The journey of Self or Personal Mastery is a life long one and one of the greatest gifts we can ever give ourselves.
• Personal Mastery is our ability to realise that life, people and situations are multi-faceted and that our opinion and perceptions (cognitive bias) are but one part of the bigger picture.
• Personal Mastery allows us to make space and allowances for many possibilities, incorporating or discarding them after additional thought and analysis. In other words, we allow for the possibility of having to adapt our thinking.
• Personal Mastery allows us to recognise that it is our reaction to a situation or person that will determine the outcome, rather than the circumstance itself.
• And finally Personal Mastery is the ability to maintain a personal vision and balance that allows us to stay fully fueled whilst negotiating our life path.
If there was only one suggestion to make with reference to Personal Mastery it would be to remain open to the possibility of change!
If you are not getting the results you want, it may be because you have no control of the situation or the people involved; influence where you can and if you cannot, your only options are to either adapt your expectations, accommodate the situation or people as things are, or walk away. In all 3 scenarios you will need to embrace change, either change of mind or change of situation.
If you are wanting to improve your responses, a situation, or an outcome, be prepared for the discomfort that often comes along with it.
With a good understanding of our own strengths and weaknesses, of the other person or peoples viewpoint, of the situation and of the best desired outcome, we can go further. All of this understanding happens through being mindful, present and in the habit of reflecting. Without knowing what we have, we cannot identify the change we want, making it highly unlikely that we will then find the change we seek.
This journey of clearly identifying what we want, rather than what we don’t want is not always an easy one, but it is often a satisfying one and it always starts with the first step; be prepared to allow for the unknown and uncomfortable, but mostly for the possibility of change having to take place.
(c) Debbie Engelbrecht, March 2020 is the MD of Staff Training and an Executive Director of Up To Me