Hey lectors, this and next Sunday will be all about discovering your career path, working on your craft and figuring out what steps to take to eventually end at a point where you can teach yourself, but most importantly, being able to take a role as a teacher for others interested in a similar path to the one you decided to take on.
This process of discovering, learning and refining our knowledge in a specific field, is Mastery. The road to mastery can be tricky, as there are infinite paths that you can take for your professional career, hell, even for your personal life. Therefore, I will explain my point of view regarding the discovery of what I wanted to learn and refine during this voyage called life. Perhaps you, the lector, can find inspiration by learning how I discovered what I wanted to pursue! It is ought to be mentioned, inspiration for this article series was found by reading Robert Greene's publication, "Mastery".
An interesting starting point for me, was when I was a college sophomore studying Economics and Finance. I realized that I had a natural inclination towards certain topics more than others, and realized how this inclination was originated since I was a child. My natural inclination relies heavily on organizing pieces together, combining different elements into one and seeing how they evolve, observing processes of systems involving multiple components, solving puzzles where needing to think outside of the box is routinely, etc. All these specific concepts, can tie up into one single concept at a micro level, that I love: Data. However, this natural orientation I had towards "organizing things" (to put it in a nutshell), had not been very clear to me during my teenage years, it faded away as I got heavily into other currents of thought. Confusion during teenage years was a big pocket player for many of us, if not for all of us! Am I right?
I believe Robert Greene portrays these ideas explicitly in "Mastery". Read the following:
“You possess a kind of inner force that seeks to guide you toward your Life’s Task— what you are meant to accomplish in the time that you have to live. In childhood this force was clear to you. It directed you toward activities and subjects that fit your natural inclinations, that sparked a curiosity that was deep and primal. In the intervening years, the force tends to fade in and out as you listen more to parents and peers, to the daily anxieties that wear away at you. This can be the source of your unhappiness— your lack of connection to who you are and what makes you unique. The first move toward mastery is always inward— learning who you really are and reconnecting with that innate force. Knowing it with clarity, you will find your way to the proper career path and everything else will fall into place. It is never too late to start this process.”
In my case, my natural inclination is not data per se, it is all about combining different pieces into one. The point I want to slide across your screen is that, our natural inclinations act as clouds that wander over the grand scheme of our own world at a macro level. It is our job to grab those clouds wandering above us, and turn them into something feasible and specific, that become the foundation of our walking ground. Essentially, it's about converting abstract interests into tactile ones, many call these interests "Niche".
I encourage you to stop reading for a few seconds and think about your inclinations, what is it that catches your attention, what is it that smothers underneath the surface that makes you want to dig?
"The first move is inward..." says Robert, and he is completely right. This might sound simple, but not so much. When I discovered that data could be the gateway to converting my ideas and interests into something tangible, I threw myself into a rabbit hole like Alicia, and commenced an enduring journey that has taken me all the way until here.
When you have an arrow pointed towards a direction, you now have to begin to walk and will ask yourself, what shall be my first step? This will be a difficult question to answer. I remember I had no idea how I wanted to begin to learn the craft of being a data analyst, and a lot of my misguidance was driven by fear of not knowing where to start. If you're starting to learn your craft and are feeling the same way, remember that it is most likely that those who you look up to, commenced the same way. Take pride in starting to learn something you know nothing about, even if you look silly at the start, you have the opportunity to paint your canvas however you like, and if you don't like your painting, remember, you can start all over again.
I hope the origin of my niche inspires you to do the same if you haven't found that just yet. I'm in the process of mastering my craft, and I find myself years, decades perhaps, behind the point I want to reach. Isn't that the point though, to pursue a perfect version of ourselves and by doing so we reach excellence, mastery, and wisdom, but ironically never perfection, since that doesn't exist?
Next article, The Road To Mastery II, will focus more on the journey of my learning, what paths I recommend if you want to start to learn something new, and the present as of where I'm sitting at right now in my own travesty. The point of showing you my personal experience is to showcase what it looks like to start from zero, so you have a realistic point of reference for your own experience!
If you will, share the link of this article on social media and with friends by the power of word!
Hasta la próxima, thank you for your time!
-Aritz.