Mastery

What happens instead of focusing on a specific goal you focus on mastery?

Michael Gervais, a leading Sport Psychologist, pointed this idea out in a recent podcast: The masters aren’t focused on goals. They are focused at getting better at their craft and who they are as a person.

Simply put, instead of focusing on an outcome, like a medal or a specific time, the masters redirect and commit their focus on getting better at their craft and getting better at who they are as a person. They dive in and commit to continuous learning. They commit to the long-haul journey. A path that is sometimes uncertain, uncomfortable, sometimes (or often) painful, a path of disciplined patience with no set ending.

Too often a specific goal pushes us around. We get lost and get sucked into the minutia of check marks. The thought of ‘not being on task’ or hitting every mark gets in the way of the actual doing.  And all too common, after reaching that goal comes a letdown.

To seek mastery, to get better at a task or self, you practice deliberately. You must also be open to feedback. You can’t let the fear of feedback or what other people think or say rattle you. You simply do the work consistently, challenge yourself more and more and pick the feedback that’s helpful and keep going.

Immersed in the process

Sure, you can make it a goal to check off: ‘I practiced today.’ But the masters are not even thinking that. They simply know that to get better they have to practice, and they make the space for it, they explore the edges, they get curious and they ask questions. They’re engaged and immersed in the process.

The master’s also know that they must have an open ‘growth’ mindset to learn, to challenge themselves. They know that failing is going to happen, failing is going to give them feedback, and they’re going to learn something. It’s not going to feel great at times, but you’re learn something, and you move ahead.

The master’s also know when to pivot. If you keep using a hammer and really what you need is a saw, stop using the hammer and use the saw. Pivoting is freedom. It allows you to explore multiple avenues instead of the single track.

The author seeking mastery.

When we don’t seek support we’re missing an opportunity

The master’s also ask for help. They ask for feedback. When we don’t seek support, we’re missing out on opportunity. This is why coaching and or therapy can be so powerful.  Another big bang from support is the power of connection and relatedness. Relatedness enhances motivation and it keeps on feeding itself.

When motivation is enhanced by mastery its intrinsic, it’s internalized. It’s driven by your internal neurochemical reward system, you do it for sack of doing it, and it’s fun. Mastery also enhances efficacy and confidence and when you’re more confident, you’re likely do the thing you’re doing more often. It’s a positive feedback loop.

The power in all of this is that we’re wired for mastery. Look at little kids learning to walk, talk, or feed themselves. We have built in mechanisms to strive for mastery. A toddler isn’t setting a goal to walk today, tomorrow or the next day. Our ancestors didn’t say we need to get food today by 3:30pm. They went out and hunted, if it didn’t work they worked at figuring out what would.

Mastery is not perfection

It’s important to highlight mastery does not mean perfection. It simply means striving to get better at the task.

Here is the challenge for you:

What if in the next race or event you have, instead of focusing on XYZ time, you put your energy and focus into mastering the task. Mastering the race. Ask yourself what does that look like? What are you doing? What does training look like? What does that feel like. Can you bring in support and feedback? Can you be open to the pain of failing part of it? Can you be patient? Keep striving, and keep moving forward?

 If you’d like to get into depth with this contact me to schedule a free consultation.