Over the years many articles have been written on the subject of mastery.
But I want to save you the trouble of reading them because the formula for mastery is simple.
Pick something you want to master and do it every day until you’ve put 10,000 hours of effort in.
However you want to put in those hours in is up to you.
It could be 14 hours a day for two years, 5 hours a day for 5 years, or 3 hours a day for 10 years.
It doesn’t matter as long as you’re putting the hours in and doing it every day.
Using that exact formula I mastered day trading, sales and writing
As a trader, after two years of obsessive grinding I brought home $60,000 in one month.
As a salesman, after putting in three years of 100-cold-call-days I could sell ice to an eskimo.
And now as a writer, after four years of writing every day, I feel like I finally found my voice.
The path to mastery is simple, you just have to put in the time and put in the effort.
But I get emails from guys all the time saying:
Will I approached this one girl but she didn’t like me…
Or Will I tried your routine for a week but I’m not getting bigger…
Or Will I hate my job and I want to start a business but I just can’t get motivated…
That’s not how it works gentlemen, you need to put in the time and put in the effort.
You need to spend years dating, lifting and working.
True mastery takes time.
That’s why it’s so important to pick your pursuits wisely
Learning a foreign language is not picking wisely.
Learning to cook French food is not picking wisely.
Learning to play guitar is not picking wisely.
And I’m speaking from experience here, I spent my free time in high school mastering the guitar.
My guitar skills got me nowhere but if I’d spent that time on business I’d be a millionaire by now.
The way to pick wisely is to pick pursuits based on pain
It only makes sense to use your limited time and effort to solve the biggest pain points in your life first.
Your four biggest pain points are your wealth, health, lifestyle, and relationships – in that order.
Until you handle those problems, mastering anything else should be off the table.
Because you’ll be lucky to master all four areas in the next decade.
Now you don’t have to follow my advice but I promise you, those pain points won’t solve themselves.
Let me give you an example:
Let’s say you want to pursue painting instead of getting paid
You might love the process of painting but that doesn’t solve your biggest pain point.
You’re still going to be unfulfilled, underpaid and chained to a desk 50 hours a week.
But, when you pursue business your reward is fulfillment, money and ownership of your time.
You’re going to be hard pressed to find another solution that competes with self-employment.
It’s only after you’ve put all the pieces together that you can pursue your other passions.
Once you’ve built a 6 figure business, look great, have relationships with women and live well, then you can paint your heart out.
Or, like Felix Dennis after he made $100 million dollars, you can spend the rest of your life writing poetry.
But not until then because you can’t put the cart before the horse.
Now I know this might not be what you want to hear
10,000 hours of effort and sacrifice doesn’t sound fun, but I have good news – it actually is.
The key is to pursue mastery of things you love, not what other people want you to love.
I love my business, I love exercising, I love women, and I love living well.
It’s not hard for me to put in the hours, in fact it’s harder for me not to put in the hours.
That’s because a man who loves what he does never has to work a day in his life.
