Book Report of Mastery By George Leonard

It is said that masters of skill have done that skill for 10,000 hours but how to do you get to those 10,000 hours is an important question to ask. Mastery by George Leonard outlines how you get to those 10,000 hours and even enjoy the process. Leonard’s book outlines how to pick the skill to become a master in, how to find your sensei, why we stop practicing, and how to make the mundane help your mastery journey! I hope this report will help outline these principles and will help you to start working on your 10,000 hours and ultimately create mastery in whatever you choose.

            At the beginning of the book the journey of becoming a master is explained and demonstrated. When someone starts learning a skill there is improvement very quickly, which is then followed by a plateau some longer and some shorter but if the learner makes it through the plateau they will have a time of breakthrough and improvement comes quickly again. This journey is not easy for many people because improvement is not linear compared to practice. You will have people who will get into lots of different things and dabble but will be quick to be discouraged soon after reaching a plateau. If you truly want to become a master in your chosen skill you will need to understand this process so that you can stay on the path when it is discouraging. I have personally experienced this in my life. I joined the swim team at a very early age and saw improvement I continued to grow and get stronger and it was easy to see improvement. The sport of swimming is s sport where it is easy to have hard data saying I improved because there is a regulation size for each pool and each race is timed so you can see data and see by how many seconds you improved. As you go along a career of swimming those time improvements from week to week or month to month will start to get smaller as you reach plateaus in your mastery of the skill. Eventually, as you keep training, swimming laps, and improving your mental toughness you will have a breakthrough and will improve your race time significantly. Having experience with going through those steps of some mastery it is easier to apply that to other parts of life.

            Later in the book, Leonard writes about the importance of having the right teacher, coach, sensei, or whatever applies to the skill you are learning. There are many factors to consider when finding the person who will guide you toward success. It is important to understand their motivations for teaching others, whether is it purely to make money, they have the desire to control people, or they want to help people have a successful experience or shape to sport or industry they are in for something better. It is important to have someone that is knowledgeable about the skill, but it is not necessary for them to have reached the heights you hope to achieve. Many coaches never competed at the professional level but can coach at that level. Being able to find out whom they have helped have success with will help you to trust their credentials as your guide. Using these evaluation skills will help you to identify the right coach for you.

            Once you have a teacher you are on the right path, but the work has just begun. Leonard writes that once we have a coach, we will need to surrender our will to them. Much like Danial’s son the Karate kid from the 80’s movie, it is important that we take time to trust that Mr. Miyagi knows what he is doing by having us paint the fence, sand the floor, or wax his cars. Often times we will not understand the reasons behind the actions we are required to make but it is important to trust our teacher to know what is right. In most cases, the connection won’t be as disconnected as fence painting to karate but we can trust and ask questions when needed when we don’t understand. As we move forward trusting our coach we will have times when we are super dedicated, motivated, and will be willing to do just about anything. Just like the clique’s new year’s resolutions however that motivation and excitement won’t last forever, and we will be tempted to abandon our resolve. Leonard explains why this happens to so many of us and luckily enough it’s not because you suck, or that the skill is not for you or you are too old, or anything like that. What is happening is that our minds and bodies are constantly looking for a change and trying to avoid change because sometimes change means that we are getting sick, or in danger of physical harm so we unconsciously try to get back into our comfort zone. It is a process called homeostasis and it is important that we recognize that because when we do we can do something about it and we can push through the times we feel uncomfortable and realize that is when we are growing in good ways. Eventually, you will be able to grow into a new homeostasis of doing what is best for use and having habits that will help us become whom we want to become.

            As we learn these skills in our chosen areas that we want to create mastery we will see that the skills can carry over into even the most mundane of tasks. Like doing the dishes, driving, brushing our teeth, etc. All of these things can be looked at from this framework of mastery and we can apply it to those things and thus continue to grow our mastery-building skills and just have more intentionality and meditative states during our lives. This will help us to have peace in our lives and continue to grow our energy by using it and breaking out of the mundane tasks that sap our energy.

This report is just a taste of everything covered in the book. That being said, I hope this report helps you to see the impact that these principles and why this book can help others to have success in becoming a master in your area of study, work, or sport. I highly recommend reading the book to help you understand these principles deeper and learn how to apply them.