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Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment Paperback – February 1, 1992
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Whether you're seeking to improve your career or your intimate relationships, increase self-esteem or create harmony within yourself, this inspiring prescriptive guide will help you master anything you choose and achieve success in all areas of your life. In Mastery, you'll discover:
• The 5 Essential Keys to Mastery
• Tools for Mastery
• How to Master Your Athletic Potential
• The 3 Personality Types That Are Obstacles to Mastery
• How to Avoid Pitfalls Along the Path
• and more...
- Print length176 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPlume
- Publication dateFebruary 1, 1992
- Dimensions5 x 0.47 x 7 inches
- ISBN-100452267560
- ISBN-13978-0452267565
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“George Leonard is a remarkable man who embodies what he teaches: an amazing curiosity, a passionate intelligence, and the rare combination of someone who has both a broad vision and the focused mastery of details.”—Dean Ornish, New York Times bestselling author of The Spectrum
“If he's right—and Leonard has been right so many times about prevailing zeitgeists that you have to wonder if he has a third eye—the upcoming decade might be known as the decade of mastery.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“George Leonard translates the wisdom of Zen into a self-help program for sticking with it—whether you want to learn aikido or need support in realizing long-held goals.”—The New Age Journal
“The practical wisdom in George Leonard's book will have a great influence for many years to come.”—Michael Murphy, author of Golf in the Kingdom and The Future of the Body
From the Back Cover
Dean Ornish
"If hes right and Leonard has been right so many times about prevailing zeitgeists that you have to wonder if he has a third eye 00 the upcoming decade might be known as the decade of mastery."
San Francisco Chronicle
"George Leonard translates the wisdom of Zen into a self-help program for sticking with it whether you want to learn aikido or need support in realizing long-held goals."
The New Age Journal
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Plume; Reissue edition (February 1, 1992)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 176 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0452267560
- ISBN-13 : 978-0452267565
- Item Weight : 4.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5 x 0.47 x 7 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #62,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #38 in Zen Philosophy (Books)
- #1,181 in Success Self-Help
- #1,621 in Personal Transformation Self-Help
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

George Leonard has introduced LET to more than 50,000 people in the United States and abroad. He is the author of a number of books on human possibilities and social change, including Mastery.
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Top reviews from the United States
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Learning never stops.
If you want to succeed this book will give examples and the tools.
I have learned so much from George Leonard and I can now see what I have to do to achieve my ambitions. I have read this book during lockdown a time where I had time to reminisce about the past and where I went wrong. The one thing I discovered was that I never listened to myself instead of other people who telling me to go in directions that left me completely miserable.
For the first time in my life this book mastery has taught me to finally do the things I am strong and passionate about.
Read this book and I hope you succeed and do something great.
I would also like to recommend the following books:
Rich Dad's CASHFLOW Quadrant: Rich Dad's Guide to Financial Freedom Robert Kiyosaki
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One Dr Joe Dispanza
The Chimp Paradox: The Acclaimed Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness Professor Steve Peters
Learned to love the plateau, the path towards mastery.
by George Leonard
Dan John mentions this book in several places, so I figured it was probably worth checking out.
Turns out that it is. Not a big shock, really.
Leonard approaches the question of mastery from his perspective as a long-time practitioner of Aikido, but his insights into the quest for mastery are applicable to any endeavor. Leonard begins the book by describing three mindsets that he considers incompatible with mastery: the dabbler, the hacker, and the obsessive. He then lays out his five keys to mastery, detailing each one and how to approach it. Finally, he wraps up with some chapters on preparing for the journey of mastery.
It's a concise little book, but there is a lot of wisdom in here. The section on the dabbler, hacker, and obsessive are useful filtering tools, both for recognizing those behaviors in myself, and in people who train with me. The five keys to mastery, likewise, are pretty good sign posts, and a couple of them served as useful reminders of things I knew, but forgot again.
I confess I didn't love some of the "tools for the journey", as a lot of them were rehashed Aikido demonstrations like the "unbendable arm" (or the splayed fingers drill from the PDR system), and a few other things. I suppose if your goal is mastering Aikido, they have their use, but I'm not convinced that everyone needs to experience these drills.
Still, if you're looking for a way to focus on your goals, this is a good place to start. Lot of useful concepts in here.
The process Mr Leonard describes in this book is straightforward, easy to understand, and even easier to apply - as long as you can learn to love the journey! This will offer you a great insight into your successes, and other results, and show you a clear path to achievement. You'll be able to understand your own behaviors, and those of others, better and be more mindful of them to help yourself and others achieve your goals while enjoying the process (which is the actual goal itself).
A quick warning: this can be a painful read, since we all have times in our lives when we have, and even still will, participate in the patterns Mr Leonard describes as 'Anti-Mastery'. Many have a problem with this part, but it is necessary to accept and come to terms with it, there is no shame in the feedback from past adventures unless you continue to not learn from them, this requires humility and letting go of pretense. If you can manage that you'll be on the path to Mastery sooner than you realize, without even realizing it!
An excellent read in conjunction with Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) or Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life (Masterminds Series) . Mastery describes how to love the path and progress, Flow describes how to stay engaged and progress when on the 'plateaus' that we all encounter along the path of Mastery. Either on their own is incomplete.
Top reviews from other countries
1. Talks about the need of Mastery in the present world.
2. Gives profound advice on how to inculcate mastery in our daily lives.
3. Exposes the hidden workings of the world which wants us to seek meaningless pleasures.
4. Gives you various tools and tips to include mastery in your daily practice.
5. Has a chapter about Mindfulness.
6. Helps you to use mastery to become the best at your field.
The long version -
Mastery isn't just a skill you master and be done with; it is a lifelong journey without an end. This book makes you think deeply about mastery. The author explains various processes involved in mastery and how in the present society where mastery is extinct, must come back.
The book teaches you the subtle art of mastery and how you can apply it in your daily life. The first part of the book explains how mastery is almost non-existent in the present world. People love instant gratification and instead of pursuing a meaningful goal, they are running after their next dopamine high. The society is trying to bombard you with endless amount of instant gratification and pleasure. Remember, this book was written in the 1990's, think about the direness of the situation now.
The author stresses the need to break free from this pleasure trap and seek out meaningful work or activities that give you satisfaction over the long run.
In the second part, the author talks about Mastery itself. How it happens and how you can use it to become the best at your field. He talks about how mastery is created. He also gives you various tips on how to use mastery in your own field. In the third part, he gives you various tools on how to keep Mastery sustainable.
The writing style of the author is very fluid, and you could just breeze through the book. The book is only 180 pgs. long but can offer a lifetime of wisdom in terms of skill development and meaningful work. The ending paragraph of the book makes you think about yourself in a deeper way. This was a beautiful book to read as it exposed the pleasure trap what engulfs us daily, and how it is our duty to inculcate mastery in our daily life.
P.S. – This book is quite different from Robert Greene’s Mastery. Both books are good on their terms.
This book was written in early 90s. Today we have many books on this topic of mastery and excellence (E.g. Talent code, Outliers, Talent is overrated, Mastery etc). But this book was seminal book on this topic written way back.
The book is really excellent. It will guide you on your path to mastery in your chosen field. Very well written and crisp. Worth the price.
Mastery has taught me to just keep on pushing on with practice, slow down and just enjoy where I am in the present. It's hard to do so, but I'm learning and I will probably read this book a handful of times before I can get better at focusing on the process versus the result.
Thank you.













