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Drive - Part 2: Mastery

 This is the continuation of the review of "Drive" by Daniel Pink .

Mastery



What is Mastery? It is the desire to get better at something that matters.

Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement. And this distinction leads to the second element of Type I behavior: mastery—the desire to get better and better at something that matters. – Daniel Pink

When you have autonomy, you are constantly engaging with mastering a skill so that you can do better than next time. The thrill of conquering obstacles on your way to mastery compounds over time leading to "Flow" states where you lose track of time and are fully engaged in the activity.

Living a satisfying life requires more than simply meeting the demands of those in control. Yet in our offices and our classrooms we have way too much compliance and way too little engagement. In flow, people lived so deeply in the moment, and felt so utterly in control, that their sense of time, place, and even self melted away. They were autonomous, of course. But more than that, they were engaged – Daniel Pink

When the task at hand exceeds a person’s capabilities, the result is anxiety but when it is below a person's capabilities, the result is boredom. When they match, glorious results are yielded.

The Three Laws of Mastery

Flow is necessary for mastery but doesn't guarantee mastery. One happens in the moment while the other happens over months, years or even decades.

Mastery is a mindset



Carol Dweck, the author of Mindset and a psychology professor at Stanford University tells us that there are essentially two mindsets. A growth mindset and a fixed mindset.

For people with fixed mindset, what they were born with is best that they can do and they don't believe that there is a way to improve. However, the people with a growth mindset, believe their current abilities can always improve and one can get smarter, faster etc

People with a fixed mindset set performance goals instead of learning goals and cannot overcome any adversity that challenges them in any way. They seek the easy way out to maintain their frame.

People with a growth mindset have learning goals and work towards learning something and not performing something to achieve a target. Example, fixed learners will work to get an A in French while growth learners will work to learn to speak French fluently.

Mastery is a pain



Mastery is a pain in the ass and not a walk in the park otherwise everyone would take the trip.

Flow enters the picture here in two ways. If people are conscious of what puts them in flow, they’ll have a clearer idea of what they should devote the time and dedication to master. And those moments of flow in the course of pursuing excellence can help people through the rough parts. But in the end, mastery often involves working and working and showing little improvement, perhaps with a few moments of flow pulling you along, then making a little progress, and then working and working on that new, slightly higher plateau again. It’s grueling, to be sure. But that’s not the problem; that’s the solution.

Mastery is an asymptote



You can approach mastery, get really really close to it but you will never touch it just like the straight line which approaches the curve but never reaches it

In short you will never attain mastery but you will get really good at something maybe even world class

The joy is in the pursuit and not the realization.

Thanks for reading all the way to end. This is the end of part 3, go to part 3 of the review to finish the review.

 

 

 

 

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