The brain's hidden superpower

Let me know if you've ever been in this situation: you're sitting down writing something, and you've been struggling for hours trying to find the right words. It's super painful and frustrating, and no good ideas are coming to your head. But all of a sudden, something hits you; the right words magically seem to just come to you. It's like you've been mining in a cold dark cave for days, and you finally struck gold.

Or maybe you're playing around on the piano, trying to improvise something. You're not really coming up with anything good, but then, all of a sudden, you try something new, and you somehow pull off a brilliant new melody. It's like genius struck for a brief moment and then faded from existence. Moments like these seem to fall upon us kind of randomly and without warning. While we're in them, it's almost euphoric. Things kind of click together and start making sense, like the pieces to a giant complex puzzle are starting to snap themselves together.

But most of the time, this just isn't how things go. Practicing an instrument is usually tedious and boring. Writing is difficult. But as we're trudging through these activities, we remember those brief bouts of brilliance, and we hope that this time, when we're participating in our craft, it can be like that one time when things just clicked. Although they may seem like it, these little flashes of brilliance aren't just random and nonsensical; they are a window through which we can catch a glimpse of our potential.

It's like a little preview of the power which we all possess inside of us—a power that makes this elusive state of brilliance and creativity into a consistent and replicable reality. And if we're able to fully develop this power, it can give us a greater command over ourselves, over others, and over the world around us.

This power is called mastery. Now, when most people think of the word mastery, they think of somebody who's really good at something. Beethoven was a master composer and musician, and most people would say that Martin Scorsese is a master filmmaker. But mastery is a lot more than just being really good at something because the master has such a thorough understanding of his craft that it becomes like an extension of himself.

It becomes a language they can use to influence and inspire other people in a way that seems almost magical. A master piece of literature can bring us to tears of joy or tears of bitter sadness, and a master painting can cause us to reflect on the fleeting nature of time or the nature of our very existence. It's as if the master, through their expertise, has access to something like the heart of life.

But a lot of people disqualify themselves from ever achieving mastery in whatever their craft is. You know, if you're a normal person like you or me, we tend to think that we're incapable of achieving mastery, like some of the greats before us. We may be tempted to think that mastery is reserved for the genius or the child prodigy. But the truth is, mastery is something that already exists inside you, and it's up to you to develop it.

So how does one go about developing their mastery? Well, you may have heard that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a master at something, and this is kind of true. You do need an insane amount of practice at your given craft in order to achieve mastery, but it isn't just a numbers game. You're probably never going to put in that amount of time practicing a craft if you don't actually enjoy it, which is why the first step of mastery is to discover your calling.

Everyone who has ever lived has at least one thing that sets their imagination on fire—something we feel naturally drawn towards or fascinated by, whether that's constructing something, solving a problem, or playing an instrument. Because of your unique brain, you have certain things that you really dislike doing and certain things that you really have a preference for. So really reflect on your life and figure out what your passions lie.

If you really like doing something and you feel an importance while doing it, then that's an indication that you can potentially become a master in this thing. But passion alone won't get you far. The second step on the road to mastery is to eliminate the ego. Realize that you know absolutely nothing and become a blank canvas. You need to seek every opportunity to grow and view everything as a potential learning experience.

Approach your craft with a ruthless objectivity. Don't identify as being good or talented at anything because that puts a barrier in the way of viewing your work objectively and being critical about it. A good example of me not doing this was when I was in a filmmaking class, and I always carried around this sense of pride about my filmmaking ability. I was usually the best filmmaker in a room, but I'm usually in a room where nobody makes films, so that's pretty easy.

My now good friend Jared also made films. He would present his work to the class, and it was pretty good. I would feel threatened by this because I'm supposed to be a good filmmaker, and for some reason, his work being good was a threat to that. It doesn't make any sense, but that's because the ego is involved. You need to eliminate the need to be the best artist in the room or the best at your craft or the best athlete.

Because when you're trying to learn as much as possible, none of that matters. If you can eliminate the ego, then you can view the work of your peers and figure out what they're doing better than you are. Then you can apply that to your own work. It also allows you to look at your own work with a ruthless objectivity as well and scrutinize it more. This video is pretty trash. Find out where your weak spots are and try to make them strengths. None of this is possible if you have a giant ego and identify as a master long before you've earned that title.

Step number three on the road to mastery is to learn to embrace tedium. When you first approach a craft, you approach it as an apprentice. Practicing your craft for the most part is going to be tedious. It's not going to be very exciting. Applying new techniques and trying to stretch your boundaries is usually really uncomfortable, boring, and not very exciting. I feel so bad, but if you learn to embrace the tedious nature of practicing your craft day after day, you'll eventually reach a point of accelerated return.

You start to become a practitioner, and the practitioner understands the complex relationships between each component of their craft. They start to get a view of the bigger picture and can really engage with their craft in a more creative way. Once you reach this stage in the game, practicing becomes a lot less tedious and more enjoyable. You can start to have some fun with it, but the road doesn't end there.

You still need to propel yourself into mastery. You still need to find that deeper understanding, and one of the most effective ways you can do this is to move on to step number four, which is absorb the Masters' power. Since you've become a practitioner, you can use your competency in your craft as sort of proof that you take it seriously and you're willing to learn. You can then take this proof to somebody who's much better than you at your craft and work under them.

It's crucial that you find somebody who's much better than you at what you do and learn from them so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Your work can also be scrutinized by somebody who has the authority to scrutinize it. By learning from a master, you can then view your own work through their eyes and try to work on things that they would want you to work on. Working alongside a master collaboratively is a great way to become one yourself.

But if you're unwilling to take this path toward mastery, then this creative power inside you will remain undeveloped. It will lie dormant; it will occasionally reveal itself in these little glimmers of temporary brilliance, begging to be fully realized. In case it wasn't already clear, this entire video was based off of the book "Mastery" by Robert Greene, and it's one of my favorite books I've read this year.

I'd highly recommend checking out the audiobook version of "Mastery" using today's video sponsor, Audible, because that's exactly how I read the book. I really like it when Audible sponsors my videos because they're super easy to recommend. I probably listen to more audiobooks than I read physical books nowadays. Audiobooks are great for listening to good literature when you're on the go—if you're working out, going for a run, or if you're doing something monotonous that doesn't take much thought, you might as well be expanding your mind in the process.

Not only does Audible have the largest selection of audiobooks on the entire internet, but every single month you can download one audiobook for free, regardless of cost, as well as two Audible Originals. So to sign up for your free 30-day trial, click the link in the description, visit audible.com/forbetterideas, or text betterideas to 500 500.

One of my favorite things about Audible is that if you cancel your subscription, you still keep your entire library of books. Once again, click the link in the description or text betterideas to 500 500 to start your free 30-day trial and have a good time.

So this video took me a long time to make, mostly because it just took me a long time to write. I wrote probably 8,000 words about mastery because it's such a rich book. But I wrote a lot of things, and they weren't necessarily all connected in this nice through line, so it's really hard for me to try to figure out how to distill such a rich book packed with information into an under 10-minute video.

But hopefully, you can find something useful out of it. But if you like this video, make sure to hit like because we hit like, the algorithm does fancy things, and it helps my face show up on your homepage. It really helps spread the channel.

If you're lurking here, consider subscribing and hitting the bell icons so that you don't miss future videos. I'm having a Q&A really soon on my second channel. I'll put the link in the description to that; it should be a lot of fun. Other than that, that's all for today. Thanks a lot for watching, and we'll catch you in the next video. [Music]