There are two ways to live life, one is “You can live your life in a reactive manner, constantly at the mercy of the people and circumstances around you” and the other is “you can choose to be the master of your life by practicing the self-mastery” as Leonardo da Vinci rightly remarked “one can have no greater mastery than mastery of oneself.”
You can be focused, resilient, and create the type of life you deserve if you master yourself. Self-mastery starts with self-awareness. If you are conscious of your thoughts, emotions, and actions then you have paved the right pathway to take off on your self-mastery journey effectively. In a nutshell, “Mastering others is a strength. Mastering yourself is true power.”
Now, the question you may have is, how to nurture self-mastery? Or you may be doubting your abilities without paying required attention and applying your unique skills to attain the self-mastery. No worries, this blog will offer you 5 hassle-free yet brilliant pedals to master yourself.
Here are the behaviours that you can exercise to take control of yourself and your life:
1. Take responsibility for your results: While most of us would like to blame others and put the responsibility on them, it’s much better to take responsibility for our own actions and their consequences. If you take responsibility, you can fix it. Believing in that your circumstances are someone else’s fault not going to help you in any way. Even if it is someone else’s fault, they’re unlikely to do anything to rectify the situation. It might not be your fault, but it’s still your responsibility to fix it.
2. Be courageous: Understand that the actions you least want to take are possibly the actions that will improve your life the most. Think about that, the things you’re really fearing might be the very things you need to do to turn your life around. As they say, “Courage is like a Muscle, it is strengthened by use”, so why not use it often to strengthen not only the muscle but also your life.
3. Be Focused: Focus on effective actions that will take you on the most direct path to your goals. For example, suppose you’re trying to lose weight. The most direct path is to simply eat a small number of calories of healthy food and spend some time exercising each day. An entire industry of crazy diets and workout regimes has been created because people can’t get themselves to take the direct path. Please keep in mind that, effective actions are obvious. However, the challenge lies in getting yourself to take them.
4. Embrace discomfort: As they say, “Progress and discomfort co-exist”. We’re all attracted to being comfortable. Unfortunately, the road to progress travels through the land of discomfort. We’re generally only comfortable with the things we do on a regular basis. However, those are the same things that have led to the life you’re currently living. Discomfort can be overcome by superseding your mind. Like any unfamiliar activity, acting despite discomfort gets easier with time.
5. Face Challenges: Imagine you’re 40 years old. How do you think you’ll deal with the things that are challenging you now? Think about your life 20 years ago and the things that you found challenging back then. Are they the same types of issues? How did you overcome those challenges and what was your mindset while tackling them will help you to repeat the success story now because challenges are opportunities in disguise? So, face the challenges on your way and prove that challenges make you stronger and stronger as you deal with them on daily basis.
Mastering yourself is a challenging but rewarding process. Imagine, if you could get yourself to do all the things you know you should be doing. How would your life look a year from now?
Take time today to take one mildly uncomfortable action you’ve been putting off, even if it’s just sitting down and paying your bills or calling your dear and near. Create the habit of doing something uncomfortable, but productive, each day. Over time, the really challenging things will become easier. On a closing note, I would like to leave a popular Lao Tzu insight on mastering self – “He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.”
