03 May Achieving Personal Mastery

Personal Mastery is the discipline of personal growth and learning. It is more than just competence and skills or spiritual growth, it is about creating a desired future and moving towards it. It is the principles and practices that enable a person to learn, create a personal vision and view the world. Someone who has achieved personal mastery is able to raise self-awareness, self-acceptance and self-responsibility and this helps individuals recognise that they are part of a system. Once they have attained personal mastery they know that they can now play a healthy role in society.

Setting a vision

Set a vision for what you would like to accomplish because setting a vision for your life and career gives you a sense of direction. Having a clear vision helps to give you a purpose and provides you with scaffolding for your work and life.

Mastering the body

The body functions like a car, without fuel a car cannot operate effectively and in the same way when one does not take care of one’s body, it will start to deteriorate. Mastering the body entails taking care of the body through regular exercises, avoiding excessive stress, eating healthy, having enough sleep, and meditating regularly.

Mastering emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand, utilise and manage emotions in positive ways to mitigate stress, show empathy and overcome challenges. To master emotional intelligence one should own their emotions, learn to express emotions, pay attention to other people’s emotions, and learn to take things easy. One should avoid denying emotions, blaming other people for how they feel, bottling up emotions and taking decisions that are emotion-driven.

Mastering body language

Body language refers to nonverbal communication, which is inclusive of posture, hand gestures and how one moves. Mastering body language is important because it helps one understand feelings, the ability to read body language means that you can tell and comprehend how another person is truly feeling without the use of words. To master body language one should do the following:

• Keep eye contact – maintain a decent amount of eye contact to show engagement
• Manage your facial expressions.
• Posture – maintain an upright posture.
• Speech – have a steady pace and pay attention to the tone of your voice.

Thinking Systematically

Thinking systematically requires one to look at the whole rather than counterparts. It is about finding a solution to an unexpected situation and dissecting the situation to establish what caused the outcome, rather than looking for a scapegoat.

Balance advocacy and inquiry

Do you take other people’s perspectives on situations, or do you disregard them? Many times our dialogues consist of us not wanting to hear what other people have to say, therefore it is imperative we have an understanding of what message someone is trying to put across. Those who have mastered this technique find it easier to probe until they fully comprehend a different perspective and allow others to question or challenge their own  perspectives

Attaining personal mastery is a process and some could argue that you can never fully attain personal mastery because there is always something new to learn. It is imperative to understand that personal mastery is a choice and it cannot be dictated by anyone or any organisation.