Personal Mastery

Perter Senge’s concept of Personal Mastery, which is one of the famous ‘The Fifth Descipline’ has always captured my attention. Each time I read through it I get fresh new insight. It’s my favorite part of the book.

The essence of Personal Mastery is the continuous generation and maintenance of what he called “creative tension”.

In plain words, we must have goals, challenges, and continue to push ourselves forward. To clarify what is truly important, focus and refocus the goal vision as it is always in the mind, so that it enters the subconscious mind to automatically guide action.

There is a broader and deeper ambition and mission behind the vision, which supports perseverance in the face of difficulties and obstacles.

At the same time, we also face and see the objective reality, and the GAP between the two is inconsistent, as the power source to push ourselves forward (creative tension).

Be careful to distinguish between creative tension and emotional tension, to avoid the latter eroding the vision and leading to mediocrity. Also beware of structural conflict, the perception of powerlessness or unworthiness.

So, in a nutshell, it’s two things: commitment to vision + commitment to truth.

Transcendence, mastery, refers to a skillful and attained mastery, which is followed by continuous and lifelong cultivation.

Inspired by this, I began to face reality, examine reality, including the past, present and future reality, and clarify the context of cause and effect. I saw that for a long time, I was always running away from my heart, from the really difficult but valuable things, without caring for the vision, there were always some bad habits to interrupt myself, or immerse myself in the so-called situation.