The Journey to Mastery and the 7 Habits of Success

The two contents of my study this week that caught my attention was the report I needed to do on the Mastery book , The Keys To Success and long term Fulfillment by George Leonard and the summary I studied from THE book THE 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey . Here are the points that stood out the most to me:

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The Journey of Mastery:

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We can understand mastery as the ability or mastery of a skill/technique, whether in the professional or personal area. The fact is that as human beings, everything we really set out to learn, with persistence, patience and a lot of practice, enhanced by the effect of time, we can become “masters” in the subject. For me the main part of the book is about the 5 keys to Mastery:

Key 1- Instruction: This is an essential part of the mastery journey, there are many ways to get instruction, but I like to think that no one becomes a master without being surrounded by good masters. Finding good teachers, good programs is the first step.

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Key 2- Practice: This is without a doubt the heart, the high point of gaining mastery in any field. I want to highlight some paragraphs that caught my attention during the reading to highlight how important the principle of practice is:

Practicing regularly, even when it seems like you're getting nowhere, can seem overwhelming at first. But eventually the day will come when the practice will become a treasured part of your life. You settle into your favorite armchair, oblivious to time and the turmoil of the world. She will still be there for you tomorrow. It will never go away.

George makes several comparisons in his book with the practice of Aikido , a martial art that is a black belt, and speaking of practice he cites the following:

“How long will it take me to master aikido ?” a potential student asks. “How long do you expect to live?” is the only respectable answer.

That's about it.

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Key 3 - Surrender: It is not possible to achieve mastery if you do not surrender completely, accept all the challenges and the things that we often do not want to do. For a master to surrender means that he has no specialist, there are only students. Ever.

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Key 4- Intentionality: I summarize this in really wanting to do it! And I quote another paragraph that I marked in my book:

"All I know," said Arnold Schwarzenneger , "is that the first step is to create the vision, because when you see the vision there - the beautiful vision - it creates the 'power of desire.' Mr. Universe came about because I saw myself so clearly, being up there on stage and winning. ”

Key 5- The edge: It's about always looking for something more. I like to think about the point that nothing is so good that it can't be improved. Masters challenge their own limits.

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

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To help me explain what I understood from the book summary I will use the chart below:

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The first three habits are the foundation of particular victories in which we develop the fiber of our own character traits. The other three habits are for public wins, those situations where we work with other people. The final habit improves the effectiveness of our lives in all areas. The 7 Habits give you the ability to work from the inside out to build a character of complete integrity.

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But why work on these habits?

Because these habits will help us to solve the paradigms in front of us, according to the author:

A paradigm is the way we see and understand the world around us. It is a mental map by which we interpret the information we receive. Paradigms are the key to our own interpretation of reality. Principles are guidelines for human beings

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The way we see any problem is the problem.

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I just loved that phrase, so much so that I'm going to repeat it:

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The way we see any problem is the problem.

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Let's move on to habits, and I'll spend more lines on the first ones, which are related to dominating us, to private victory.

Habit 1 – Be proactive:

Each person has the ability to be reactive or proactive in every situation that arises. This is the true meaning of “responsiveness” - the ability to choose our own response.

Proactive people are highly responsible. Proactivity means subordinating impulses to values. Reactive people are carried away by the heat of the moment. Proactive people are driven by values that are well thought out and internalized.

It's not what happens that's important. It's our answer, whatever happens, it will make all the difference What matters most in life is not what happens to us, but how we react. Our basic nature is to act, not to expect us to act.

We have the ability to take the initiative in any situation we find ourselves in.

Being proactive does not mean being pushy, pushy or insensitive. Instead, proactivity means controlling a situation from the inside out.

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Habit 2 – Start with the end in mind:

This is visualizing the end from the beginning and it parallels the quote from Arnold Schwarzenegger in the first few paragraphs above. It's about creating first in your mind and then materializing.

Research has shown that nearly all world-class athletes and other peak performers are visualizers. They see it, feel it and experience it in their mind before actually doing it. They start with the end in mind. You can do the same in all areas of your life using affirmations based on a personal mission statement.

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Habit 3 – Put first things first.

See this graph:

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Seems pretty simple doesn't it? But I'm sure that in practice we end up making a mess, at least I do sometimes . And to my surprise, the focus mentioned by the author is to work in quadrant 2 , so that quadrant 1 does not need to exist, it seems obvious but I hadn't thought about it in the first reading.

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“The things that matter most should never be at the mercy of the things

what matters least.” — Goethe

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Habit 4 – Win/Win :

Having developed the habits that helped us overcome our selves, now is the time to work with the other. The message is clear, we cannot accept any relationship, whether personal or in the business world, where there is no gain for both parties. It's like this that arrives _ more away .

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Habit 5 – First Understand… Then Be Understood

I remember hearing once that we have two ears and one mouth, because we need to listen more and talk less.

The point is that we usually always do the opposite, we talk to people already thinking about what we are going to talk about. The key to good judgment is understanding. If we judge first, we will never fully understand. When people have a problem and you really listen to understand

“The heart has its reasons that reason does not know.” — Pascal

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Habit 6 – Synergy

I learned that synergy is when 1+1=3. That is, the result is greater than the sum of the parts. In this context, it means using all the previous habits to enhance personal results and working with other people.

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Habit 7 – Sharpen the Saw

I loved that part too. We can't be so busy “sawing” that we don't notice that our saw is dull. Taking time regularly to sharpen our saw on the physical, spiritual, mental, and social or emotional dimensions is essential.

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It can be difficult to develop these habits or walk the journey of mastery (which in the end is about staying on track always), but I have one more sentence, and I'll conclude with it:

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“What we persist in doing becomes easier - not that nature

of the task has changed, but our ability to do it has increased.” —Emerson