RESPECT THE PROCESS

“MOST PEOPLE CAN’T HANDLE BOREDOM. THAT MEANS THEY CAN’T STAY ON ONE THING UNTIL THEY GET GOOD AT IT. AND THEY WONDER WHY THEY’RE UNHAPPY.” —50 Cent

More often than not our position in sport or life is something that we endure. We wish the season to be over and dream of the future. We are not engaged in the daily activity of the sport. Being constantly distracted, we never harness our full mental powers. Mastering a sport, subject, skill, or trade is not as exciting as life outside work.

 We tend to be fanatics and focus on others hall-of-fame achievements. From such an angle, it is easy for us to be dazzled and see their success as stemming from genetics and perhaps some social factors. Kobe was just gifted. We could never reach his level, or so we think. But we are choosing to ignore that telling period in their lives, when each and every hall of famer underwent a rather tedious learning and training process in their sport.

Know this: the real secret, the real formula for power in this world, lies in accepting the ugly reality that learning and training requires a process, and this in turn demands patience and the ability to endure hours of drudge work.

KEYS TO MASTERY

• Progress through trial and error.

• Master something simple. Develop a pattern of confidence through the parts of your life that you take control over.

• Internalize the rules of the game. “With a deepening knowledge of these rules you can begin to maneuver them for your purpose… Knowing how it works, you can take it apart— for good.”

• Attune yourself to the details. “Often when you begin a project of any kind, it is from the wrong end. You tend to think first of what you want to accomplish, imagining the glory and money it will bring you if it succeeds. You then proceed to make this concept come to life. But as you go forward you often lose patience, because the small steps to get there are not nearly as exciting as the ambitious visions in your head.”

• Rediscover your natural persistence. “First, you must understand the role that your energy level plays in mastering a process and bringing something to completion. If you take on added goals or new tasks, your focus will be broken up and you will never attain what you wanted in the first place… Second, try breaking things up into smaller blocks of time. You have a large goal, but there are steps along the way, and steps within the steps.”

“Try to look at boredom from the opposite perspective— as a call for you to slow yourself down, to stop searching for endless distractions.”

Click THE EDGE link to enhance your process to mastery and success