Mastery: Our Nations Missing Mantra

 

Mastery is such a fascinating topic! As I am reading through the book "Mastery: the Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment" I have come to realize that we as a nation are trading mastery for quick- fix, instant gratification, entertainment and pleasure. I am fearful of what the future will hold for us and how long we will be able to maintain our freedoms as we pursue paths that lead to addiction, idleness, and apathy. We are learning to make everything easy and to avoid hard things. We want something for little or nothing invested. There is a quote that explains this in the book, " The same climate of thought that would lead some people to the promise that they can learn a new skill or lose weight without patient come a long-term effort leads others to the promise of great riches without the production of value in return."

We need to change the narrative and open our eyes to the truth that anything worth getting will require hard work and effort. Otherwise, it probably isn't worth much! This is one of my biggest concerns for my children. I see some of them wanting everything to be fun and easy and when they are confronted with something that requires a great amount of effort, they quickly lose interest and decide they aren’t that interested after all. I have been trying to figure out how to inspire them to choose SOME path of determined effort and growth. I want them to create a vision for themselves and then start to work step-by-step to create their dreams for themselves. First, they need to start to sincerely dream. I hope to change this narrative for my children and those who I have influence on. I can start with myself and go from there. As I pursue hard fought successes and continue to improve myself, I can inspire others to do the same. As I make small incremental improvements day by day and week by week, I can model the method of self-improvement and eventual self-mastery. If enough parents and leaders become aware of this epidemic of idle free loading and avoidance of discomfort of any kind, then maybe we can change the tides in our great nation, one person at a time. 

 

A Hero's Journey

 I listened to a short presentation called "The Hero's Journey". It was very insightful and I gained some insights and understandings that will benefit me in my life. I also was given some valuable exercises that I plan to implement. He talked about interviewing people at different ages/stages of life about what is most important in life. He said there will be various ideas in most age categories. But the age 60+ category will all say the same thing, more or less. They will say the 3 most important questions you will ponder at the end of your life will be the following:

1) Have I made a difference in the world?

2) Was I a good person?

3) Who did I love and who loved me?

When you consider these questions, you realize that a lot of what we stress over and spend our time on each day doesn't fall under these three questions very often. It is a real wake up call to consider how I can make these questions a priority and a focus as I live my day to day life.

Another important point of the speech was the idea of finding a calling that fits your special gifts. This may take some time to discover. A recommendation to ask 5 people that I know very well and ask them to take time to talk to me about what I do better than anyone else in the world. It is important to press them for specifics and for examples from my life that support their observations of my unique gifts and talents. This way I can more accurately determine what my calling should be. This calling must be something that serves others and that truly matters to me. As I use my gifts to change the world, it will change me in the process. This reminds me of the scripture where the Lord tells us that those who lose their life in the service of others/God will find it. And those that save their life (or focus on themselves) will lose it. 

Deconstructing my Fears - a POWERFUL Exercise

 This week I had a liberating assignment. Who knew a school assignment could be so influential in my life? The assignment was a process worksheet in which I took time to identify the fears which crop up with my current life goal of going to law school. I started out by sitting with myself and truly pondering what fears I had. As I considered this, I began to type up the various fears that came to mind in relation to attending law school. It was a very emotional experience as I dug deep and put the fears in words and confronted them head on. Once I had put down the 5 fears that I have I just sat in my chair and looked at them and read them through a few times and felt them deeply. I will admit I even cried as I felt the worst-case scenarios of my various fears. Then I shifted gears mentally and looked at how I could mitigate the risks of these worst-case scenarios. I began to resolve each fear or concern and how I could avoid them occurring all together. It felt wise and empowering that I could make a plan to avoid these fears happening. It was also empowering to bring them to light instead of knowing they were lurking in the shadows of my subconscious. Additionally, in step three of the exercise, I determined how I could get back to the status quo should the worst-case scenario happen. I would be disappointed if this did happen, but I would be okay. This is what this step gave to me. It seems that our fears of the unknown can cripple us or keep us from pursuing our dreams. Taking time to put a name to them and identify what they are exposes them so that you can then deal with them. It made me also consider the fears my children have and how this same exercise could help them face their fears and conquer them. 

Integrity _ The greatest of all virtues

 I have always considered myself an honest person. I don't tell lies and I do good work. I never thought that my integrity would be tested at the age I am now. However, I learned a lesson on integrity that really hit me to the very center of my spirit and I found myself repenting and committing to be a more honest person. I didn't even completely recognize that I was not having integrity at first. We were selling a travel trailer about 18 months ago. It was a beautiful trailer and in excellent condition. I knew it would sell fast and I had a lot of interested buyers. The day came when one of the buyers made a good offer and we made a verbal agreement over the phone and arranged the day to meet to go over all the components of the trailer to show them how to work everything. The day before they came I noticed an outdoor speaker that was broken on the outside of the trailer. We really didn't use the outdoor speakers that much and I hadn't noticed that it had been broken. At first I thought, "Oh, I didn't realize that was broken. I wonder how it happened. I guess they didn't notice when they came to look at the trailer the first time. Oh well, it's up to them to look over everything thoroughly. I wasn't intentionally trying to hide it because I didn't even know that had happened." 

They came the next day with the cashier's check ready for the walkthrough of the trailer. I had already forgotten about the broken outdoor speaker. I wasn't intentionally trying to be dishonest. However, I didn't make it a point to be completely transparent either. I could have sent a text with a picture of the broken speaker the day before when I noticed it. I just didn't make it important enough to address it with the buyers right away, so I forgot about it. As we were doing the walk through the husband noticed the speaker and asked about it. I told him I didn't know how it happened. I felt very embarrassed at that moment that I hadn't sought for complete transparency immediately. It wasn't outright dishonesty, but I was displaying lack of integrity because I should have brought it to their attention as soon as it came to my attention. I felt a grave need to repent and really examine my level of integrity. I felt great guilt and recommitted to be strict in observing my personal integrity from that time forth. Not an enjoyable experience, but a good learning lesson for me and I am grateful the Lord humbled me in that moment to teach me to be better.