Comment from David Stevens
Time September 3, 2011 at 1:37 am

Hi Marc,
I enjoyed your metaphors here.I am engineering my Life. This gives me the flexibility to further explore & improve many areas of my Life & understanding.
I love Life however whether I master it or not…..well, we will just have to wait & see.
be good to yourself
David
David Stevens recently posted..My “Happy” is my Friend

Comment from Marc van der Linden
Time September 3, 2011 at 8:39 am

HI David,

Me too, I’m a learner for life and as a consequence in the engineering phase in many parts of my life. It gives me the possibilities of try new things, see how they work, how I can integrate new skills with the ones I already have. Truly mastering something takes at least 2 years. It is only at the moment I can do something by using my intuition and use my thinking faculty to explore what my intuition has learned, I consider myself to ‘master’ something.

You made a great point here. We all can master many area’s in life, being master in a lot of things. But the highest step of all, mastering ones life, which actually means living fully on purpose, is not the goal of every one. Loving our life is already a great achievement!

Thanks for commenting!

Comment from Melody | Deliberate Receiving
Time September 4, 2011 at 6:45 pm

This is brilliant Marc. I really enjoyed this post.

I think we tend to move through Mechanic to Engineer to Master whenever we try something new. But some of us spend years as a mechanic,thinking we need to understand every process every created perfectly. Others spend years as an engineer. Becoming a Master takes trust. Ultimately, it’s a leap of faith that you know enough (not everything but enough) and that your intuition will guide you. Knowing that you can always fill any knowledge gaps along the way, that you’ll never really get it done and that perfectionism is a myth, are all necessary to becoming a master.

Personally, I tend to spend little time as a mechanic. Sometimes only days or hours. I research like a demon until I get beyond the techniques and understand the process. My brain does this very quickly. But I agree – moving to Master takes practice and time. I’ve never done it in less than 6 months (and that was with 100% obsessive dedication).

I love this framework! Thanks for sharing this.

Hugs!
Melody
Melody | Deliberate Receiving recently posted..The Painful Flipside Of Being Adopted – Case Study

Comment from Justin | Mazzastick
Time September 4, 2011 at 7:39 pm

Hey Marc,
I am at the engineer level creeping my way into the master level. I like the idea of not having a tool than inventing one.
Justin | Mazzastick recently posted..Achieve Your Goals By Seeing From The End

Comment from Marc van der Linden
Time September 4, 2011 at 9:15 pm

Hey Justin,
Tools are very useful and can increase our speed in learning – if used well. Without tools we can get there as well – the tools are not the most important – they just help us getting faster to our goals. Eventually every way will lead to the master level when keep going in the direction of the end.

Thanks for commenting!

Comment from Marc van der Linden
Time September 4, 2011 at 9:33 pm

Thanks for your great comment, Melody!

Your observation is also my experience. I avoid the mechanic level as much as possible – It is my desire to understand things at a deep level. It is possible to go to the engineer level in very short time. The master level takes more dedication and effort – the amount of experience is here very important. Without experience mastery can never be achieved.

I love your remark that it takes trust to reach the master level. At the master level our intuition is our most important guide. Without trusting and using our intuition, it is impossible to function at the master level.

I love this framework too, as it gives me a guideline where I am while mastering a skill. It also give me great insight at which level others function about any subject in life. It can be professional, it can be about relationships, it can be about health or finance. The way people function,based on techniques and tools, process wise or simply master their subject, can help me tremendously to decide how to position myself towards them. .

Thanks for your great contribution to this subject!

Comment from Rudolfs
Time September 21, 2011 at 4:57 pm

Pride would suggest aspiring to be a master of ones own life, wouldn’t it? And yet that can newer be achieved in a way of direct assault.
Mechanics … they can be irritating. Another proof that I am not a master, I guess.
Now there is a thing: in many areas, once I reach certain level, I tend to loose interest, – it somehow seems that enough is enough. This does not apply to knowledge, sciences and humanities though, but to practical things.
How good cook one has to be?
How clean and accurate is fine, and how much is anal?
How much focus on bodily health is enough?
Where is the treshold of Orthorexia nervosa?
I do not think that such attitude does make one master. It is just letting go, concentration on the essential. A notion that no other mastery but the mastery of ones own life matters.
That is not new indeed – let’s look into one of the roots of Western culture: “the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Comment from Marc van der Linden
Time September 21, 2011 at 10:26 pm

Hello Rudolfs,

Being the master of ones life would be the most full filling there is and I believe every one has the right to go on this path. The first step to understand is that one has to learn what his values in life are. What you value in life, will become your most dominant thought in life and will manifest itself in your life in a very natural way. So before you want to learn to master something in your life, it is important to check whether it helps you with what you value in life. If you lose interest in something, it often means that it is not important for you ( but maybe only for somebody else). If it is truly important, you will certainly go for mastership and nothing less.

I hopes this helps.

Thanks for commenting!