Mastery By Robert Greene - Writemac

Mastery By Robert Greene “Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it’s the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated.” —JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE That’s what this book is about, sculpting your mind and your life in the pursuit of mastery. Becoming the best in a craft, emulating the best practicioners in all fields throughout history. This book is also a follow-up to his last book The 48 Laws of Power. The path to mastery is a difficult one. Robert Greene draws on his vast knowledge of history referencing people in the past who aspired to and achieved mastery status. People like Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Michael Faraday and Charles Darwin to name a few. He also draws on who he calls contemporary masters from the modern world including the anthropologist, Daniel Everett; boxing trainer, Freddie Roach and others from the realms of neuroscience, computer engineering and robotics. What is mastery? Mastery is about transformation. It’s about moving from one level of intelligence to another which kills old ideas and perspectives to make way for the new.

For people who have mastered their craft, it is a way of life. Always present ready to use when required. Greene says there is a simple process or path to mastery which is accessible to all. Provided, of course, we are willing to put in the time, dedication, sacrifice and the ups and downs of learning new to become a master. 1. Discover your calling Greene says what we lack most in the modern world is a larger purpose to our lives. This lack of purpose, Greene says, affects people in all kinds of ways even if they aren’t conscious of it. To achieve mastery you have to find your vocation. Greene advises to think back to your childhood and ponder your motivations as a child. This, he says, is your calling before parents, friends, peers, school and work took over. These are three steps to find your calling. Then he gives some strategies to discover your calling 1. Return to your origins: for many of the masters, their inclination presented itself clearly during childhood. What were you obsessed with when you were younger? 2. Occupy the perfect niche: Find where your interests align in a field to identify a particular niche that you can dominate. 3. Avoid the false path: We’ll all be attracted to fields for the wrong reasons: money, fame, parental influence. We have to rebel against these forces and be honest about what our interests are. 4. Let go of the past: Avoid the sunk cost fallacy, if something is wrong for you, abandon it. You’re not wedded to your past choices. Don’t feel like you have to rigidly stick with a plan that you set before. 5. Find your way back: You’ll be tempted to deviate from the path throughout your pursuit of mastery, even if you do mistakenly veer away, you can always come back. Reminds me of Siddhartha. 2. Submit to Reality: The Ideal Apprenticeship One must first have an apprenticeship to reach mastery. If you’re beginning in a new field then this usually means starting at the bottom. During this time you will feel frustration because your brain has yet to develop the neural connections between skillsets.

Greene says there are eight steps in the ideal apprenticeship. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Value learning over money Keep expanding your horizon Revert to a feeling inferiority Trust the process Move toward resistance Apprentice to failure Combine the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ Advance through trial and error 3. Absorb the Master’s Power: The Mentor Dynamic Greene says having a mentor can turn ten years of self-mastery into five years. Not through shortcuts but by streamlining the process and by ensuring you don’t waste time in wrong areas of study. A mentor should push you into the abyss. Get you uncomfortable and give you self-doubt. It’s during these times that the learning and growth happens. And when you think you’ve learnt everything you have to set yourself a new challenge and start again. Greene makes the point that toughness and constant connection to a reality are both requirements to achieve mastery. Self-help books, he says, promise too much for too little when in reality a lot of work has to go into make lasting change. Strategies for Deepening the Mentor Dynamic 1. Choose the mentor according to your needs and inclinations - pick mentors who fill your needs, or what your parents didn’t. 2. Gaze deep into the mentor’s mirror - choose a mentor who will give you tough love, reveal your strengths and weaknesses, and accustom yourself to criticism. 3. Transfigure their ideas - learn from your mentors, listen, but cultivate some distance by altering their advice to fit your own inclinations and style.

