A Better Way

 by JenniferWhite, President, The JWC Group

Broadcast of 3/26/99

Subject: Go For Mastery

A BETTER WAY
A nationally syndicated column
by Jennifer White
jencoach@successu.com

TODAY'S TOPIC: GO FOR MASTERYI was giving a speech the other day when someone in the audience asked me a powerful question. He asked, "What does it take to be a success?"

There are a hundred different ways to answer this question. And I know each one of you has your own answer. You may believe you have to be in the right place at the right time. Or perhaps you believe you need to know the right people. Or maybe you think success is just a matter of luck.

Every day I work with high achievers, people who have already achieved some level of success in their lives. I know a lot about this subject. Success and fulfillment (it doesn't do you any good to be successful if you're not happy) comes down to one thing: going for mastery in what you do.

Masters have learned the basics of the craft or industry they are in. They understand what it takes to be competent, but they aren't satisfied with being just like everyone else. Masters focus on becoming excellent at their craft. They become excellent salespeople or excellent managers or excellent plumbers or excellent mediators. Yet they all still have a passion to learn more, so they focus on becoming even better. They notice the subtleties and nuances that other people don't see. More importantly, they begin to create and develop new ideas and strategies because they are that good. They come up with things excellent contributors would not have seen or cared about. They are more than experts. They are masters.

When you go for mastery, you never truly arrive. You instead focus on the process of constantly learning, growing and expanding who you are and what you do.

There's a great example of mastery in sports. His name is Michael Jordan. Jordan has a deep love and passion for basketball. Yet he didn¹t just rely on his natural talent. He became a master at basketball. Yes, a master. Someone who knows the game backwards and forwards. The one who is constantly trying new stuff, experimenting with new techniques and strategies. The one who focused on his gifts and worked on making them even stronger. His mastery was rewarded with a large salary, raving fans and the ability to do what he loved every day.

Our society pays extremely well for mastery. Who is the best pro golfer? No matter whom you identified, I bet he is paid extremely well. What about the best corporate leader? Again, a big income earner. Look at Mother Teresa. If you know anything about her life, you¹d know she built a huge pile of money to help her cause. She was a master at caring and connecting on a deep level with people, and money came in from around the world to help her because people were drawn to her mastery. Did you catch that? They were attracted to her mastery. That¹s what I want for you.

Here's how mastery works in the game of golf. When you first learn to play golf, you practice the fundamentals until you can hit the ball. You make many mistakes when you're first learning, but you want to play the game, so you stay focused on hitting the ball until you can do it consistently well.

You then polish up your basic skills and lower your score by playing a lot. You begin to realize talking about your score and sharing golf stories are quite different than actually playing a round of golf. You play even more. You learn that each shot has nothing to do with the last, and you start beating the people who used to beat you.

Learning to become a professional golfer is much harder. To go from good to a master is tougher than getting from unskilled to good. Each level of advancement takes work. It takes an unusual amount of dedication and focus to move from a high level of skill to an even higher level.

Many people go for mastery and quit before they get there. They simply aren¹t willing to stay in the game long enough to become a master.

What about you? Are you willing to do what it takes to go for mastery?
Copyright 1999, Jennifer White. All rights reserved. Please do not duplicate this information without written permission.

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