10,000 HOURS TO MASTERY

Master Prophet E. Bernard Jordan

LESSON 4THE PATH TO MASTERY

“Technical skill is mastery of complexity, while creativity is mastery of simplicity.”

(Erik Christopher Zeeman)

3 PATHS TO MASTERY

• There are typically three paths to mastery, and many false paths.

• Beware those offering easy mastery, for it is an illusion.

PATH 1: GENERATIONAL

• Jethro mentored Moses.• Moses mentored Joshua and the elders of Israel,

who shepherded God's people. • Joshua mentored the other army leaders. • God gave the Ten Commandments originally to

the newly named leaders of the tribes. • These elders in charge of groups of 10 used the

Ten Commandments to shepherd their flocks.• Generational mastery is often part of family

tradition. The student may have little choice. • This can be seen in sons who are automatically

enrolled in the same career paths as their fathers.

PATH 2: SELF-DIRECTED MASTERY

• Often seen in computer prodigies, self-taught musicians and entrepreneurs.

• The deep meditative skills of Zen become instinctual.

• Self-directed mastery involves a God-given gift (also known as “genius”) intersecting with an opportunity, resulting in productive obsession.

• When mastery or genius intersects with obsession, obsession loses its negative connotation.

PATH 3: MENTORSHIP

• The third path to mastery is the most common, mentorship.

• Mentorship can be seen throughout human endeavor and legend, from craftsman and apprentice to sensei and student to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker.

• The path of mentor and mentee often follows Joseph Campbell’s “heroic cycle,” in which the aspirant to knowledge goes on a journey of self-discovery.

• The mentee begins in a state of innocence but impotence, powerless to affect events.

MENTORSHIP (CON’T)

• He then moves into learning and humility, where ego must be set aside in the face of all he does not know.

• From there, he moves to knowledge and the temptation that comes with it.

• That experience leads to a loss of innocence and entry into the “real world,” where he sees that everything gained must be paid for with an equal sacrifice.

• Finally, the student emerges as a master, transformed.

• The mentor-mentee dynamic highlights a reality: mentor becomes tormentor.

LETTING GO

• True mastery requires suffering and sacrifice.• On this journey, the old ways and old self must be

set aside. • The learner must let go of his or her old life and

embrace the new way. • Mastery is as much about letting go and humbling

oneself as it is about the development of new skills and the enhancement of knowledge.

• At some point, the student will confront the teacher out of pride and disbelief in the teacher’s wisdom.

LETTING GO (CON’T)

• The journey to mastery is akin to the Buddhist doctrine that letting go of attachment is the key to reaching true fulfillment.

• Consider Jesus’ path. • He passed from innocence to knowledge, then as

the Messiah was forced to surrender control of all that he was and be slain.

• Only by enduring this trial could he be reborn and come fully into his mastery as the reborn Son of God.

• Sacrifice, self-abasement and the abandonment of all one once held dear are essential.

2 PIVOTAL CHOICES

• The path to mastery will present the student with two moments of pivotal choice.

• The first is the choice to believe that the disciplined, long-term approach that requires 10,000 hours is the right choice.

• The student who fails at this choice and takes the shortcut will not achieve mastery.

• The second is the choice to persist past the low point when it seems that all the hard work has been for naught.

• In everyone’s path to mastery there always comes a time when mastery seems beyond hope. Then choice to press on is omnipotent.

10,000 HOURS TO MASTERY

Master Prophet E. Bernard Jordan

LESSON 4THE PATH TO MASTERY