Can I Really Master Something...Anything?

As I did the reading for this week about self-mastery a few things became clear to me.  First, I have never really wanted to take a karate class, but now find the idea very intriguing.  Second, I clearly have a long way to go on the road to self-mastery, or mastery of anything at all.  As I read Success Is Gauged by Self-Mastery by N Eldon Tanner I started to think about the many different paths I have traveled down in my life.  He gives us two important elements of self-mastery.  "The first is to determine your course or set the sails, so to speak, of moral standards; the other is the willpower or the wind in the sails carrying one forward."  As I considered these two elements and evaluated the paths I have taken against these elements, I have found that most of my paths lacked at least one, if not both of these elements.  I started my college degree just out of high school, but when the opportunity came up to stop going because of starting a family I quickly lacked the will power to finish.  Although this may have been a good choice to make, I think with enough will power I could have easily finished with a young child or two in tow.  Over the years I have tried different chore charts, allowance methods, exercise routines, diets, and planners.  You name it, I probably tried it.  Many of these lacked a clear goal or course, and the ones that did, I quickly lost interest or didn't see results quickly enough.  It is much easier to evaluate these choices in hind sight, but by evaluating them now, I believe I will make better choices in the future.

In George Leonard's Mastery, he describes the 5 keys to mastery.  On their own they are all fairly simple.  But, when combined, can be powerful.  I am excited to try them out with some of my current paths.  I think this is why a karate class is all of a sudden so enticing.  It is a place where each of these keys is so important.  I want to learn these principles so that I can master the paths I choose to go down.