IN SEARCH OF PERSONAL MASTERY

In his book, 'Personal Brilliance: Mastering the Everyday Habits That Create a Lifetime of Success', executive coach Jim Canterucci shares some interesting strategies on how to leverage on our innate abilities to attain personal mastery.

He has identified them as 'Awareness', 'Curiosity', 'Focus' & 'Initiative'. I concur with his selection.

He actually prefers to use the term "catalysts" to describe them, which he also elaborates as follows, with some of my personal comments:

1) Awareness:

- "Awareness involves self-awareness first, being conscious of your environment, and being cognizant of the problem at hand";

- for me, there are two critical aspects to take into consideration:

a) one, is to "be here now", or to be "in the present moment" at all times;

b) the other, is to enhance your perceptual sensitivity to the environment;

so that, with both in place, you know exactly what's going on around you &/or out there in your visual horizon;

- as a matter of fact, self-awareness is a very important aspect of emotional intelligence;

2) Curiosity:

- "Curiosity is actively exploring the environment, asking questions, and investigating possibilities";

- For me, it boils down to the sense of wonder, follow by the sense of discovery, like that of a child;

- A word of caution, though: be child-like, but don't be childish;

- it's important to understand that curiosity always starts with interest, & interest permeates all learning;

- hence, it's always good to develop & broaden one's personal interests beyond one's normal scope of work, as the attendant activities are often driven by passion & enthusiasm;

3) Focus:

- "Focus is giving 360 degree attention to what you are doing now, allowing access to any possible innovation";

- We all know that our mind follows the direction of our current dominant thought, & so it is important to focus on the most important things in our lives;

- Always ask yourself: what do I choose to see? where do I direct your attention?

- I recall celebrity coach Anthony Robbins once said to this effect:

"One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power ..."

4) Initiative:

- "Initiative is necessary to both allow innovation to work and to ultimately implement the solution";

- To me, this means action-mindedness; that's to say, we got to move our butt & go kick some butt, so to speak;

- I reckon, in execution, initiative is the distinction between wishful thinking & willful doing;

For more information, please read the book, &/or visit the author's personal weblog.

Readers can also check out the online Personal Brilliance Quotient (PBQ) to see how you fare on the four catalysts.