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Steven Inouye
Steven Inouye

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Refining the Definition of Masters

Today, I was fortunate enough to work with my long-term friend and life coach Jon Sugai. As we were talking I gained a new definition of what masters are, got to revisit the definition of luck, and refined my effectiveness theory.

During my talk with Jon he said (paraphrase) luck is where opportunity and preparation meet and that masters are always playing with the mindset of practice. Masters, when they are given an event which they are asked to perform, they take that event as just another opportunity to practice.

While not a lot of this was new, I think that this was one of those times that hearing a new angle tied pieces of information together and made it impactful. This is what I took away:

  1. Masters aren’t attached to the external outcome.
  2. Masters value the internal outcome (e.g. learning, character building, habit forming).
  3. Masters see moments that they are called to perform and times they are not as moments to improve themselves to increase their probability of achieving outcomes.
  4. Masters realize that it isn’t so much what it is that they do when they are called to perform but more so the preparation that caused the performance.
  5. Playing as a master is being able to evaluate what worked, what didn’t work, and how does that correlate to the current situation so that they can make great decisions during their performance.

What is your definition of mastery and the strategy of obtaining it? What are your thoughts on goal setting, luck, and creating results?

Related knowledge:
“You control how you play.” -Ryan Holiday
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” -James Clear
Focus on the journey, not the destination. -Various people in different forms
“Infinite-minded leaders understand that “best” is not a permanent state. Instead, they strive to be “better.” “Better” suggests a journey of constant improvement and makes us feel like we are being invited to contribute our talents and energies to make progress in that journey.” -Simon Sinek

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