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