It’s the 21st century. It’s no news that you have to keep learning, unlearning and relearning to survive and thrive. It’s one of the three fundamentals for a fulfilled life.
Relevance in the future of work requires one to be a serial master instead of a shallow generalist.
I’ll explain.
A shallow generalist knows a little about various disciplines while a serial master has attained mastery in several fields.
It’s no longer enough to have just an idea. No. You must be a jack of all trades and master of many to increase your chances of success now and in the imminent future. This is the harsh reality, my friend.
Bad news: becoming a master at anything is hard. But there’s some good news. Lighten up; it’s not all doom and gloom.
Sensei Williams is here to help you become a shifu.
I’ve got three proven tips to help you on your journey to mastery. Shall we?
The bitter pill first
Stop searching for shortcuts; it’s a waste of precious time and energy. The cumulative time spent looking for shortcuts is more than enough to complete the hard work.
It’s folly to keep wasting your resources on cheating the process. The transformation you seek is in the process. Learning is a process and it’s in the process that you get better.
If you’ve been looking for shortcuts, now is a good time to stop before you lose more resources to such a fruitless endeavour. Eat that frog. Get down to the hard work now and get it over with.
The overnight success you so much desire to replicate took years and months in the making.
Do away with all the illusions and begin the boring, nonglamorous hard work already. Start now and you’re one step closer.
Forget the whole fantasy of smart work. It’s not a replacement for hard work. Rather, it precedes and makes hard work more productive.
Smart work helps you realise the work strategic to your outcomes so you can double down on that.
What separates the master from the amateur?
The master has failed more times than the amateur has tried. Read that again. In the words of James Clear, have no single point of failure, have no single path to success.
Points of failure are paths to success.
Flowing from the first heading, you might be evading the hard work because of the fear of failing. But you need a good dose of failure to succeed, my friend.
How can you get better if you don’t fail? How can you improve if you don’t make mistakes? Failures and mistakes show you what you can do differently and better.
It’s almost cliché now but it’s no less true: fail early and fail fast. See what works and what doesn’t so you can try something else.
Failures give you quality instant feedback which you can analyse to draw insights for improvements.
My friend, Damilola Fasina, once wrote a fine piece on why you should not fear failure.
She writes, failing is an evaluation of your strengths, a criticism of your skills, and an opportunity to work on your weaknesses. Read her entire post here.
Something to stop worrying about
Stop worrying about how long it’s taking to get better at that thing.
In the middle, it feels slow. In hindsight, it feels fast (James Clear, 2022).
Just stick to the process and the results will come earlier than envisaged.
Worry is a waste of energy. Instead of worrying it’s taking too long, invest that energy in activities that will move you closer to your goals. Or better still, use that time to reflect on how far you’ve come.
When you eventually get better, you’ll be surprised how fast your transformation was. But it always seems too slow in the middle.
Keep at it and you’ll soon discover how much you’ve covered in so little time.
Remember, slow progress is progress and it all adds up. Getting better takes time, especially if you’re after lasting results. So, forget about the length of the process once you’re committed to it.
When you start, it seems as if you can’t get it right. But as you stay the course, you get it right a few times until you get to that point you no longer get it wrong.
That, my friend, is the moment you become a master.
In short
To get better at anything, ditch shortcuts and do the hard work, understand failures are a part of the process as useful learning points, and focus on the process instead of worrying it’s taking too long.
You can get better at that thing, whether it’s communication or painting, singing or writing, coding or designing.
You can do this!