Mastery requires endless remastery
Lucica Ibanescu - Coach
Coaching professionals in tech to design their leadership style, use their voice and build careers rooted in their unique strengths, wellbeing and authenticity ?? Professional ACC Coach by ICF
Hey there friends ?? If you are exhausted by the word “endless” in the title, this article is for you. ??
Today, inspired by this quote from the amazing book "The score takes care of itself” (by the well known NFL coach Bill Walsh) I would like to offer you some food for thought and... a poem.
The trap hidden in the Mastery word is that at any point in one life′s? journey one might believe that the self-improvement effort reached a (happy) end and maybe... just maybe... you can e.a.s.i.l.y. replicate past success with minimal or no effort moving forward.
Wait, what? The journey never ends?
The idea of endless remastery has the power to dismantle some of the beliefs that usually start with “when I get there...” and continue with “I will be happy”, “I will rest and have a life”, “everything will come easy" or “I can stop hustling”.
How far away is “there” anyway? What is beyond “there”, do you think?
Endless remastery also invites you to reflect on how to better manage your energy to prepare you for a potentially long journey, how to manage your expectations regarding “the destination” and to challenge what beliefs you might hold on to that actually hurt you instead of propelling you forward.
Food for thought: allow me to invite you to a short reflection, spare 5 minutes for this:
"Homework" for the ones who wish to work a little bit more on themselves: Since this newsletter is about tips and coaching, I actually challenge / invite you to reflect and answer more questions (it won′t take you more than 10 minutes. Grab a pen and paper for better results):
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Having done this reflection, what showed up for you that was particularly insightful and worth remembering? Care to share with me or the entire audience in the comments below? ??
The gift ??
For those of you not familiar with the poem Ithaka, I hope you will find inspiration in it. This poem is one of the things that I love most to offer as farewell gift when a coaching session or process ends.? Here's my favorite part:
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
?? Hi! I’m Lu, a life coach for the unapologetically ambitious by day & an amateur writer by night
?? Ex-techie with a focus on taking you from "I can′t" to "I will" without paying the price of burnout
?? Interested in how my coaching can support you in achieving your goals? Let′s meet for a quick, free discovery chat: https://bit.ly/lu-coach
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Hey Lu! Great article, thank you so much for sharing it here ?? Random thoughts: “Mastery” evokes negative feelings in me - in the past we’ve had turbulent discussions at work about the use of “master” and “slave” in infra. We don’t use those terms anymore. I prefer “excellence” (also because it is a term used in NLP). “Endless”, on the other hand, is not scary for me at all. On the contrary, it’s an inspiration. Life is all about continuous learning and reinvention. And because it never ends (until the end), it is so important to remember to live and be happy while we are on this journey, and to not put life on hold “until we are there”. Where is “there”, anyway? I like the term “tiny tweak” - it resonates as taking a baby step every day while remembering our center, our focus, our goal but staying in the present moment. While I have left the hamster wheel behind, I sense the danger of slipping back into it. At the moment, I’m sailing relatively smoothly, but I would still rate myself as a 5, max. Healthy habits are daily yoga, good food, and good company. These are also my daily rewards ?? I’ve been rambling too much and actually exceeded the character limit for the first time ever ?? TBC!