4. Create a back-and-forth dynamic - once you have gained respect for each other by being coachable and open to learning, give them feedback on their instruction, helping each other learn even faster. 4.See People as They Are: Social Intelligence What separates humans from other animals is our social intelligence and our ability to sense what others are thinking and feeling. Humans take longer that other species to become independent from their mother. According to Greene, this greater social bond between mother and child makes us more naive about how the world works. This is what he calls the Naive Perspective and to achieve mastery we must go beyond this to understand other people’s underlying motives. Not in anger or not with emotion but with supreme acceptance. Social intelligence has two components: 1. Specific knowledge of human nature: the ability to read people and understand how they see the world. 2. General knowledge of human nature: understanding the patterns of human behaviour, including the darker qualities we often disregard. There are patterns of negative human behaviour which each of us usually have part of: Envy, Conformism, Rigidity, Self-obsessiveness, Laziness, Flightiness, and Passive Aggression. Understand how to spot and avoid triggering these. Envy: it is natural to compare ourselves to others, but too much praise or friendliness can indicate envy. To avoid triggering, if you have a gift for a certain skill, make a point of displaying weakness in another area - self-deprecating humour is good for this. Conformism: groups tend to trigger this. If you have a rebellious streak, be careful not to display your difference too overtly. Rigidity: we often default to habits or routines to counter the complexity of daily life. Accept the rigidity of others, but for yourself work to maintain your open spirit, get rid of bad habits, and continue to cultivate new ideas.

Self-obsessiveness: when you need something from someone, appeal to people’s self-interest, and get used to looking at the world through their eyes. Laziness: we all tend to want the quickest, easiest path to our goals, but we generally try to control our impatience. Be prudent and keep your ideas close so they can’t be stolen, and secure credit in advance as part of teams working together. Flightiness: we like to think we are rational, but we are largely governed by our emotions. Never assume that what people say or do in a particular moment is part of their permanent desires. Focus instead on their consistent actions. Passive aggression: the root cause of this is human fear of direct confrontation, and the emotions and loss of control conflict can cause. Focus only on the actions of others, and avoid those passive-aggressive warriors full of insecurities at all costs. Strategies for Acquiring Social Intelligence Speak through your work - be efficient, detail-oriented, and make what you write or present clear and easy to follow, and this will show your care for the audience or public at large. Craft the appropriate persona - people will judge you based on your outward appearance - be aware of this and plan for it. See yourself as others see you - look at negative events in your past and dissect these occurrences. What patterns can we observe that reveal flaws in our character? Seek opinions from those you trust about your behaviour as well, and begin to cultivate the ability to see yourself as you really are. Suffer fools gladly - they are simply part of life, like rocks or furniture. Smile at their antics, tolerate their presence, and avoid the madness of trying to change them. 5. Awaken the dimensional mind Greene says we have two minds. The Conventional Mind and the Original Mind. The Conventional Mind is the mind which develops over the years through experience and the pressure to conform to society.

“We force our minds into tighter and tighter grooves. We become defensive about the world we now take for granted, and we become upset if our beliefs or assumptions are attacked.” The Original Mind is the type of mind we have as children, when everything seems new and interesting, and before we settle into a more fixed mindset. This is what drives the creative force within us. Masters, Greene says, retain a sizeable portion of their childhood spirit despite the pressures and demands of adulthood. “Masters not only retain their spirit of the original mind, but they also add to it their years of apprenticeship and the ability to focus deeply on problems or ideas.” “What kills the creative force is not age or a lack of talent, but our own spirit, our own attitude. We become too comfortable with the knowledge we have gained in our apprenticeships. We prefer to live with familiar ideas and habits of thinking, but we pay a steep price for this: our minds go dead from the lack of challenge and novelty.” To awaken the Dimensional Mind and move through the creative process, Greene says there are three essential steps; 1. Choose a proper creative task 2. Loosen and open up the mind through certain creative strategies 3. Create the optimal mental conditions for a breakthrough or insight 6. Fuse the intuitive with the rational The final step to achieving mastery is through fusing the intuitive with the rational. Through years of working in or studying a particular subject,