In my last post I talked about legendary.
Legends are masters but before mastery comes a lengthy process of learning.
Bob Dylan is one legend who has been influencing pop music for many decades.
One thing that has made him a legend is that he started off as a learner.
I think the components I last talked about are best articulated by Bob Dylan in his Music Cares person of the year’s music speech. I have excerpts from his speech which I want to share with you and in his speech he shows that;
1. Mastery is learned from other people
Here is what Dylan says;
“I learned lyrics and how to write them from listening to folk songs. And I played them, and I met other people that played them back when nobody was doing it. Sang nothing but these folk songs, and they gave me the code for everything that’s fair game, that everything belongs to everyone…….”
If you want to master a skill you have to learn from other people, you have to pay attention to details important to the craft you are interested in and understand that learning never stops.
2. Learning takes devotion
“For three or four years all I listened to were folk standards. I went to sleep singing folk songs. I sang them everywhere, clubs, parties, bars, coffeehouses, fields, festivals……”
You must have this type of devotion to your craft. Be a keen learner.
You have to devote time to feed your passions, satisfy your deepest longing, cultivate and sharpen your craft at every opportunity.
It could be years before you become a legend, but before mastery comes devotion to a lifestyle of learning.
Mastery is a result of years of learning and hard work not overnight acceleration.
3. Learning a craft need not be a solo journey
“And I met other singers along the way who did the same thing and we just learned songs from each other…..”
That road cannot be traveled alone, you will need people who share the same passions with you, who don’t think it is crazy to be singing everywhere, tapping your feet while cooking, or reading a book when you are supposed to be partying and don’t find it strange that you are watching.
Whatever you are passionate about, you have to flock with same feathered birds.
4. If you keep learning and practicing persistently you will eventually become a master
Thinking that mastery is for a select few, thinking that it is for superior people who arrived on the earth equipped with talent?
Thinking mastery is some secret a few discover?
If that’s what you are thinking, you are thinking wrong?
Bob Dylan says;
“If you sang ‘John Henry’ as many times as me –
If you had sung that song as many times as I did, you’d have written ‘How many roads must a man walk down?’ too…You’d have written them too. There’s nothing secret about it. You just do it subliminally and unconsciously, because that’s all enough, and that’s all I sang. That was all that was dear to me”.
Dalyn says that with consistent practice you would do that too, this principle is applicable to each one of us.
What sets masters apart from amateurs is unending practice.
Repeat repeat and repeat and eventually you become good at the craft.
You would do it too.
Here is somebody else who agrees with Dylan; Chandler Bolt
Chandler Bolt would agree with Dylan.
Chandler used to struggle to get C-minuses in English class.
He was a bad writer, and it showed. But most the painful thing wasn’t seeing entire paragraphs crossed out of his essays.
The worst part was hearing English teachers tell him he’d never amount to much.
Chandler did something none of his teachers ever expected: he decided to write a book that became a bestseller.
And what he did wasn’t impossible.
He just studied what thousands of successful people before him did, and he learned strategies that experts spent decades pioneering and appreciation that mastery come in learning from others.
If you spend time learning from and listening to experts you too will become a master. The right knowledge can multiply your success.
(If you are interested in learning to perfect mastery in writing I recommend the self publishing summit, where Chandler has put together bestselling authors and top entrepreneurs who inspired him in one place. I’m not sure how long it’ll be available, so claim your free spot while you still can https://xe172.isrefer.com/go/spss/bookbrosinc385/ )
Conclusion
What craft do you desire to master? You too can become a master. It is accessible to you with practice and learning. Just do it “subliminally and unconsciously”.