3 Steps to Mastery
In an era that is becoming more competitive, this might become the decade of mastery.
My first experience with counterintelligence (CI) investigations coincided with my transfer to the Houston FBI office. Still a new agent and fresh to the world of espionage, I was assigned a training agent named Leo who’d been working CI for over twenty years. Leo would sit and listen intently over a cup of coffee as I told him about a debriefing I’d conducted that day with the subject of one of my investigations. He’d smile, nod, and patiently wait for me to add a brilliant summation, as if I were missing something very important. Then he’d say, "You know what you’ve got there, don’t you?"
My Challenge:
No, I had no idea. Leo would quietly point out the small, but significant, jewel of information hidden among the dross. Irritated, I asked him long before I’d become an expert in CI investigations. He told me that it takes about five years before a good agent really knows how to generate the information needed to spot the operations of a foreign agent in the U.S.
My heart sank. Surely not that long?
So I asked another question - how long before I know I’m asking the right questions in my interviews? After a hundred or so interviews, he answered, and I’d begin to get the feel of it.
Another bitter dose of reality. This was not a happy situation for someone who is goal-oriented. At some point, I had to decide whether I viewed my job as competition or recreation. If competition, then I needed to put in the effort to become an expert; if recreation, then I’d settle for the sluggishness that is called mediocrity.
I spent the next 20 years learning how to master my profession. When I retired, I would tell you that I still had much more to learn.
These are the steps that Leo - and others - taught me as I learned the key to mastery.
1) Start Small
Every journey begins with baby steps. A coach shows you how to hold a golf club. You feel awkward and inept. You have to think about every movement of your body as you swing the club. You grow impatient. At about this time, you’re wondering why you chose to learn golf and whether it’s the right game for you. But a good coach will take you through the pace slowly so you gain confidence and build on your achievements.
Big steps can produce fear and your brain begins a self-protective lockdown. If we take small steps we can keep the fight-or-flight syndrome to a minimum. As a result, we give ourselves permission to bypass our fears and pursue our ambitions.
TIP:
Take small steps as a stealth solution to the fight-or-flight syndrome that comes with big goals.
2) Repetition
Both Leo and I loved our jobs. And it’s a good thing because repetition is the second step in becoming a master. In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell asserts that in order to become an expert, it takes about 10 years or 10,000 hours of practice. It seems that it takes that long for our brain to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.
Mastery is not just about doing something to get better; it’s about doing it because you love to do it.
It becomes a circle because you end up doing the thing that you love. I enjoy digging beneath the surface and exploring the unknown to find hidden truth - in people and in situations. That passion made the repetition seem effortless and less onerous.
TIP:
Pick a topic of interest or passion as your area of expertise so practice is not seen as overwhelming or onerous.
3) The Edge
I remember the day I was assigned a crappy case that was low priority. I grumbled and started to make a list of my past successes on the squad when Leo stopped me short.
"The key to mastery is accepting the plateaus."
It was such a simple statement and yet the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it could be applied to every area of life. Plateaus come to an end - eventually - and every edge is a new opportunity to grow. Once we’re no longer excited about discovering that raw edge of the unknown, we’ve lost the desire for mastery.
TIP:
Prepare for a plateau to end by a climb up a hill or a jump off a ledge.
"Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject." Thomas Mann, novelist.
What has helped you develop mastery? How can you help others to find their area of expertise? What advice do you have for those seeking mastery?
My Challenge:
No, I had no idea. Leo would quietly point out the small, but significant, jewel of information hidden among the dross. Irritated, I asked him long before I’d become an expert in CI investigations. He told me that it takes about five years before a good agent really knows how to generate the information needed to spot the operations of a foreign agent in the U.S.
My heart sank. Surely not that long?
So I asked another question - how long before I know I’m asking the right questions in my interviews? After a hundred or so interviews, he answered, and I’d begin to get the feel of it.
Another bitter dose of reality. This was not a happy situation for someone who is goal-oriented. At some point, I had to decide whether I viewed my job as competition or recreation. If competition, then I needed to put in the effort to become an expert; if recreation, then I’d settle for the sluggishness that is called mediocrity.
I spent the next 20 years learning how to master my profession. When I retired, I would tell you that I still had much more to learn.
These are the steps that Leo - and others - taught me as I learned the key to mastery.
1) Start Small
Every journey begins with baby steps. A coach shows you how to hold a golf club. You feel awkward and inept. You have to think about every movement of your body as you swing the club. You grow impatient. At about this time, you’re wondering why you chose to learn golf and whether it’s the right game for you. But a good coach will take you through the pace slowly so you gain confidence and build on your achievements.
Big steps can produce fear and your brain begins a self-protective lockdown. If we take small steps we can keep the fight-or-flight syndrome to a minimum. As a result, we give ourselves permission to bypass our fears and pursue our ambitions.
TIP:
Take small steps as a stealth solution to the fight-or-flight syndrome that comes with big goals.
2) Repetition
Both Leo and I loved our jobs. And it’s a good thing because repetition is the second step in becoming a master. In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell asserts that in order to become an expert, it takes about 10 years or 10,000 hours of practice. It seems that it takes that long for our brain to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.
Mastery is not just about doing something to get better; it’s about doing it because you love to do it.
It becomes a circle because you end up doing the thing that you love. I enjoy digging beneath the surface and exploring the unknown to find hidden truth - in people and in situations. That passion made the repetition seem effortless and less onerous.
TIP:
Pick a topic of interest or passion as your area of expertise so practice is not seen as overwhelming or onerous.
3) The Edge
I remember the day I was assigned a crappy case that was low priority. I grumbled and started to make a list of my past successes on the squad when Leo stopped me short.
"The key to mastery is accepting the plateaus."
It was such a simple statement and yet the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it could be applied to every area of life. Plateaus come to an end - eventually - and every edge is a new opportunity to grow. Once we’re no longer excited about discovering that raw edge of the unknown, we’ve lost the desire for mastery.
TIP:
Prepare for a plateau to end by a climb up a hill or a jump off a ledge.
"Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject." Thomas Mann, novelist.
What has helped you develop mastery? How can you help others to find their area of expertise? What advice do you have for those seeking mastery?
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