Mastery

Mastery is a bit of a deceptive idea. There's a part of me that says this because I have not mastered anything yet. Hear me out, though. Mastery is sold to us as this ultimate level of excellence in something that comes super easy. We will have all the money we want and “deserve” because we are masters. We will have no other levels of achievement to attain because we are masters. We will have “made it!” You already see the flaw, don't you? Mastery, when presented like that (and it often is), is merely a dream without action. It captures our focus and attention on the result at the end. Yet I think we need to flip our view of mastery completely.

Becoming a master at something does not mean we will have reached and achieved all there is to know about something. It means that we have achieved a level of wisdom with completing the necessary work in a particular area. That means we don't fall in love with the results like the fame or the fortune. It means we fall in love with the process of becoming. The process of becoming does not ever end!

Let's think about it in regards to a salesman. A salesman has a certain process he needs to walk each customer through in order to get the sale. His focus is on the customer in each moment of the process, even though he is working towards the goal of the sale at the end. If at any point, he tries to rush to the end, to the sale, without having walked his customer through the whole process, he is likely to not get the sale. Here's why: he stopped serving them. His attention dropped from them, from what they needed from him, from how he could solve their problem with his product or service. And his attention was drawn to himself and the paycheck at the end, to the awards ceremony of being top salesman.

When that salesman is coming off a ‘no sale’, what does he need to do? He needs to go through his process of finding another customer and walk them through his process. When that salesman is coming off a ‘big sale’, what does he need to do? He needs to go through his process of finding another customer and walk them through his process. The process is the same no matter what he has experienced. His work is still the same for the next one. To be a great salesman, he must find a customer and meet their need. That's it!

Have you been rushing your process? Maybe you're a salesman who has been successful, and you think you can skip a few steps because you're a “good salesman” and they will just buy from you because of it. No. You are good because you walk each one through the process. Do not neglect the process. Following the process, doing the work, even when it's the boring details, is how you get closer to mastery. It's the process, and it never stops. Fall in love with the long journey!

STAY FOCUSED!

Chri