Mastery - Part One
Drawing inspiration from Robert Greene’s insights into mastery, this piece invites you to examine the role of inclination in discovering your purpose and shaping a meaningful life. It explores the traps that pull us into passivity, the mindset shifts required to reclaim our agency, and the transformative power of aligning with our Life’s Task. This is not merely a reflection on human potential—it is a call to action.
Inclinations
Greene recounts the stories of many masters throughout history, and each story begins the same way “a youthful passion or predilection, a chance encounter that allows them to discover how to apply it, and an apprenticeship in which they come alive with energy and focus.” These individuals, with no inherent differences from anyone else, excel at their craft by their ability to practice harder and move faster through the process of development which stems from the intensity of their desire to learn and from a deep connection they feel to their field of study. At the heart of this intensity of effort is a genetic quality: an innate inclination toward a particular activity or subject. The best part is that each person on the planet has an innate inclination toward a particular subject, it is not reserved for those few who become masters at their craft.
This inclination reflects a person’s genetic uniqueness. Each human is unique; our exact genetic makeup has never happened before and will never be repeated. Our unique inclinations are “revealed to us through the preferences we innately feel for particular activities or subjects of study.” For example, music, mathematics, certain sports or games, solving puzzles, tinkering and building, playing with words, etc. In other words, those activities or subjects that have us feeling a certain level of fascination or obsession.
Those who eventually become masters of their field experience their inclination more deeply and clearly than others; as an inner calling. Their inclination tends to dominate their thoughts and dreams, they spend every possible moment engaged in their inclination. They will generally find a way to a career path in which this inclination can flourish naturally. As they are deeply connected to their work, to their calling, “they withstand the pain of the process, the self-doubts, the tedious hours of practice and study, the inevitable setbacks, the endless bards from the envious. They develop a resiliency and confidence that others lack.”
It can be understood that when we are aware of and engaged with our natural unique inclinations we are able to take on the inevitable struggles and suffering that can come with the work required. Simply put, when you love what you do and what you do feels fully aligned with who you are, nothing stands in your way.
Given our existence in this time in history, we now more than ever have the freedom and ability to discover and “move toward the inclinations that all of us possess as part of our genetic uniqueness.” In fact, we have a responsibility toward ourselves and to the rest of the world to move toward our inclinations with agency. For our authentic contribution to the world is necessary for humanities development.
The Trap of Pursuing Inclinations
Pursuing our inclinations can feel overwhelming in the face of everything else we have to do in life. Even though you may be feeling like you aren’t living authentically or aligned to your dreams, the external pressures in life can occur as daunting and inescapable. For instance, you may think you don’t have the time, money or correct set of circumstances to pursue your inclination. It’s possible that you may be inclined towards something that isn’t immediately financially beneficial, and so the idea of spending so much time on something that won’t make money in the face of mounting bills and social pressure to “be rich” dominates your psyche. Sure, deep down you desperately want to take the plunge and go after your dreams, but what if you fail? What if you go broke? What if you lose control of your life? And what if it’s all your fault? Yes, it is very overwhelming.
Here’s the trap. A natural response to being overwhelmed in life is to simply retreat into various forms of passivity as a way to numb the existential pain lingering in the background of your mind. Such as doom scrolling social media for hours after a hard day of work, or downing a couple of beers alone in the garage while the rest of your family is wrecking havoc around the house. But who can blame you, the economy is in shambles, houses are ridiculously expensive, your parents messed you up and the whole system lied to you about what it took to be successful. Life sucks, you’re not allowed to follow your inclinations and dreams because you have too many other obligations that were given to you by others.
The trap is the mindset that you are at the whims of life, here’s how the mindset works:
If you don’t try too much in life to actually pursue your inclinations, if you limit your circle of action, you can give yourself the illusion of control. The less you attempt, the less chances of failure. If you can make it look like you are not really responsible for your fate, for what happens to you in life, then your apparent powerlessness is more digestible. You will lower your sights on what is possible in your life, your levels of discipline and effort will diminish below the point of effectiveness, you will conform to absurd social norms and listen more to others than to your own voice. You may choose (or have chosen) a career path based on what your friends and family tell you, or what seems to be lucrative at the time.
