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Title: Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment by George Leonard ISBN: 0-452-26756-0 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: February, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.56 (25 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A short and very worthwhile read
Comment: There are lots of detailed reviews here so I won't repeat it all. This book is full of takeaway messages that will allow you to approach mastering something, anything (a sport, an art, a language, you name it) more effectively.
There are two big messages, and a lot of support:
1. The reason for mastery -- he compelling argues that it doesn't matter so much what you choose to master, pick something and pursue mastery. It has a life changing effect.
2. The process for mastery -- this is very compelling. He takes the concept of a plateau and makes it understandable. And shows how to reach mastery given the realities of what happens along the way. We're bad at this in today's world -- we want results right away. But that's not how it works. Committing to the process not the outcomes goes back to ancient Eastern religions, and its as true for modern life and success as well.
He's distilled a lifetime of learning into a very short and useful read.
Rating: 5
Summary: you can now throw out all your other self-help books
Comment: Leonard is an Aikido instructor in Northern California, and once contributed an article on fitness and athletics to Esquire magazine which I always wished I had kept. Years later, I came across this book, and was thrilled to find that he was the author of that article. There are few pursuits which would not be enriched by the insights and principles of this little book. Unlike the great majority of self-help books, this one looks like the classics: it stays short, and doesn't lose its point in a plethora of unnecessary case studies, examples, and narcissistic autobiographical reflections. Leonard stays focused, doesn't waste his readers' time, yet provides all the information and motivation necessary to put the reader on the slow, steady track to success, whether it be in sports, in business, in the arts, or in a life enriched by all that. It's the antithesis of the quick fix: if you care enough about an endeavor to give your time to it, Leonard will tell you what the learning curve will look like, and will tell you that, if it matters, it's worth giving your lifetime to pursue.
Rating: 4
Summary: A good and not so common self help book
Comment: Whilst most self help books focus primarily on planning, goal setting, motivation, action etc, this one is a little bit special, not because it's written by an ex fighter plane pilot or an aikido master, but it's just so straightforward and simple emphasis on "practice".
The main theme of the book can be summarized by a paragraph in page 48: "Goals and contingencies, as I've said, are important. But they exist in the future and the past, beyond the pale of the sensory realm. Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present. You can see it, hear it, smell it, feel it. To love the plateau is to love the eternal now, to enjoy the inevitable spurts of progress and the fruits of accomplishment, then serenely to accept the new plateau that waits just beyond them. To love the plateau is to love what is most esssential and enduring in your life." In other words, this book centers around patience, resilence, continuous learning and a little bit of zen, though the former three terms were not present inside the book at all.
Many reviewers gave five stars to this book and some even said that this is the unique self help book one might need. However, I really cant agree so because this book is so targeted to specific segments which the author described as the dabblers (the eternal kids) and the obsessive (the bottom line type), where the lack of patience or persistence appears to be their primal problem. Certainly there are other types of issues that deter "self helpers". Meanwhile, I must say that the passage devoted to homeostasis (internal resistance to change) is brilliant. In short, this book is worth a read.
p.s. I would like to quote two passages which I like the most for your reference.
1. In his book Zen Mind....Suzuki approaches the question of fast and slow learners in terms of horses. "In our scriptures, it is said that there are four kinds of horses:...The best horse will run slow and fast, right and left, at the driver's will, before it sess the shadow of the whip; the second best...just before the whip reaches its skin; the third ....when it feels pain on its body; the fourth...after the pain penetrates to the marrow of its bones....When we hear this story, almost all of us want to be the best horse....But this is a mistake, Master Suzuki says. When you learn too easily, you'r tempted not to work hard, not to penetrate to the marrow of a practice. pg 66
2. Are you willing to wear your white belt? pg 176, the last page of the book.
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Title: The Life We Are Given: A Long-Term Program for Realizing the Potential of Body, Mind, Heart, and Soul (Inner Work Book) by George Leonard, Michael Murphy ISBN: 0874777925 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: September, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Way of Aikido: Life Lessons from an American Sensei by George Burr Leonard ISBN: 0452279720 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: 05 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Future of the Body: Explorations into the Further Evolution of Human Nature by Michael Murphy ISBN: 0874777305 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: April, 1993 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: The Ultimate Athlete by George Burr Leonard, Ken Wilbur ISBN: 1556433492 Publisher: North Atlantic Books Pub. Date: 30 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Essential Spirituality : The 7 Central Practices to Awaken Heart and Mind by Roger Walsh ISBN: 0471392162 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 21 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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