Order of Man - The Pursuit of Mastery ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

00:00:00.000 You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart your own path.

00:00:06.040 When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.

00:00:10.500 You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong.

00:00:15.540 This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become.

00:00:19.780 At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.

00:00:24.720 Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler, and I am the host and the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement.

00:00:32.220 Welcome here and welcome back. We're going to talk about mastering today.

00:00:36.340 We're going to discuss why it's so important. We're going to talk about what it actually is, and then we are going to address how to become more masterful.

00:00:45.920 But before we get into that conversation, I first want to make a very, very quick announcement of our beard oil that I've partnered up with Origin on.

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00:01:57.240 All right, guys.

00:01:57.840 With that said, I want to get into the concept of mastery.

00:02:00.960 I've been thinking a lot about this, and particularly I was thinking about this last night as I was training jujitsu, and I started to think about what separates those who are successful from those who are not.

00:02:13.860 And there are a lot of factors, certainly physicality, athleticism, talents, gifts, skills, abilities, some of these things that we're innately born with or not, some more than others.

00:02:25.020 I don't consider myself to be uniquely athletic.

00:02:29.240 Some of the guys that I train with are, but I'm certainly not in that camp.

00:02:33.360 So there's a lot of different factors, but I also think one of the biggest components is this concept of mastery.

00:02:39.020 And so as I was training and as I continue to train over the past roughly three years now, you know, I'll watch a video or instruction or listen to Pete give instruction on a particular technique or strategy, or I'll look in a jujitsu book and it'll show me, you know, different moves and defenses and sweeps and everything else.

00:03:00.060 And it's interesting how many little things go into making it effective.

00:03:04.740 You know, if you're going for a sweep, for example, it's not enough just to knock somebody off balance.

00:03:09.320 You've got to take away their potential posts, which might be an arm or a leg or a knee, and you've got to isolate that.

00:03:15.860 You've got to shift your body.

00:03:17.560 You've got to get them to balance up on top of you.

00:03:19.620 There's different things that you need to do.

00:03:22.200 And it's very easy to overlook some of the things that need to be done.

00:03:27.260 And then you wonder and you question, why is this not working?

00:03:30.700 Well, because you're not mastering it.

00:03:33.400 You may have 30, 40, 50, 60, 80% of it down, but it's that last little 20% that really makes the difference.

00:03:43.120 And so why do the masters do this?

00:03:44.940 Why are they capable of doing that? 0.53

00:03:46.620 Whether we're talking about jujitsu or building wealth in their lives, successfully navigating difficulties and challenges within a marriage,

00:03:55.960 any experience that you could potentially run across in your life, there's going to be certain people who are better at it than others.

00:04:04.340 And I think that the best thing that an individual, that a man can do in order to improve his life is to strive to become masterful at whatever is a pursuit of his.

00:04:16.700 And this is really what I wanted to focus on, this idea, this concept of pursuit.

00:04:20.400 Because a lot of the times when we think of mastery or phrases like, I want to reach my potential, the problem is those are both moving targets.

00:04:30.260 When is a master a master?

00:04:32.780 When have you officially reached your quote unquote full potential?

00:04:37.260 They're moving targets.

00:04:39.240 Potential, for example.

00:04:40.460 Let's say that you are trying to get a promotion at work and you've got a certain set of skill sets now that have gotten you to the point where you are, but you want to get that promotion and you want to secure that.

00:04:52.580 So you have to develop and learn a new set of skills and become more valuable to your employer and to your clients.

00:04:59.080 And you do this.

00:05:00.880 And so you get the promotion.

00:05:02.300 Congratulations, you secured the promotion.

00:05:04.100 Does that mean you reached your potential?

00:05:05.640 No, it means you reached what you thought was your potential, but now clearly because you have a new skill set, you are more effective, you are more efficient, you are better.

00:05:16.260 That's a moving target.

00:05:17.380 Now it's actually something greater than maybe you even realized to begin with.

00:05:23.340 That's the same thing with mastery.

00:05:25.260 You don't ever truly become the master and then check it off your list.

00:05:29.140 I think mastery is more of a pursuit than it is an objective and a goal in and of itself.

00:05:34.120 And I think when we look at it that way, we can find more meaning in the monotonous and the mundane and the difficult and the challenging.

00:05:43.880 And what I've seen too many men do is work towards a particular pursuit that they said they were interested in only to be disrailed, to lose interest, to quote unquote fail, and to not achieve what it is thereafter.

00:05:59.340 Now, what we do is we come up with all sorts of reasons and excuses and ideas as to why we didn't accomplish what we set out to accomplish.

00:06:09.400 But in many cases, they're simply forms of justification for not achieving that thing.

00:06:15.480 It no longer being a priority is a valid reason.

00:06:18.800 But most of what we come up with is a justification.

