Daniel Pink's Three Laws of Mastery

I recently finished reading a good book by Daniel Pink called "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us." He mentions three elements that are responsible for motivating us - Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. I found his "Three Laws of Mastery" particularly fascinating for anyone wanting to become great at anything.

1. Mastery is a Mindset:
Pink's "Type I" behavior has an incremental theory of intelligence, prizes learning goals over performance goals, and welcomes effort as a way to improve at something that matters.

2. Mastery is a Pain:
"Grit" - perseverance and passion for long-term goals
"Mastery - of sports, music, business - requires effort (difficult, painful, excruciating, all-consuming effort) over a long time (not a week or month, but a decade.)"
"Mastery 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."

3. Mastery is an Asymptote:
"This is the nature of mastery: Mastery is an asymptote. You can approach it. You can home in on it. You can get really, really, really close to it. But...you can never touch it."

John Henry Newman on Vocations

I was teaching a class this morning on the topic of vocations. I came across this quote from John Henry Newman about vocations:

“God has created me to do him some definite service: he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission – I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.”

Six Keys to Being Excellent

Tony Schwartz is the President and CEO of The Energy Project and author of "Be Excellent at Anything." He posted his "Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything."

These keys can serve as an extension of Anders Ericsson's work on "deliberate practice." Ericsson made the case that it takes 10,000 hours of work to achieve expertise.

1. Pursue what you love. - Passion

2. Do the hardest work first. - Delay gratification.

3. Practice intensely, without interruption for short periods of no longer than 90 minutes and then take a break.

4. Seek expert feedback, in intermittent doses.

5. Take regular renewal breaks. - Relax after intense effort.

6. Ritualize practice. - Build specific, inviolable times at which you do them, so that over time you do them without having to squander energy thinking about them.

You can find more from Tony Schwartz on his website http://tonyschwartz.com/