#817 Mastery
Personal responsibility and a commitment to learning and growth are two important bricks in the foundation of success. Now don’t get me wrong, I love to be entertained. I binge watched Breaking Bad, Shades of Blue and Dexter. I’ll go out to dinner, see good play or grab a movie any chance I can. I enjoy a whole host of outdoor activities and I convene with family and friends regularly. AND I continue to invest in me. I listen to audio programs, read blogs, listen to podcasts and read important books. I can’t imagine a point in life at which I stop learning; especially in my field of communications and sales. It seems to me that a lack of growth is tantamount to shrinking. When it comes to personal development, I don’t believe in standing still. There is progress or regress because even if you think you can stand still, the world will spin around you. My doctor graduated Harvard medical school…in 2002. If she hasn’t kept reading and learning what kind of a doctor would she be? Certainly not one I would trust with my health. This is how I feel about the science of communication and masterful selling. I continue to learn and work on all of the techniques I have adopted and try to ingrain them in to my being so that seeing the message behind the obvious communication becomes like moving my foot from the gas to the break when a squirrel darts in to the road.
Do you remember The miracle on the Hudson? In January 2009 Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger landed an Airbus jumbo jet safely on the Hudson river.
The quote from Sully that I want to reference here drives home the point of continual learning.
He said, “One way of looking at this is that for 42 years I’ve been making small, regular deposits in this bank of experience, education and training. And on January 15 the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal.”
I read this as mastery. To me, it meant that Captain Sullenberger trained hard and continued to grow through experience to the point that even a failed Airbus couldn’t shake him from his practiced, ingrained moves and he was able land that thing safely and save hundreds of lives.
This is the level of mastery I am looking for in communication and selling. I want to be in a conversation, really in it. I want to listen actively and show the other person total attention and at the same time I want to calibrate masterfully. I want to see, hear and feel the emotions behind the words and this ability only comes from constant practice and focused learning.
Lack of growth = Stagnation; not a word you want associated with your life.
Own your sales gene