00:06:23.320 Maybe we were robbed.

00:06:25.880 Maybe there was politics involved.

00:06:28.400 Maybe there were circumstances that were outside of our control.

00:06:33.560 And so we'll say these things to justify our poor performance.

00:06:36.680 But I think the reason most men throw in the towel too soon is because they've created this unrealistic expectations of what it would take to achieve success.

00:06:46.680 What would it take to create a marriage that would last five, six, seven, eight decades? 0.91

00:06:54.660 What kind of effort and work and toil and blood and sweat and tears would it take to start a business from the ground up and build it and grow it and overcome competition and emerging technologies and the ever-changing landscape of social media and other tools that we have at our disposal?

00:07:13.960 What will it actually take?

00:07:16.680 What will it actually take for you to become a jujitsu black belt or somebody who can go on his first hunt and successfully harvest a deer or an elk?

00:07:32.760 We have unrealistic expectations.

00:07:35.260 And part of the reason that we do is because we jump on social media, speaking of, and we see these people who are doing miraculous and wonderful things and what we're experiencing on our little dynamic devices.

00:07:46.680 Grab mine out here.

00:07:47.620 Called the cell phone is the result of the effort and work that people have put forth.

00:07:55.680 So we'll see the harvested animal on the hunt.

00:07:58.580 We'll see the degree or the designation or certification.

00:08:01.120 We'll see that somebody started in a new business or we'll see that they already lost the 50 pounds they've been trying to lose for two decades or that they're celebrating their 20th year anniversary.

00:08:11.100 And so we see the result and we think that because we're not experiencing the result for ourselves, that there must be something wrong with us.

00:08:18.740 And what we don't have the opportunity and the privilege of seeing, and I would consider it a privilege because once you start to see what I'm going to share with you here, you're going to tee yourself up for more success in your life.

00:08:30.320 We don't get to see the years and years and years of effort and struggle and toil and working and failure and feedback and adjustments along the way.

00:08:44.040 We don't get to see that.

00:08:45.400 So these individuals that you guys follow, men like Jocko Willink and David Goggins and Steve Rinella and the incredible men that we've had, Andy Frisilla is another one that comes to mind, the incredible men that we've had on the podcast, you want to experience what they're experiencing.

00:09:04.540 But most of us aren't willing to put forth the effort and actually become masterful, the pursuit of mastery.

00:09:11.300 A mastery.

00:09:13.640 I remember several months ago, I was sitting down with Andy Frisilla and we were having this conversation specifically for the podcast and I can't remember exactly how it got brought up, but I said, you know, if I were to, if you were to take me and just plop me into your role at first form and everything else that you have going on, the weight of what you deal with would crush me.

00:09:36.860 And he said, absolutely it would.

00:09:38.480 He wasn't saying it from an arrogant or egotistical position.

00:09:41.580 He was saying it from a truthful, like you couldn't handle this because he's developed it over decades of doing this work.

00:09:50.300 So guys, rather than focusing so heavily on the outcome, which is what most of us will do because we see it and that's what we're rewarded for and there's nothing wrong with having goals and desires and ambitions and wanting to get a promotion, wanting to start a business, wanting to lose 50 pounds, wanting to secure your next belt promotion in martial arts.

00:10:11.600 Nothing wrong with that at all.

00:10:13.980 But in order to become a true master, it isn't about the belt that you happen to wear around your waist.

00:10:19.360 It isn't about the title.

00:10:21.660 It isn't about the role that you're playing.

00:10:24.860 It isn't about the ultimate objective and accomplishment.

00:10:27.880 That's not what a master is.

00:10:29.400 A master is somebody who's a perpetual student, somebody who's on the pursuit of mastery, somebody who's putting forth the work and the grind and the effort and the toil and the sweat every single day.

00:10:44.860 And not to mention, they're getting all of the little details right.

00:10:49.780 I think about this a lot when it comes to growing this organization and movement and specifically with this podcast.

00:10:55.580 I ask myself, how do I make this better?

00:11:01.460 How do I make this better?

00:11:02.940 How do I make this podcast better?

00:11:04.420 Because when I started, it was a little spare bedroom in the basement of our house and there was a bed behind me.

00:11:11.840 I was sitting on an old computer, a $60 microphone, and it was what it was.

00:11:18.900 It wasn't ideal.

00:11:20.160 And today, it's better, but it's not ideal.

00:11:22.260 I've got a significantly better microphone.

00:11:25.240 I've got the lighting you can see here.

00:11:26.760 I've got different lights.

00:11:27.780 I've got different cameras.

00:11:28.960 I've got different technology that I've utilized and developed and implemented over the last six years.

00:11:35.780 But it's attention to detail.

00:11:37.440 And so, again, a lot of guys will get the 80% right.

