5 Steps of Mastery

14th December 2019

Part of the Amity Culture is to understand the 5 Steps of Mastery.

The first step of mastery is Awareness. When you are first aware of something for the first time (for this instance, let’s pretend it is about loose lead walking for dogs), you are almost fascinated for you have never heard or seen it before. In your mind, there is only two sort of dog walking, on lead pulling you or completely off lead. Your mind is blown at this concept when you are first exposed to it. You have become aware of something that you did not know before.

The second step is learning more about it. Now you want to find out more. You look up for classes that teach loose lead walking. Perhaps, you Google or YouTube the topic to learn more. You start talking about it with your friends and family. You start to discuss it, debate about it. Now, you are learning more and more about it and are more knowledgeable compared to when you first became aware of it.

The third step is to actually do it. No amount of research or lessons will beat doing the actual act itself. The theory now becomes practical. The thought of it transforms into action. Only by practising loose lead walking will you get better at it. There is only so much imagination one can have to understand and learn how to do something. We have to get our feet wet in the end.

The fourth step is to do it repeatedly. Ok, you have done it once, perhaps even to very good standard. Now the trick to repeat the act again and again. Not only will you get better at it, it will also become easier. Now you are able to loose lead walk your dog successfully at more occasions than before. You do not have to focus as much as it has become like muscle memory. Your ‘radar’ has increased not only in breadth but also depth. You can now enjoy the scenery AND loose lead walk at the same time for longer periods of time. Not only can you do it well once but you can do it well often. Certainly, at this stage, you are better than when you did it for the first time.

The final step is to teach. Teaching the skill allows different events to occur that is significant. Firstly, it allows us to be able to explain what we have learnt to someone else in a way that they can understand. By doing so, it expands the topic you know as everyone sees and learns things differently. It forces you to see the same topic in different lights and perceptions. Secondly, it allows you to learn again. The best teachers are usually the best students. By teaching, we learn more. It may appear that it is a one way street where the student is solely obtaining value from the teacher. Nothing can be further away from the truth. By teaching, the teacher is learning. If he is not learning, he is not really teaching but preaching. This final step to mastery brings the  entire cycle back to the  beginning where the teacher is learning all over again, becoming aware of new views and perception of the same skill of loose lead walking.

One problem that may occur sometimes is when someone tries to skip a step. Perhaps, they try to teach (step 5) before they have done it themselves (step 3) or become proficient in it (step 4). It usually ends up with a negative outcome, not benefiting the teacher or the student. When learning something from someone, it is important to find out if they are qualified or not. When teaching someone, to enable to the best outcome, make sure you have completed all 4 steps!

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