Guest Post - A Year of Magical Learning

Guest Post by ClubAny Member Aaron Snow

Reflection Title: Never Stop Learning if You Want to Achieve Mastery!

Book – Mastery by Robert Greene

Book Description:

What did Charles Darwin, middling schoolboy and underachieving second son, do to become one of the earliest and greatest naturalists the world has known? What were the similar choices made by Mozart and by Caesar Rodriguez, the U.S. Air Force's last ace fighter pilot? In Mastery, Robert Greene's fifth book, he mines the biographies of great historical figures for clues about gaining control over our own lives and destinies. Picking up where The 48 Laws of Power left off, Greene culls years of research and original interviews to blend historical anecdote and psychological insight, distilling the universal ingredients of the world's masters.

Temple Grandin, Martha Graham, Henry Ford, Buckminster Fuller - all have lessons to offer about how the love for doing one thing exceptionally well can lead to mastery. Yet the secret, Greene maintains, is already in our heads. Debunking long-held cultural myths, he demonstrates just how we, as humans, are hardwired for achievement and supremacy. Fans of Greene's earlier work and Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers will eagerly devour this canny and erudite explanation of just what it takes to be great.

Guest Reflection by ClubAny Member Aaron Snow:

This is the 3rd book I read by Robert Greene. His other books, The 48 Laws of Power and The Laws of Human Nature were the other ones I read. Although I consider the laws of human nature a more insightful book into the psychology of humanity and how to navigate social relations this book provides a great and inspiring framework for expressing yourself through your work.

Go with your inclinations, blend your intuition with rationality. Deep dive and explore, know where you want to go, but know that the path may take you along a route you did not expect. Do not give up. Find a mentor, someone who you trust can support you and give you space to create your own work. If you can have a well working mentor apprenticeship this can be highly profitable. Make sure you value your learning over money. You will have to surpass your mentor and that is ok. You come from different times and worldviews. However not having a mentor you will have to work twice as hard. We developed a great ability through our mirror neurons to mimic others. Use this hard-wired skill to hasten your understandings.

By becoming a master at something you are advancing our species. Do not alienate yourself from your inclinations. This will only lead to pain and disappointment, and you will gain a sense that your life has been wasted.

People can give up for many reasons, one of them being not knowing how to navigate the social structures around them. They get absorbed by them and this consumes them. Better to be an observer of human nature and not let it affect your work. Be a bystander of the comedy of humanity. You still must play by the rules, but do not let it get into your head. Step back and stay focused. Do not take things personally.

It is a height of selfishness to merely consume what others create and retreat into a shell of limited goals and immediate pleasures.

Reconnect to your childhood if you are looking for what your life’s task may be. For me I think it is something about building a healthy community. I wanted to take care of people around me, I always saw my parents doing this. So, for my life task is to create health communities.

We evolved working with our hands. Keep this up in the physical realm. Word working, weaving, something with your hands will be good for your brain.

As you need to be continually learning maintain a level of inferiority and childness. Remember to be humble about achievements you have made, this can stir up envy if you do not. So much of your success will be through luck as well. Be humble. Give credit to those above you to help them gain the social prestige they (we all would like) would like.

Remember learning must be an active process. Mentors do not give you a shortcut, but they streamline the process.

“One repays a teacher badly if one remains a pupil” - Nietzsche

READ A BOOK ABOUT BENJAMIN FRANKLIN - HE WAS A GENIUS IS MANY WAYS. HE THOROUGHLY APPLIED HIMSELF INTO HIS EIGHTIES.

Accustom yourself to criticism.

Social intelligence. Learn to focus deeply on others, reading their behavior, seeing what motivates them. Consider their interests. What is in it for them? Help them advance that. He relates to the naive perspective frequently; this is misreading other people’s intentions and can greatly harm our careers. Social intelligence is nothing more than the process of discarding the naive perspective and approaching something more realistic.

We must adopt supreme acceptance of people behaviors. Be as tolerance as possible.

People will change their thoughts and emotions. It is best to cultivate distance and a degree of detachment from other people shifting emotions so not get caught up in the process.

The root cause of passive aggression is fear of direct confrontation.

Let your work do the talking. Remember you still will have to persuade others. Give the public something compelling, mysterious, and intriguing. Remember to discuss your ideas with others on your team otherwise they may sabotage your efforts because you did not include them.

You will encounter fools. Fools are caught up in their egos and insecurities. What should matter the most is getting long-term results and getting the work done as efficiently as possible.

Do not conform with all the knowledge you have absorbed. Expand your knowledge by learning how it relates to other fields. Entertain opposing viewpoints. Chance will favor the prepared mind. The more breadth of knowledge you have with this, the more opportunities you will be able to take advantage of. Look at setbacks as opportunities. Mastery is about cultivating an open and agile mind, not stuck in one way. You are able to step back and make appropriate and good decisions. Use drawings to sketch your ideas. Words are very limiting. Images are very creative.

Think of yourself as a hunter, ever alert, eyes scanning the landscape for the facts that will expose a once hidden reality with profound consequences. Remember the key to building anything well is through repetition. Also, let the project enrich with time. Do not constrict or delay a project more or less than it needs to be. You will know when this is. Listen to your intuition. Perfection will be the enemy of the good.

READ MARCEL PROUST. HIS BOOK SOUNDS FASINATING.

Remember, you are unique and there is a purpose to your uniqueness. No moment is wasted if you pay attention and learn the lessons contained in each experience.

Intelligence is a connection between things. This is why you must never stop learning. Play to your strengths as Leanardo did, by realizing he could not deal with authority of others guiding his work.

In dealing with any problem you must train yourself to look at how it inevitable connects to a larger picture.

Understand: We can never really experience what other people are experiencing. We must always remain on the outside, looking in, this is the cause of so many misunderstandings and conflicts.

Question: What is your life task? How are you progressing daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly towards this? Who do you use as a mentor?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? - An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - Mastery by Robert Greene