00:11:42.660 But we know through the concept of Pareto principle that it's going to be 20% of the effort is going to produce 80% of the results.

00:11:51.160 So, so many of us are focused on the macro.

00:11:54.140 What can you see that looks good or looks the part, but how often are you getting that little 20% right?

00:12:00.640 And that's what a true master would get right, by the way, to go back and circle back to what I was talking about with jiu-jitsu.

00:12:07.200 Yeah, you might get 80% of the technique down, but 80% isn't going to yield the result.

00:12:12.680 A hundred percent is going to yield the result.

00:12:14.680 And that means that your foot needs to be at this particular angle or that you're, you got a bridge right as you bump.

00:12:22.860 I mean, there's different things and all of it has to be firing together.

00:12:26.960 Now, here's the beauty of this, is on your path to mastery, whatever that is, whether it's jiu-jitsu or physical fitness or your marriage or your business or competitive shooting or archery or painting or maybe you're a musician or a pianist, a guitarist, whatever, is that there's going to be a starting process, obviously, where you're a novice, right?

00:12:48.720 You're a beginner, an amateur, and you have to focus on every little detail.

00:12:53.860 Like, everything needs to be paid hyper attention to.

00:12:57.280 When you're trying to learn new chords on the guitar, it's like, and as I did this over the past several months, it's like, how do you stretch your pinky up there to that fret?

00:13:04.900 And how do you do that while you're trying to put your middle finger on the second fret of the second string?

00:13:10.100 And so you have to focus on every little detail, and it's painstaking, and it's slow, and then gradually, because you want to be a master and you want to do it right, the pinky's stretched, the middle finger's there, and you start to notice it coming together, which does what?

00:13:26.960 It frees up the mental capacity for you now to focus on something that amateurs can't focus on.

00:13:34.460 They just don't have the capacity to focus on it because their mind, the power, the computing power in their brain is tied up with things that you've become so accustomed to at this point that it's no longer a thought.

00:13:48.700 That's a pretty powerful and cool thing to see is that I can get better and better and better and better, and what we start to see as we improve, as we start to see opportunities and little things, little adjustments, little tweaks in the way that we show up that will help us yield just that much more, just a little bit more.

00:14:09.740 And you compound these days over and over and over and over again, and before you know it, you look back over a five, six-year period, and you're amazed with the results that you've been able to produce, but it's not about the result.

00:14:24.740 It's about who you've become in the process, a master, at least somebody who's on the pursuit of mastery.

00:14:30.100 So, what I'd like you to consider as we start to wind things down here for today is how are you showing up, not for the big things, everybody shows up for the big things.

00:14:41.660 You know, if you go to the gym and you think, okay, well, I'm going to do my deadlifts, I'm going to do my squats, I'm going to do my bench press, I'm going to do, you know, all of these things.

00:14:49.460 Well, let's just isolate one of those lifts for a second. 0.61

00:14:51.880 Let's take the deadlift.

00:14:54.660 If you go in and you just walk up to the bar and you lift, you're probably going to be able to lift some weight off the floor.

00:14:59.740 And as you continue to do it, you're going to get stronger, of course, inevitably.

00:15:04.860 But what if for a second you decided to do it right, to learn where to position your feet, to keep that bar as close to you as possible, to pull, you know, all the way up, push through the floor to keep the back straight so you're not potentially injuring or hurting your back.

00:15:21.700 Like, what if you actually did it right?

00:15:24.360 And actually before that even, you put the right shoes on and you got the right amount of sleep the night before and you were hydrated and you didn't need a bunch of junk food.

00:15:34.640 You ate the right food because this is what a master would do, right?

00:15:38.720 A master is not going to just show up and wing it and hope it works.

00:15:41.140 No, a master is actually going to go in and they're going to figure out all of these little details that amateurs overlook and they're going to make themselves the absolute best they possibly can.

00:15:52.220 When I come here to do a podcast, I don't just wing it.

00:15:55.520 I don't just start yapping and talking about whatever crosses my mind.

00:15:58.840 I take notes.

00:15:59.500 I've got notes right here on my notepad and I'm taking notes.

00:16:02.840 When I have guests, I'm taking notes for you guys as I'm having this conversation.

00:16:06.140 This is well thought out.

00:16:07.460 I've already thought about and articulated, even written down what it is I want to talk with you about today because I want to be masterful at this.

00:16:16.580 I don't want to rest on my laurels.

00:16:18.320 I don't want to rest on potentially my ability or even skill development of being able to have a meaningful conversation via this podcast.

00:16:27.520 I want to improve.

00:16:28.640 I want to get better.

00:16:29.720 So what I'd like you to do is ask yourself where you're not showing up like a master.

00:16:36.020 Is it in your relationship?

00:16:37.520 Like, do you get home, not really pay much attention to your wife or your kids, not really think about how you may honor your commitment and word to her?

