Personal Mastery

Time to deepen and broaden what I am trying to do with these writings. My idea of how to accomplish this is to show a little bit more of who I am and how I tick. I also have a strong sense that it is time to lighten up a bit, at least that’s my personal sense after reviewing what I have been producing. Taking things “to seriously” is a criticism that I have heard all my life, so my sense of needing to become lighter is undoubtedly a reflection of dragging that piece of baggage around for a number of years.

Interestingly other feedback from those who are close to me is that these writings are very much “my voice” and do reflect the way I speak of these issues. More importantly is the suggestion I should not confuse being “to serious” with the genuine sense of concern and care I have about the current state of the world in which we live.

I do hold true that a conscious effort to “manage” our awareness and our actions can help us to challenge personal default behaviors and autonomic emotional responses that create a lot more problems than they solve. I am also deeply concerned that our reactions to stimulus are being manipulated and managed by groups and organizations with self-serving agendas that do not benefit us as individuals, communities and families.

When I think about it I could never be too serious about such important issues.

What I am writing about today, all this about being too serious, and hearing my own “voice” brings me back to the notion of Personal Mastery. Not Self Mastery as in self-control although this is important, I am speaking of Personal Mastery as defined by Peter Senge in his landmark book “The Fifth Discipline.

Personal mastery as articulated by Senge is about creating what one wants in life and in work and in this is sense is an every changing discipline and practice. The elements of Personal Mastery include, personal vision, personal purpose, holding creative tension between vision and current reality, mitigating the impact of deeply rooted beliefs that are contrary to personal mastery, commitment to truth, and understanding the subconscious. Those with a well-developed sense of Personal Mastery tend to exhibit the following characteristics:

• They are purpose driven and know what lies behind their goals
• Their vision is clear and articulate and more than just a good idea
• They accept reality and do not see it as the enemy
• They continuously seek clarity, sharpening their sense of reality
• They are extremely curious and inquisitive
• They embrace rather than resist the forces of change
• They are connected to those around them and life itself
• They sense the larger creative process of which they are a part and understand that they can influence but not control it

This is what I want from myself, when I am at my best, and really humming along these are the characteristics I demonstrate. What is most clear to me is that without some sense of Personal Mastery, there is no chance that the self-dialogue about what is too serious and what is not, could never take place.