Do you know that we have lost many people who could have become specialists in their core area and ended up being a jack of all trades?
There are a few key reasons why this has happened:
- We think short-term and end up aiming for immediate pleasures than the long-term success that could be significant that cannot be measured today.
- Overdependence on corporate careers as corporates look for people to perform what is immediately needed (mostly) compared to long-term planning. From my experience, very few corporates think of long-term these days. Most only focus on short-term results and success.
- Specialization needs focus, effort and patience. Though it looks green on the other side, uncomfortable transitions on the journey from being a generalist to a specialist need to be handled. It also needs some form of guidance and support without which it looks scary.
- The manager career path has been a big setback for so many individuals who were forced to become managers even though they did not have the abilities, strengths and personality to be managers. There is a saying, “People join organizations but leave managers.” This is mainly due to the wrong selection and fitment of managers. Not all can be CEOs, not all can be marketing professionals, and not all can be programmers. Similarly, not all can be managers.
- Lack of specialized areas. There are clear examples of countries following specific strategies. India took service as their way of future whereas China took manufacturing and production route. This resulted in India being looked at for operations purpose rather than for innovation and creativity. The scenario is changing now, thanks to many great start-ups that are coming up.
So, what is the secret to mastery?
Malcolm Gladwell came out with a guiding benchmark in his book Outliers, wherein he mentioned 10000 hours as the basis of measuring mastery. This theory faced a lot of opposition as people felt that mastery could not just be based on “X number of hours”.
Mastery includes one’s capability, the interest, mindfulness and focus during the task, the intensity of effort, and other support systems in his place.
Though all these are true, I like the concept of 10000 hours. If you can look at your career and confidently see yourself achieving mastery in your area of expertise at some point in time, this can be a huge motivation and bring in a lot of energy in your daily life.
- If you consistently invest 8 hours in a day in your area daily, you achieve mastery in less than 3 1/2 years.
- If you consistently invest 4 hours a day, it becomes close to 7 years.
- If you consistently invest 2 hours daily, it makes it close to 14 years.
- If we can see ourselves as masters in a particular area after 3 1/2 years of dedicated focus and effort, imagine the energy, excitement and positive vibration it would bring.
For this mastery to happen, we need to ensure that the other secrets that were discussed are taken care of.
- It would help if you were operating from your core involving innate ability, strength and personality.
- You are doing what you want.
- You are mostly mindful without distractions when you are spending your time.
- You have short-term goals and achieve them.
- You are taking care of all domains of life as disappointments and frustration in other aspects of life, such as health or relationship will negatively impact your path to mastery.
Reflections
- Where do you want to achieve mastery in life?
- What actions have you taken from your side to achieve mastery?
- What are the bottlenecks to achieve mastery?
- Do you see potential in any of your friends and relatives to achieve mastery?
- In your known circles, who has achieved mastery?
Self-Evaluation
Please select what resonates with you after reading the chapter and reflecting on the questions. Evaluation is just for you, and nobody is going to look at this. So be honest in your evaluation:
- I do not have any clue about my area of mastery.
- I have identified an area of mastery but need to take actions to achieve the same.
- I am on the journey of achieving mastery.
Small Actions
- Think about one area of mastery in your life.
- With your current age and hours you can invest, what will you be the age when you achieve mastery?
- Name five people who have achieved mastery in their lives.
- Visualize you being the sixth person in this list once you achieve mastery.