00:16:46.280 When you have dinner with the family, hopefully you're doing that.

00:16:49.600 When you have dinner with the family, are you distracted by your phone or your wearable that keeps buzzing at you or are you fully engaged and fully present in your wife and your children's lives?

00:17:03.160 Because if you want to be a masterful father, and I think a lot of us do, then that's what you would do.

00:17:09.360 And by the way, guys, I'm not saying I'm perfect at this.

00:17:11.900 I'm not pointing fingers and saying you need to do this.

00:17:14.160 You need to do that.

00:17:15.080 When I'm talking to you, I'm actually talking to myself as well.

00:17:17.780 If I care about it, if I value it, then I will do what a master does.

00:17:23.280 And a master isn't somebody who's just taking the path of least resistance.

00:17:27.480 It's not somebody who is resting on their laurels or their past successes.

00:17:32.320 Somebody who's very wrapped up in the details of what makes a success a success.

00:17:41.680 It's somebody who's very intentional, not just about the performance itself, but what leads up to the performance.

00:17:47.320 What is your mindset like when you get home?

00:17:50.620 If it's stuck on what happened during work or you were unproductive at work, then of course, it's not going to be as efficient or good at home because you're wrapped up there and you're not fully present here.

00:17:59.860 I'm going to be thinking about this a lot more because I want to excel.

00:18:07.560 And when I look around and I see, and by the way, I've had conversations with, I believe, close to 330 extremely, extremely successful men via this podcast.

00:18:16.100 This is one of the things that I notice is that they do things that most of us do not.

00:18:24.660 They are masters.

00:18:26.660 They are on the pursuit of mastery.

00:18:28.140 So what I'd like you to think about this weekend, so we're Friday right now, if you're listening to this today, it's recorded, is ask yourself, how can I make this better?

00:18:39.180 If you want to be a master?

00:18:40.940 If you don't, okay.

00:18:42.220 But if you do, if you want to be masterful and get better, then I think this is a great place to start.

00:18:46.540 How can I make this better?

00:18:47.740 How can I make this weekend better for me?

00:18:52.320 How can I make this weekend better for my wife and my children?

00:18:57.260 How can I make it so that as the weekend comes to an end and I potentially go back to work, that I'm actually a better person.

00:19:03.940 I'm better equipped to deal with what I'll have to address next week.

00:19:07.840 That I don't slide back into bad habits or default modes, but that I'm constantly pressing and moving forward.

00:19:17.740 How can I make the way that I project myself into public settings, whether that's for my client or my wife or other relationships, a boss, employer, what can I do from the way that you communicate, how you articulate a message, your grooming, the things that you're wearing, the way that your car looks?

00:19:37.960 That's an interesting one.

00:19:39.080 And, you know, I'd be willing to bet that a lot of successful people probably have meticulous looking cars.

00:19:47.340 I've seen it because they realize that their space, their environment is important.

00:19:54.480 And so they keep it that way by design because they see that that will actually translate over into other things.

00:20:02.480 This is where the whole thing of the way you do one thing is the way you do everything comes from.

00:20:09.660 How are you showing up?

00:20:12.040 Are you going 80%?

00:20:14.220 Are you going to like almost there?

00:20:16.080 Or are you getting those 10, 15, 20% little things that the amateurs don't focus on?

00:20:23.640 You want uncommon results.

00:20:25.880 You've got to do what the uncommon do. 1.00

00:20:29.040 And they do the 20%.

00:20:30.420 They don't always get it right, but they know it exists.

00:20:34.280 They focus on it as they can and they get after it.

00:20:38.880 So that's what I'm focused on.

00:20:41.220 I'm going to be using my battle planner that I've used for.

00:20:44.180 Well, I've had this one for probably four or five years now to help me see where I'm falling short and where I'm doing well.

00:20:51.620 I'm going to continue to ask myself, how can I make this better from this podcast to the email I'm going to send out to the phone call I'm going to have to the conversation I'm going to have with my kids.

00:21:00.640 Every interaction that I have is how can I make this better?

00:21:04.800 How can I become masterful?

00:21:06.480 How can I stay on this pursuit of mastery in any endeavor that I pursue?

00:21:10.120 Because if you're going to pursue it, then it's worth being the best.

00:21:15.060 All right, guys, we'll be back next week.

00:21:17.200 Think about that this weekend.

00:21:18.700 Until then, go out there, take action, and become the man you are meant to be.

00:21:22.680 Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast.

00:21:25.500 If you're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be,

00:21:29.480 we invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.

00:21:32.120 For more information, visit www.fman.com.

00:21:32.640 Thank you for listening to the Order of Man.

00:21:32.680 Thank you for listening to the Order of Man.

Order of Man - February 19, 2021

The Pursuit of Mastery ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

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