The Path To Mastery

This story has been written many times throughout the ages, but it is always the same. The Path to Mastery is simple, but arduous. It is joyful, but painful. It is fraught with hazard, but the rewards are impossible to quantify. It is as follows:

1) Find the Master

2) Follow them until they agree to teach you the rules

3) Learn from them all that you can

4) Practice the rules diligently until they become boring

5) Practice them more until you forget the rules and they become a natural way to act

6) Teach yourself when and how it is appropriate to bend or break the rules. This is called improvisation

7) Restructure your experience into a new set of rules

8) Teach these new rules to another pupil, so they may continue on their path

This path is always cluttered with dead-ends, false prophets, and mistakes. Nonetheless, it is the only way to master anything. The greatest risk is that, as ignorant pupils-to-be, we lack the ability to separate the pretenders to mastery and the masters of nothing from the real thing. The ability to accept that risk and walk the path anyway is what we call "faith." The difference between those who happen to choose real masters and those who do not we call "luck."

And finally, there are some whose only master is themselves. These people have a high degree of both "faith" and "luck." The process, however, is still the same.