Masters mind set…

Masters are open and closed.

Masters have a growth mindset toward mastering their craft and what they care about in life. They change the definition of failure here and simply play with getting better. They have a growth mindset and it allows them to get better with relative ease. They are also closed about trying stuff they could give a rip about. They understand mastery is a domain specific journey. Life is too complex to build mastery in a general sense. Masters focus attention and master their craft by their design. They remain open to new ideas and play with ’em almost without thinking. Masters also say no to what interests others, may be wildly popular, but has zero appeal to them.

And, masters keep focused in the moment on one more evolution, one more pedal stroke, one more PA of their choosing, and do not allow their mind to entertain an “opt out” option whether it’s around hell week at Coronado and becoming a SEAL, or a bad break at Gramercy and being ready for Monday. Listening to Stevo describe her mindset on a Monday was a great reminder for the kinda mindset masters purposely maintain.

Masters build an open mindset around whatever they’ve targeted as their aim. And, masters build a closed mind toward whatever they’ve decided is noise and means nothing – at least to them. You gotta build both, my friends. And, as Tommy was told today, you gotta change your relationship with the word failure.

Masters fail. Masters fail forward. Masters fail in the direction of their mastery. Masters fail while attempting to build skill slightly beyond their reach. Masters fail at the outer edge of their challenge zone. Masters pick themselves up, dust off, dry off, and get back up. Masters understand this is simply the route to increasing reach.

Masters pick a target, reach, and oftentimes fail. Masters get up, measure the gap between the target and the reality of their current reach, and reach again. You see, in their mind they’ve already got this. Funny, I guess a masters mind is set…