Happy Tuesday to you all! I’d like to thank you in advance for reading my post for this weeks discussion. The strategy for attaining mastery that I’d like to reflect upon is to play to your strengths. Greene makes many strong valid points, but I’d like to cite three concepts that resonated something within me and also relate to a few key points said by Robert Greene himself during his Talks at Google.
In this week's readings, Greene states, “...achieving mastery in life often depends on those first steps that we take.” (Greene 284). He briefly mentions this during his Talk at Google as well. Our journey to mastery depends on when and how we take our first step. It may take some years to get to a level of mastery, maybe longer or shorter. I believe that not only does it depend on how you begin your journey, but it's also the process within your journey. The guts of it. According to Greene, Albert Einstein explains that it wasn’t just his knowledge of science and mathematics that impacted his journey. It was his imagination and intuition. “Empathy plays an enormous role in learning and Knowledge” (Greene 284). I believe this to be very true. Empathy is a psychological identification of a person, place, or thing based on each person’s perspective. To be able to open ourselves up and allow us to widen our perspective on how we see things, even the littlest details, is a step closer to knowing our strengths and weakness, and growing from that.
During Greene’s Talk at Google, he summarizes that we as humans, usually look at only options A, B, and C (relating to the problem at hand). If we widen our perspective and put options D, E, and F into the big picture, our end result may come out to be more beneficial. There is a motto that Greene encourages us to go by, “Look wider and think further ahead” (Greene 297). Clearly, this is stating that we shouldn’t always focus on the present. Think long-term ahead.
After carefully dissecting the Strategies to Attaining Mastery, I have concluded that Albert Einstein is the gentlemen I seem myself relating to the best. Not only did he make a name for himself, but he did it on his own path. Even if some people saw his methods as unconventional, Einstein still worked with a mixture of his patience and tenacity. Persistence is a good attribute to have, and patience is an admirable quality. These are two qualities that I feel can be strengths for myself. I’ve always found Einstein to be an inspirational historical character for myself, so it is refreshing to understand him and his thought process from another perspective in Mastery. Throughout this lesson, I have learned to look at the big picture, build on my strengths, improve my weaknesses, and surround myself with motivation and positivity.
Thank you again for taking the time to read my post this week. I hope you have a wonderful week and I wish you the best on your journey to mastery!
Greene, Robert. Mastery. Penguin Books, 11/2012. VitalBook file.
Robert Greene: "Mastery" | Talks at Google [Video file]. (2013, April 7). In Talks at Google. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
