20 Lessons Of Mastery Learned From Robert Greene

1 – Understand who you truly are, and what kind of vocation or career you feel called to do.

2 – Commit to an apprenticeship, in which you undergo years of humble observation, skill acquisition, and experimentation.

3 – Revert to a feeling of inferiority, and possess and deep humility and eagerness to learn from others.

4 – Move toward resistance and pain, let go of need for comfort/security, and cross the threshold past the initial tedious stages of
learning.
5 – After apprenticeship phase, you must become bold, confident, and willing to test out skills and make connections between different
ideas.

6 – Learn to embrace criticism and failure, and be grateful for the opportunity to learn and improve as a result of your mistakes.

7 – Understand that there is an emotional component, not intellectual, that separates the true masters from others.

8 – Develop your social intelligence, and your ability to empathetically put yourself in another person’s shoes and see/understand
things from his or her perspective.
9 – Move past the habitual tendency to judge others or idealize/demonize them, and simply observe them rather than projecting your
own thoughts, emotions, or insecurities onto them.
10 – You must be wary of many peoples’ tendencies to display certain vices that could hinder your progress, such as: envy,
conformism, rigidity, self-obsessiveness, laziness, flightiness, and passive aggression.
11 – Learn to speak through your work, and to win others to your side of thinking by being patient and letting what you have done
speak for itself.
12 – Try to see yourself as other see you, so that you can remain emotionally detached and try to improve upon your flaws and
shortcomings.

13 – Suffer fools gladly, and don’t take criticism seriously or personally from people who don’t know what they’re talking about.

14 – Return to your childlike sense of wonder and endless curiosity about all things in order to stimulate your creative energy.

15 – Drop all preconceived notions about he world, and utilize the power of your imagination to the fullest.

16 – Always be open and receptive to new ideas that challenge conventionality, and don’t be afraid of thinking something that is
unpopular.

17 – Love learning for its own sake, and connect a wide array of ideas from different fields of study and disciplines.

18 – Maintain a sense of destiny/purpose and feel consciously connected to it.

19 – Qualities that will help you succeed: Self-discipline, desire, persistence, focus, effort, patience, energy, obsessiveness, observance,
confidence, trust in self, emotional commitment, humility, adaptability, boldness, openness.
20 – Qualities that hinder your success: Complacency, conservatism, dependency, impatience, grandiosity, inflexibility, distractibility,
becoming egotistical, close-mindedness.