How to fast track mastery, insights from Dolly Parton on using setbacks and how to unlock our subconscious mind
4 minute read
Friday Thoughts & Learnings
This week I've read Robert Greene’s book 'Mastery' which shows how to fast track achieving mastery in any field. I've listened to a podcast with Dolly Parton talking about her creative process and how she never lets failure or setbacks slow her down. And I've been learning how to access your subconscious mind to break the invisible anchors that hold you back from pursuing what scares you. Enjoy.
How to fast track mastery
I’m always on the lookout for ways to make it easier and faster to help people master the art of problem solving. My thinking is, if we can use strategies to cut learning time down, more people will become better at problem solving faster and make the world a far better place sooner. Win win for everyone.
I was introduced to author Robert Greene while listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast. Greene has written six international bestsellers, including The 48 Laws of Power,The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, The 50th Law, (with rapper 50 Cent), The Laws of Human Nature and Mastery.
In his book Mastery, Greene provides a unique breakdown of how to obtain mastery in any field in six key steps. Here’s a super short summary of what I took out of his book:
Discover your reason – pursuing mastery of anything takes time and motivation. Finding your why, your reason for beginning a journey towards mastery, is the key first step. Looking inwards is the way to do this. Connect what you really want out of life with the thing you want to master.
Undertake an apprenticeship phase – Adopt a learning mindset from the beginning. Mastery of anything takes time for the mind and body to synch is a way that doing what you want to master becomes effortless. You first step to fast tracking mastery is to find people (synchronously or asynchronously) that have the skill you want and focus on learning from them.
Find the right mentors – Mentors are a proven way to short cut your path to mastery. Find good ones to help guide and challenge you. People you connect with emotionally and have the mastery you desire to fine tune your learning.
Cultivate your social intelligence – Regardless of the skills you are trying to master, spend time developing your social intelligence. Your ability to navigate smoothly through the social environment creates more time and energy to devote to learning and acquiring your desired new skills. Focus on practicing empathy, learn to distinguish ‘takers from givers’ and how to protect yourself while you’re in the vulnerable apprenticeship phase from being taken advantage of.
Unlock your creativity – Take the ideas you’ve learned in your chosen field and expand your perspective to others that could offer something new. Here is where you start to spread your wings to create things new and unique. Don’t let the voices of fear or negativity stop you from taking these bold steps. These are the steps that move you from slow learning to accelerated mastery.
Fuse the intuitive with rational – Your path to mastery is complete where you can fuse the intuitive with the rational, where your prior practice and knowledge combine to create flow states that allow you to more productive and value creating with your new skills. You are now the master with unique skills and perspective to share with the world.
Insights from Dolly Parton on using setbacks
Dolly Parton interviewed by Adam Grant
I have a newfound appreciation and respect for Dolly Parton after listening to this podcast. Adam does a great job of bringing out how Dolly’s creative mind works, how she stays focused and is not judgemental of herself and others when things fail to work out as planned.
She’s recently cowritten a fictional novel with James Patterson called Run, Rose, Run. It’s her first work of fiction writing. She also wrote and recorded an album to go with it.
Dolly has a burning desire to be creative and help those around her be as successful as they can be. Her delightful combination of self-belief and humility makes her an irresistible person to listen to.
How to unlock our subconscious mind
I’m fascinated by how our minds work and what we can do to harness more of their potential.
This week I had an experience of accessing my subconscious memories to help me better understand childhood pain and patterns of behaviour that were holding me back.
With the guidance of a trained professional, I took a psychotropic substance that allowed my conscious mind to dive into memories held deep within my subconscious mind and ‘join the dots’ to unhelpful beliefs and behaviours. And through this new understanding be able to let these go.
I have always been a people pleaser but didn’t know why. I prioritise others needs ahead of mine, struggle to set boundaries with people at times, and have found this can hold me back from pursuing my goals.
I learned through this experience, that people pleasing was a survival strategy I developed as an infant. My mother was both delighted to have me, but pained by the loss of her first child she was forced to give up to adoption as a young woman.
My people pleasing drive was an instinct to keep my mother focused on raising me despite the pain she felt being forced to abandon first born child and keeping this hidden from everyone. I could see both the joy and pain in her eyes as she looked at me.
My people pleasing response kept her pain away so she could focus on taking care of me. It helped me survive. I had not made this connection before.
Like sand training from a large backpack, I felt the weight of a lifetime of unconscious people pleasing over my own goals and needs drain away after I joined these dots. I guess we are all in the pain management business.
I now feel lighter and have a more balanced approach to pursuing my goal of creating and sharing content that helps everyone become expert problem solvers and supporting those I care about.
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