Yes, it is very possible to have some success in life, even if you lose touch with your inner calling, but eventually your lack of true desire catches up with you. Your work becomes mechanical and lacking any heart or soul, you come to live for leisure and immediate pleasures (drugs, sex, gambling, vacations). This is how your life becomes increasingly passive. You can grow depressed and frustrated about your life, never realizing that the source is your “alienation from your own creative potential.”
As children we are wired to take on the world, we have unlimited creative potential anchored in our unique inclinations. Without being aware of it, we are drawn to certain activities and subjects naturally, we don’t question it, we just love them. As we grow older, we are shaped into submission to follow the path that is expected of us. Our parents, friends, educational institutions determine what that path is. We are taught that we need to focus on school, work, get married and be materialistically abundant in order to be happy. Rather than focusing on what we are inclined towards, nurturing our uniqueness and creating a life and environment that suits who we are and how we want to contribute to the world.
It is thus absolutely necessary to discover, pursue and fulfill on your inclination. Luckily, you can use your current experience of life as a motivator in two main ways: Agency and Self-Determinism.
Agency
Your attempt at discovering, pursuing and fulfilling on your inclination, or in Greene’s term – attaining mastery, is extremely necessary and positive. The world is overflowing with problems, most of our own creation and we are populated by people who prefer living through passivity and inaction. This attitude about life isn’t cool or romantic (as it may have once been not long ago) it is pathetic and destructive. By choosing to attempt mastery (pursuing your purpose) you are choosing to contribute to the survival and prosperity of humanity in a time of great stagnation and complacency.
Use your life experience to provide you with the agency to take action towards discovering, pursuing and fulfilling your purpose in life. Feeling disconnected or unaware of your purpose does not mean you are lost. Use the feeling to understand that time is limited and you might as well spend your life in pursuit of what truly matters to you.
Self-Determinism
Passive humans are entirely products of their conditioning. Self-Determined humans are empowered to alter their conditioning and alter the state of their lives, as well as the lives of those around them. Self-Determinism occurs entirely in the mind and body, it requires no external stimuli or motivation. The mind can alter your experience of life without any changes to your circumstances.
Scientists in many fields are proving that the brain is quite plastic and that our thoughts “determine our mental landscape.” Our understanding of the relationship between willpower and physiology, on how “profoundly the mind can affect our health and functionality” is altering our very understanding of what is possible for a single individual to achieve. We are truly responsible for so much of what happens to us.
Recognize that you are not “stuck” in the way you are. Yes, it will take work to get you into the life you want to live, mostly mental work, and that work is something you can direct independently from your conditioning. Simply recognizing you have mental and spiritual freedom is enough to start the process of discovering your inclinations and living into the life you are meant to live.
Discovering your inclination, your inner calling, your vocation, your Life’s Task and how to carve out a path will lead you to fulfillment on so many levels. The shifting from one level of awareness and intelligence to another can be considered a type of alchemical transformation. As you progress upward, old mindsets and perspectives fade away completely as new ones emerge from the void left behind. You unleash new powers and you are born into a new way of experiencing the world.
Unleashing the masterful mind within,
you will be at the vanguard of those who are exploring the extended limits of human will-power.
To live a life of mastery is to reconnect with the inclinations that define who we are at our core. While modern life presents countless distractions and pressures that encourage passivity, it is through agency and self-determinism that we reclaim our power and potential. The pursuit of mastery is not reserved for the elite or the lucky; it is available to all who are willing to discover their inner calling and act on it with resolve. In doing so, we not only transform ourselves but also contribute to the evolution and betterment of humanity. The journey toward mastery is both a personal and collective imperative.