set myself up for disappointment by choosing this title. And the reason was because, in my mind, at that time to quote, un quote, unquote, achieve personal development mastery that seemed so daunting. This is a point of view that I have completely changed my mind about over the years during the course of the podcast. So rather than believing that Master is something to be achieved, as I was thinking in the beginning, I realize now that this is not the case Self Mastery, personal development. Mastery is a journey, like how our life itself is a journey. Mastery is not about perfection. It's not about reaching a specific point in terms of our abilities or knowledge. It is not an end result. It is not a destination. So for me, mastery is the art of perfecting towards the vision we set for ourselves. This is the perfect opportunity to come back to the comment my guest, Bob cyrino made that inspired me to record this with, of course, an additional nods from my partner, Toco. So Bob said that in many ways, he finds it easier to master an instrument or a skill or sport than it is to master the self. And he was saying that when he thinks about the most interesting field upon which to gain mastery, mastery of the self is infinite in its endeavor. And I can't help but to make a brief reference to my origins here, the ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Plato over 2000 years ago, said things like the first and best victory is to conquer self, and that the hardest victory is over self. And Socrates actually said that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self mastery. Let me say that again. The truly free individual is free only to the extent of her own self mastery. And if you think about it, this is the limit of our freedom, what our own self will permit us to do. And this idea, the point really, is that it connects to the modern pursuit of fulfillment, of freedom, of happiness, of living a purposeful life as you are, the mastery seeker that you are. And so we are reaching the point that in a minute, I will share with you four actionable takeaways for this, for self mastery, for your personal development, mastery, you know, as nice and deep as the phrase self Master is infinite in its endeavor. That's, you know, it sounds profound, but I think it could be useful to break it down into some more, let's say clear or, you know, some of its core elements, from my point of view anyway, and one of them is clarity, clarity of vision.

Agi Keramidas 9:50
You know how important it is to define your vision and your purpose in the journey. So. Uh, one other core element of self mastery from my from my point of view, is self discipline and self accountability. Can I do the difficult thing even when it is uncomfortable? Do I do what I said that we do even if I'm not feeling like doing that anymore, can we overcome unconscious habits, biases and the pull of instant gratification? This is for me, self discipline and self accountability comes with I believe journaling the primary way for me is journaling. Of course, there are other ways, and I will mention one more core element of self mastery, and that is emotional mastery, of course, you know that is a whole podcast episode on its own, sitting with our emotions, taking action in spite of our emotions, the connection between self mastery and emotional resilience. They are topics that we will discuss separately at a different time, for sure. And all this leads to the most important thing of all, I say often in the conversations with my guests that my intention and my mission with the podcast is to inspire positive change in you, not to give you information, not to give you motivation, but to inspire you to change. It is the action that you will take, because that's the only way we can change by taking some kind of action. And here are four actions that we can take on this journey of self mastery, of personal development mastery, and the first is setting our vision, the clarity of our vision. So I will invite you to reflect on what self mastery means to you and define your goals. And I mean here, not your external goals, but your internal goals, the kind of person that you see yourself becoming when you have applied the journey of self mastery. The second action is self discipline, practicing self discipline. And that is again, another topic that we will discuss on a separate occasion. For the time being, I will invite you to identify one habit you can improve this week, and that could even mean starting something new or stopping something that does not serve you anymore. So take a moment right now to identify one habit that you will work on this week and commit to doing that improvement. The third actionable tool for the journey of self mastery is cultivating our emotional awareness. So let us all do this. Next time we face a strong emotion, let's take a pose. Let's have the awareness to take a pause, even for a split second, to observe the emotion before reacting. And the final actionable tool I will share with you today, and perhaps the most important one, is to embrace the journey. Remind yourself. Remind yourself constantly that Master is not about achieving something. It is not about achieving perfection. Mastery is a journey of growth of awareness. The story says that Michelangelo, the Renaissance sculptor, was asked how did he manage to carve David? And David is arguably the most famous statue in the world, and Michelangelo said, I. Saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. So our journey of self mastery is carving our own marble to set our angel free. And I mean it metaphorically, of course, as a conclusion. I will say it one more time. The most important thing in only one sentence. Self Mastery is a journey. It is an infinite pursuit, a deeply rewarding one, and it's difficult, and because it's difficult, not many people pursue this path. And because you are listening right now, mastery seeker, I salute you, because you are on this journey, whether you had thought about it in such a way or not, you are on this journey, so I congratulate you, and I appreciate you. One final important thing to understand here mastery seeker, is that ultimately, self mastery is not about us. Every step we take towards self mastery creates ripple effects that benefit others. So keep working on yourself, not only for you, but for the greater good. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you found this episode enlightening. If you want to continue the journey further, join us in our free community, mastery, seekers, tribe. It is a space to move from inspiration to implementation, from knowledge to action, connect with others on the same journey and access exclusive resources to stay on track. If you're not already a member, you are invited! go to mastery seekers tribe.com, and until next time, stand out. Don't fit in.