Personal Mastery - Definition and Importance to Learning

People with a high level of personal mastery live in a continual learning mode. They never “arrive.”

"Personal Mastery is the process of living and working purposefully towards a vision, in alignment with one’s values and in a state of constant learning about oneself and the reality in which one exists."

• Personal Mastery and Self-leadership can be considered synonymous.
• They both require self-awareness, self-management and self-learning.
• There are some distinctions, but they might be academic. Here is the definition of Self-leadership:

“The Practice of intentionally influencing your thinking, feeling and actions towards your objectives” - Bryant & Kazan 2012

  "To thine own self be true".

How can we be true to ourselves if we don’t know who we are, what our values are, and what our vision is?

• In this current age of Social Media and AI, if we are to attain personal mastery, we must decide who we are before an algorithm decides for us.

The task to know thyself, so that you can live an authentic life, is not for the feint hearted.

• It requires the realization that we are operating from mental models about ourselves and reality and that what we think of as ‘our truth’ might be just one version.

Like Neo waking up from the Matrix (The Matrix 1999 ), we can be confused and disoriented and require a guide or coach like Morpheus to orient us.

• This is a paradox; self-leadership or personal mastery rarely happens in solitude, it is usually a hero’s journey (Joseph Campbell ) with various guides, traveling companions and the occasional monster to slay. 
• Your road to personal mastery will, therefore, be a journey of authenticity and fulfilled life instead of a life of blissful ignorance or quiet desperation.

In this current disruptive age, organizational learning has become the only sustainable advantage.

"Organizations learn only through individuals who learn. Individual learning does not guarantee organizational learning. But without it no organizational learning occurs."

“Begin with the end in mind”

• Those who are developing their personal mastery invest time and energy in developing their vision.
• By having a clear vision, they are more resilient to being ‘knocked off course’ by the disruptions of life.
• Vision is a specific destination, an image of a desired future that is supported by a purpose.
• Our ability to persevere and to embrace the constraints and challenges presented by our current reality on our path towards achieving our vision is what characterizes mastery of the creative tension between where we are and where we want to be. 

Covey used the metaphor of the compass to describe how values guide us towards our vision. Dr. Fons Trompenaars explains that:

“The value of a value is its ability to resolve an ambiguity”

• When we know our values and the values of the organization we lead or work for, we are better equipped to make decisions when the outcome is uncertain.
• Personal mastery requires living a life in alignment with your values, no matter how challenging it can be.
• The values that we live in are the compass towards our vision.

The self-awareness of one’s mental models, and the realization of the context, culture and relationships we are in, requires developing perspective.

• With perspective we can step back from our own mindset, and question what something means in terms of our vision and values.
• In life we are often the player chasing the ball in our field, unaware or not caring about the wider frame or context.
• Using a football game as an example, if we support a team because our father did, and our father’s father and we rarely question what watching football means to us – this is NOT personal mastery.

Developing the discipline to look at situations from multiple perspectives is a hallmark of personal mastery.

Here are a few Self-leadership coaching questions for you:

1. Have you reflected on what you love and are passionate about?
2. Do you know why you are ‘kicking the ball’ in your life?
3. Are you playing the right game or is it time to do what you really want to do?
4. If you are playing your game, are you playing it to the best of your abilities?
5. Are you respectful of others who choose to play their game a different way?

"If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere."