According to George Leonard, mastery is a mysterious process that a challenging thing gradually changes to an easy and interesting thing, depending on my practice. In addition, there is not a goal in a way of mastery because mastery itself is a goal in life (50). This philosophy of George Leonard in his book, Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment gave me opportunities to face my life once again.
When I fell into plateau which is a state that I cannot feel the progress for anything, I immediately changed my plan and tried to find an easy way to accomplish my work. Also, I just stopped my work that I must do, and I started new project to forget troublesome work. In this book, this kind of person is called dabbler (65). I already
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The path of mastery does not exist on the past and future. There is only now. I had never had a thought to love the process of practice. I understood that I must love what I am doing and what I must do now to achieve my work. Even though I cannot accomplish my work by my goal of the day, there is not the end of my practice and the path of mastery as long as I live and exist here. Also, when I try to do something new, I must not be afraid of being embarrassed. I must not forget beginner 's mind. It is important to be fool to study things at first. If the beginner like me carefully protects my pride, I cannot improve my skills because my stupid pride disturbs my learning. The more important and technical skills I try to learn, the more my pride hurts in some ways. There is not an easy way to obtain technical skills. I did not like to show myself outside because I did not have confidence for anything what I did. Actually, people do not pay attention to me more than I think. I knew it in my mind, but my deed did not change easily. I was afraid of making mistake and bothering people. However, I realized that this is the biggest issue in this art field. As I took many art classes, I gradually changed my mind due to friends and professors. Art students looked so confident of their pieces, and they said that they love their works. Who can love a piece which is not loved by a creator? Even though they are not happy about their pieces, they could fluently told how to achieve their goals. I became to respect people like them, and I became to enjoy a critic days and work days more than before. Even though my work was not going well, I could accept this reality. Then, when I was successful to create my piece through my practice, I felt a sense of accomplishment which gave me a brave and strong heart to face the next plateau which will come soon. Mastery, again taught me the importance of having a beginner’s mind to
The essay, “Standing Up for the Power of Learning,” by Jay Mathews explained how one of many students was accused of academic dishonesty. During the regular school session of the year 2001, three fourths of 187 students at Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT) were found guilty of cheating. This was because they collaborated on an assignment in a computer science (CS) course with friends. By communicating with others about the project, the students violated the course honor code that prohibited the discussion among students for that particular class.
A Few Keys to All Success by Jim Muncy, published in 2002 explains that there are 7 universal keys to success that we can relate to everyday life. Discernment, Optimism, Responsibility, Initiative, Perseverance, Purpose, Sacrifice. Each one represents how we grow and teaches us how to have a high quality of life. From reading this book I am confident because I know being normal means being average and what we do can change how we act significantly. Also we can’t let the world hold us back from greatness. There will be negativity, there will be those who lack enthusiasm but you can’t let them interfere in what you have in store. And these keys will help you get to that point in your life. Discernment; Judge the seed by the harvest. The first
Getting one good grade in school is easy, the difficult part is to keep getting good grades. This concept applies to other things also. For example when a group is given a certain privilege they have to maintain it. In the essay “The Unexamined” by Ross Chambers, the author discusses that different races are perceived differently depending on where they are. He says that white people are the superior ones, and they bare the privilege of not being marked by others. While other races are discriminated, the whites are excluded from discrimination. Together with the color category there are other ones which also are the privileged ones, like for example: men and straight people. In the other essay “Man Royals And Sodomites” by Makeda Silvera,
While we all would agree that racism is immoral and has no place in a modern society, that was not the case in the U.S. in the 1940s. At the time African Americans were treated as second-class citizens, it was made near-impossible for them to vote, and they were discriminated in many ways including in education, socially and in employment. It was a time in which segregation and racism perforated the laws and society, a time in which African Americans were “separate but equal,” segregation was legal and in full force. Apartheid was also everywhere from the books to in society. Blacks were not truly seen as equal as they were seen the the lesser of the two and it very much felt that way. Blacks were oppressed in many ways including having unreachable requirements to vote, such regulations included literacy tests, poll taxes, and elaborate registration systems, but it only started there.
In the article “Reading and Thought” the author Dwight MacDonald provides criticism and disagreement with Henry Luce’s idea of “functional curiosity”. Luce developed the term “functional curiosity” defining it as an eagerness of people to know the latest news happening around the world. On the other hand, MacDonald concludes that functional curiosity only strengthens reader’s practice in reading rather than in providing invaluable information. He underlines that literature nowadays is deficient and insubstantial since there is no deep meaning in the texts. Modern printed literature is simply being skimmed through by the reader as the reader nowadays tends to avoid too much information resisting thinking in such a way. Because of the new nature of the printed materials, MacDonald considers today’s reading behavior and the way people think as flimsy and indifferent. I agree that our thought has definitively changed since we are paying less time to serious critical thinking losing connections with society and awareness of it.
“I never found myself needing that piece of paper,” is a remark actor Johnny Depp made back in 2010 about his relationship with longtime partner Vanessa Paradis. Depp and Paradis have been in a relationship since 1998 and have two children together, Lily Rose and Jack. Another member of Hollywood’s elite, Latin singer Shakira, shares a similar view saying that marriage is like a contract, and that is unromantic. However, celebrities living like Shakira and Depp are also committing fornication and already view themselves as being married; the marriage is just not official. This draws comparisons to Ernest Gaines’ novel 'A Lesson Before Dying'. Two of the novel’s main characters, Grant and Vivian, have sex outside of marriage because they cannot be married since Vivian is still legally married to another man (Gaines 29). Even though of Vivian’s situation differs slightly from that of Depp’s, the act is still the same. These adults are conducting the act of sex outside of marriage; they are either ignoring what their religion teaches on the subject or do not care what religion has to say.
The ability for all children from varying walks of life to receive a well-rounded education in America has become nothing more than a myth. In excerpt “The Essentials of a Good Education”, Diane Ravitch argues the government’s fanatical obsession with data based on test scores has ruined the education system across the country (107). In their eyes, students have faded from their eyes as individual hopefully, creative and full of spirit, and have become statistics on a data sheet, percentages on a pie chart, and numbers calculated to show the intelligence they have from filling out bubbles in a booklet. In order for schools to be able to provide a liberal education, they need the proper funding, which comes from the testing.
It is evident that Gerald Graff’s article is bias because he avoids talking about acquiring academic intelligence through academic learning rather than non-academic ways. For instance, Graff shows bias when he generalizes our way of seeing educated life and academics. He said that, “We associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider inherently weighty and academic. We assume that it’s possible to wax intellectual about Plato, Shakespeare, the French Revolution, and nuclear fission, but not about cars, dating fashion, sports, TV, or video games.” (Graff 264-5). Graff clearly thinks that everyone associates educated life with academics, when in reality this is not true. He believes that
I was blind to the fact that all the pieces I worked on improved my talent and only saw them as another task. Then, during my tenth and final year of lessons, my perspective began to change; the results of my
Louis Menand, a professor of English and American literature at Harvard University presented three different theories for higher education in an article for The New Yorker named, Live and Learn: Why We Have College. Menand (2011) claims that the reasons for college are meritocratic, democratic, and vocational. These theories are great models for the purpose of higher education in our culture, at different points in our history. As a nation, there are definite intentions behind the way that instruction is conducted in our colleges and universities. The techniques adopted by institutions of higher education are no mistake and they are designed to serve a purpose. These methods evolve with time and shape the way that generations think and reason. In our generation, the purpose of higher education in our culture is to sustain the nation atop of the worldwide economy.
In the book “The Elements of Learning” by B. Banner, Jr., and C. Cannon, the authors introduce eleven different elements that characterize the different stages a student goes through before becoming successful. Industry became the first element introduced; industry represents hard work followed by diligence and persistence. A student must be willing to work hard in order to acquisitively allow the spirit of knowledge to be retained. The second element represents enthusiasm, but such element can best be described as finding something interesting, stimulating, or even entertaining. Meaning that the things you approach must be entertaining or must have something interesting that will be able to keep you focus. The third element, pleasure, represents the small, quiet and private satisfactions that come from your own abilities, and from what you bring into your work. Having pleasure means being proud of the achievements obtained from the individual’s hard work. The fourth element is cur...
When it comes to the topic of addiction, most of us will readily agree that it is a miserable trait to possess. An addiction is a physical and psychological state of being that if not treated correctly could result into harmful wrongdoing. In The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, he recounts a story in which a fatigued housewife named Angie Bachmann lost all of her family’s assets, amounting to a million dollars due to a gambling addiction. Every habit has three components: a cue or a trigger of an automatic behavior to start, a routine the behavior itself, and a reward which is how our brain learns to remember this pattern for the future. According to Duhigg, “you cannot extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it” (63). Duhigg suggests that in order to change ones bad habit the “Golden Rule” must be implied. The Golden Rule is a theory of shifting a habit by retaining the old cue and reward, and tries to change only the routine. Duhigg’s answer to the question in the chapter title, “Are we responsible for our habits?” is simply “Yes.” If we have an awareness of our habits, then we are responsible for their consequences. In the case of Angie Bachmann, she should be held accountable for her gambling debts because she was well aware of her own bad habit and did not try to seek for help.
Moreover, self-confidence is something that cannot be taught. It is up to the individual to decide how much belief that they possess inside of themselves. Further, the more people believe in success and in the achievements that they have accomplished in the past, the more they can firmly embrace new challenges in the future. In contrast, “confidence” is opposite to some of people’s negative personalities such as cowardness, timidity, and it can lead them to be afraid to fail, or do not dare to pursue their dreams. Throughout life, “confidence” can be expressed from the smallest action as a student presenting or contributing ideas to the class lessons, or a scientist announcing his inventions, or even a writer publishing his books. The best way to gain self-confidence is to look deep inside of ourselves and believe that we have the ability to overcome all obstacles and challenges we are faced with on a daily bases because our self-esteem is one of the few things that we have control over. Thus, practicing to be more confident is a crucial task people should do every
The arts have influenced my life in amazing ways. Throughout my life, art has been the place I run to and my escape from the world. As I’ve grown older, art has become so much more than that. Every piece of art I create is a journey into my soul. It’s a priceless way to deal with my emotions and my struggles. I create art not only because I enjoy it and because I want to, but because I have to. Somewhere deep inside there is a driving force, urging me to put my heart down on paper. I become emotionally attached to each of my pieces because they are like dashes on the wall marking my growth. Each one is the solution to a problem I have dealt with and overcome.
The time to breathe before advancing further in my future projects, the difficult moments instead of discouraging me, these moments give me motivation and the necessary energy to move forward. I am optimist but realistic. My parents taught me that we live in a world that is constantly changing and to succeed we need a smart plan and the ability to adapt and adjust to the changing world environment but more importantly one need to prepare one’s self to succeed. We need discipline and above all an unshakable will to resist difficulties when they happen. “An ongoing work of art” would probably be one of the best ways to describe my life. From very early on in life, I have learn that I can be the artist of my own life through guidance and hard work, I learned that we are the architecture of our life, the artist of our own destiny through work, commitment and determination. Every route taken or not taken will somehow impact our existence and leave a trail like a shooting star in the night sky, the beauty of the trail depends entirely on the nature of our actions in life. This is the first time in my existence I have had the opportunity to write the story of my life in detail. This exercise