Seek Mastery!

The habit of always striving to be better

When we are in the blue zone, we are confident, collaborative and creative.

The confidence is in our own self-efficacy, our competence in the work that we do.  We are good at what we do, and we know this, this makes us feel good about ourselves.

When we add creativity to this confidence it means that we are – consciously and unconsciously – looking for ways to be better.  It may be to find a quicker way to complete a task, it may be wondering why we are doing the task at all, it may be thinking that a different task would meet the end goal better.

This combination of competence and creativity is what powers our drive towards mastery, the continuous drive to become better and better.

We can be viewed as being self-motivated because we get up and do the work that is ours to do.  But true self-motivation, autonomous motivation, must include this drive towards mastery.  In a world that is complex and changing we need to have this ability to adapt and get better.  Even the very best need to get better, not because they are not very good at what they do but that what they need to do is subtly changing as the world changes around them. 

No one can sit on their laurels, we all need to seek mastery.

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation. At the core of this work is the practice of encounter.  Earlier blogs can be found here.