Doubts on the validity of mastery as a value

[Daz Romance]

Hi,

I'd appreciate some external opinions on a matter that has been bothering me for a while.

I have mastery on my values list (work in progress), however, I am under the impression that mastery is not actually acceptable as a value.

What I think is that the domain being mastered should be what is valued and not mastery itself.

For example, say you put mastery on your list, then you decide that what you'll master will be personal development. Doesn't this mean that what you value is personal development (and not mastery itself)?

What is your opinion on this?

[Natasha]

@Daz Romance Would you hire a mechanic to fix your car who hasn't mastered his trade?

[Wyatt]

Mastery is too vague. Get specific

[electroBeam]

na dah. of course.

I was hoping you were questioning mastery, even if the thing you are mastering is something you enjoy.

I've discovered, over the past few years, that mastery isn't for everyone, and its actually possible that you shouldn't aim for mastery. This is counter intuitive for most orange stage personal dev people on here, but its true to my experience.

mastery is basically the process of learning, practicing a skill over and over again until you can replicate that skill very precisely, elegantly and profoundly. 

In this day and age, we are beginning to see a phenomena where 1) practices, techniques and skills are quickly being surpassed by better practices, techniques and skills and 2) forging your own path, rather than following the path of others is both more accessible and more fulfilling to the individual.

for example for 1) mastering sword fighting was a great honour in the 15th century for Japan. The Samurais were valued greatly. But then came guns, and basically made mastering samurai fighting redundant. Now mastering guns was the new thing that was valuable... until attack helicopters came on the scene and surpassed this skills too... until drones came around and automated the jobs of attack helicopters. 

for example for 2) with the global economy you can make a living as a youtube celebrity. 

So its possible that mastering a particular skill isn't your thing. If you're the creative type that doesn't like to follow the rules of others, it may be wise to forget mastery and just focus on being creative, meditation, etc. 

This is my path, and I can only speak for my experience. I'm now focusing on meditation and creativity, because these are the only things that cannot be surpassed. These are also the only things I'm truly fulfilled with. I cannot stand following rules which will be redundant in a decade anyway. 

[d0ornokey]

@electroBeam

Yeah Eben Pagan is saying that mastery is outdated and it's more about combined useful skills to generate your own unique skill

[bejapuskas]

@Daz Romance  I think your line of thought makes sense  You cannot be „the master of mastery“ - that's another word for hypocrisy. But mastering your values, activities that you do, health etc. is a very good idea, go ahead  

[Bittu]

It depends on how you feel when you think about 'Mastery' 

I value it highly and just saying the word or thinking about it gets me motivated.

Visualize it in your head, and ask yourself what does it mean for you. 

[Shadowraix]

I don't think a lot of people go so meta. Mastery is more of an abstract concept that doesn't have value in of itself but what the concept points to, does.

Its a language layer to simplify having to say how experienced you are.