Disclaimer: Below are the show notes and script that covers the podcast more or less. These notes will be more concise and tight as I find my narrative style and framework for the show. So bear with me.

To become Heroik, you must be forged in fire, MADE from facing the challenges of real market conditions, while avoiding the temptation to get lost in a habit of faking growth and success along the way.

In this episode of the Heroik Hour, We’ll be exploring why the most Heroik professionals, the high performance teams and people, the heroes, are not born – they are made. And I’m going to talk about HOW YOU CAN BECOME ONE OF THEM.  I’ll be giving you 6 techniques and a few resources you can use to really champion the pursuit of mastery today.

Heroes are MADE That’s what I’m inviting you to do today – make yourself, your team, your business, your organization and so on.- MADE is an acronym the Heroik team uses to remember our core values. We choose to venture together on a shared journey of Mastery, Abundance, Discernment and Exploration.  And today we’re going to discuss some strategies and concepts around the topic of Mastery.

Masters are first students of the problems they’re trying to solve.

They study them intensely, they do not share their solution until they know that it works well. This sounds contrary to the vast array of lean business strategy that advises you to beta test half measures on the unsuspecting public, but the concept of the MVP, the minimum, viable product, seemed to create a race to the bottom, disregard viability and managed to break through the floor in the process. Your customers don’t want an experiment, they want a great solution. And this is where  mastery comes in.

Mastery starts with the ability to be a beginner, to be a learner and student, to admit, at least to yourself that you don’t know jack about X – This is where your journey as a learner and ultimately a master begins. This is the mindset that will allow you to find the teachers and lessons that will help you develop your skills,become competent and continue the path to mastery.

Many people don’t make it this far. They skip this step. Entrepreneurs become gurus by attending and participating in a weekend retreat

You have to be committed to the suffer-fest of fear, discomfort, self reflection and self improvement for the betterment in a focused and disciplined way.  We all feel aloof, embarrassed, naive, vulnerable and desire comfort and security when we’re learning something new, especially at first.

We’re hard-wired to feel this way – it’s natural. But the great ones, the high performers, embrace this discomfort and persevere through it.

I believe you achieve mastery when you develop competency in a skill and adapt it to serve you better than the original form, effectively optimizing it for you and making it your own form, process and method.

There’s also a trillion dollar market for anti-mastery that is alluring.

Chasing merely the appearance of mastery, the image of growth or improvement, is anti-mastery. It is the way of the poser and wantrepreneur. It is the way of the mediocre firm. You will not feel the same degree of success and fulfillment this way, and this is why many struggle and fail to deliver value. They get sucked into the market for anti-mastery.

A few examples

The consultants and gurus who can quote Simon Sinek’s Start Your Why – but can’t get deeper than the platitudes are not worthy of your attention. Read the book and study that. Save the time and distraction. Don’t follow the tainted gurus and anti-mastery.

Wantrepreneurship is anti-mastery. Those who aspire to be an entrepreneur, and constantly consume trainings, books, but never apply what they learn or grow through the birthing pains of building a serious business. And this happens all too often Why? Because they’re driven more by the image than the actual benefits of a successful business. They believe the mission is accomplished when they successfully fake it, ignore the quality of their product, avoid the impact or lack thereof. They are there for the applause and attention. This is anti-mastery.

I’m a big Bruce Lee fan. And he once said:

“Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”

Anti-Masters, have not applied or refined much. They’re passing along theories they’ve heard, but have not filtered through. They puff themselves and their efforts to seem more effective than they are.

At the enterprise level this comes in the form of pursuing known half measures, providing inadequate resources to the effort including time, energy, attention, and/or money, is a self fulfilling prophecy for stagnation and failure. So some dingbat can say they tried change and transformation and it didn’t work.

6 things to help you on your pursuit to mastery

1. To increase your focus, get in the habit of persistently asking yourself this one question – where are you pouring your TEA, Time, Energy and Attention?
2. And filter those answers through the Golden Rule  – The Heroik Golden Rule is to cultivate that which serves you and hit the eject button on that which does not.
3. Create a road map that serves you. Setting goals and mapping out a real plan where rubber meets the road and you address market conditions, uncertainty and doubt with strategy and tactics. If you don’t ever review your plan it’s useless. It’s like a treasure map that you leave at home and just wander around digging holes all over the place.
4. Commit to learning how to reverse engineer goals into specific actions
5. Build a daily practice – forces you to take actions aligned to your goals, strategies, objectives and projects, as well as reflect them
6. Join a community. Join ours. Learn what we do. Swipe what you can then go build your own with your team. Why am I encouraging this? Steal sharpens steal. I’m not here to BS you. I’m here to get you, me, our clients mission ready for life by elevating, connecting and growing together. Check out the Heroik Insider Group – you can find it at our website at GetHeroik.com again that’s with a K.

Alright Some Books and last words

Books

• The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin
• The Tao of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee

Tools

Mind Meister – Mind Mapping software that syncs with Google Apps – start a mind map, start with a goal and reverse engineer it all the way from strategy, projects, sub projects, and finally tasks so you know what you have to do and why. Visual thinking is a powerful thing.

Trello – Make sure your to do process includes regular review. Otherwise you won’t recognize your progress and momentum.

Paper and pencil – Working in ink is so permanent. Try a pencil every now and again and give yourself the opportunity to improve your words and drawing.

These days people over value tools over process. And at Heroik, we teach our team and our clients our paper practice, that makes them lethal in any environment with just something to write with and on. Learn more in our Insider Group about what this is and how it works.

Some Last words  and recap

Heroes aren’t born they’re made. To become Heroik means to venture a journey of mastery, abundance, discernment, and exploration.

Mastery is essential to growth – you can be born good get good or quit. It’s a crowded market and there’s no spare room for mediocrity.

You csn do this.

Bring your own bravery, subscribe with us on this journey, and continue to get mission ready for life on the next episode of The Heroik Hour.