Model and Emulate Trailblazers & Experts

“No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.” – Brian Tracy

(Just about) Anything you want to do has been done, in some form, by someone else. And for everything you want to learn how to do, there’s a book, video, audio, course or some sort of instructional aid, the only challenge is finding it (and generally that’s not even that challenging… ).

The above quote generated two questions I want you to ask yourself:

What are you not doing because you don’t know how (and are avoiding learning)?

What are you doing only adequately, that you could be doing exceptionally if you have a better approach and method?

What stops you from trying something new, even though it means learning? Perhaps you really don’t want to do it? Or, if it’s just fear that stops you, how can you either connect with the pay-off that lies at the accomplishment or the benefit of learning a skill or activity?

In terms of the second question, what stops you from improving something you do already? Would it be better to no longer do that thing? A provocative question, but if you’re not improving at something why are you doing it?

I love to consider the concept of mastery and how it doesn’t matter how poorly you do something at first as long as you’re willing to try; the key in the doing of something is to always look for ways to improve. Mastery is not perfection, it’s the journey from novice to ever-improving – and evolving – (Master/) practitioner.

How can you be a Master? What can you start, or make better?

Similar Posts

  • Why Emotions Matter So Much

    I was just thinking about an exercise I could do with clients where we take a client goal, close our eyes and vividly imagine what it will be like when the goal is achieved. We would stir up positive, constructive, emotions  and actually experience the feelings that would accompany the new reality (that would exist…

  • Be Anti-Status-Quo

    Any regular reader of this blog knows I am a big Seth Godin fan. I just read another great post on his blog (you can read it here). In the post he talks about the resistance of (certain factions in) business to important changes. One example being the elimination of child labor and the complaint…

  • There’s Always Work To Do

    I watched a video this morning that triggered me. It was one of those I-just-have-a-minute-here-on-vacation videos shot by some self-help-ey kinda people and as far as it went it was okay, I guess. The person was talking about how important it is to shift from “lack” thinking to “abundance” thinking – an attitude of gratitude and…

  • Listening: How To Be Great

    “It takes a great man to be a good listener.” – Calvin Coolidge Everyone wants to talk, to speak, to share and communicate – to be heard. To be heard is to be significant and everyone needs significance. (They don’t want it, or think it would be nice to have… they need it.) To truly listen,…

  • Dreams vs. Goals

    A Goal Without a Plan is Only a Dream… – Brian Tracy Dreams are nice. They are wonderful. They are absolutely necessary. Without dreams the world wouldn’t change for the better. With dreams your life won’t change for the better. *  *  * But dreams are not enough. You must create, deploy and update a…

  • What Kind of -Dependent Are You?

    There are, broadly speaking, three kinds of “dependent:” co-, in- and inter-. One is clearly undesirable, another is sometimes okay and a third (understood properly) is clearly superior. Which do you think is which? I’ll take them in order. Co-dependent: being co-dependent means you not only are not divorced from your personal power, but your…