Our journey begins with a blank slate. We know nothing. Then we discover that there is something we REALLY want to know/try/do/have/be. Something turns on inside of us and we decide to learn it. We start down the path, finding a teacher, obtaining a book, hiring a professional, attending a seminar…
As our journey begins often we feel the heavy hand of “failure.” In fact over and over again we try, we miss, we fall, we fail. Off in the foggy distance is the promise of of mastery but it looks too far, everyone else seems to do it better, it’s scary, hard, exhausting, expensive…
But then we get up, we start again and then there comes the first milestone, WOW! The feeling is a rush of excitement and adrenaline as we start to feel those early signs of hope that we may succeed.
In our head we travel all the way down the mental journey to ultimate success, we can see ourselves at the top of the mountain, with the book published, performing in a concert with people who paid in attendance…
Then comes the next roadblock, this one seemingly bigger and harder than the previous block. Is that pain we feel? Is that a bill I didn’t expect? Or the worst thing imaginable, did someone we love and respect knock us down with their words or mocking laughter?!?! That may be the end of it for us. We QUIT!
A little time passes and these strange dreams begin. The ones where we are speaking in the language we were studying. Or standing at the top of the mountain and are snatched up by a giant vulture. Or we are driving full speed when we hit a wall. Our brains are in conflict with what we really want, actually now NEED in order to be happier and more fulfilled, and still we deny ourselves time with our real passion.
Until one day, in the quiet, secret, dark, repressed corner of our mind we start to dust off that treasure chest that has been tightly locked and stored deeply in the black pit of our unfulfilled, dream storage locker in our mind.
So we start again. It is said that it may take 10,000 hours, as much as 10 years to gain mastery. If we had stuck with it when we started would we be experiencing mastery? If we start now we can and probably will reach mastery.
Here is a great article to consider: Skill: Journey from Novice to Master
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