Mastery (The Modern Machiavellian Robert Greene Book 1)

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Greene defines mastery as a heightened form of power and intelligence which any of us can attain, and which almost all of us experience from time to time under suitable conditions, such as the urgent need to solve a problem or to meet a deadline.

Conservatism: If you gain any kind of attention or success for your work in this phase, you face the great danger of creeping conservatism. In general, it is by standing out too much that you will spark this ugly emotion, and so it is best to maintain a nonthreatening exterior and to blend in well with the group, at least until you are so successful it no longer matters. Priorities do shift, and you can change them at any time, but simply getting them down in black and white adds clarity to your life, and clarity creates energy. Allow for Serendipity: Move outside your normal realm of comfort and interest, explore far and wide, while stayng open and avoiding jumping to conclusions.Reading this book at this particular time felt like a drink of cold water in the desert for I have been thirsting after a practice that I could master. For the angel’s face, he experimented with his paints and mixed a new blend that gave it a kind of soft radiance that expressed the angel’s sublime mood. We develop an intuitive sense of the skill and have mastered it to the point of being able to innovate and break the rules. Since I read this more for knowledge than for practice, I hope to reread this soon with application in mind and will review my ratings then. Play to your strengths — Supreme Focus: Mastery is like swimming— it is too difficult to move forward when we are creating our own resistance or swimming against the current.

The most important aspect of the mainstream image we are being exposed to, is to understand where it's coming from. It explains the nature of change, and sets your expectations straight in case you plan on becoming proficient in any area of life. Michael Murphy, author of Golf in the Kingdom and The Future of the BodyDrawing on Zen philosophy and his expertise in the martial art of aikido, bestselling author Gorge Leonard shows how the process of mastery can help us attain a higher level of excellence and a deeper sense of satisfaction and fulfillment in our daily lives.To get material on the contemporary masters, of whom there are nine in the book, Greene conducted in-depth interviews with each. The human individual is equipped to learn and go on learning prodigiously from birth to death, and this is precisely what sets him or her apart from all other known forms of life.

From how to increase your energy, overcome resitance to change (homeostasis), master the commonplace of daily life and even introduces his LET (Leonard Energy Training). Mastery requires us to change the way we approach these periods - which we usually think of as unimportant "in-between" time. By analyzing the lives of such past masters as Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, and Leonard da Vinci, as well as by interviewing nine contemporary masters, including tech guru Paul Graham and animal rights advocate Temple Grandin, Greene debunks our culture’s many myths about genius and distills the wisdom of the ages to reveal the secret to greatness. My first awareness of this book came a couple of years ago when I heard the soundbite that it takes 10,000 hours of practice at something to achieve mastery of it.

He served as President Emeritus of the Esalen Institute, past-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, co-founder of Integral Transformative Practice International, and an editor of Look Magazine. What you already possess dwarves what anyone could ever give you; you are the culmination of amazing knowledge; "The best way to describe your total creative capacity is to say that for all practical purposes it is infinite. Finally, you must see your career or vocational path more as a journey with twists and turns rather than a straight line. The author, who wrote Way of Aikido, really digs into much more of why he became and does what he does, but that's a sideline in this book.