Words of Wisdom From George Leonard

"Goals and contingencies, as I've said, are important. But they exist in the future and the past, beyond the pale of the sensory realm. Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present. You can see it, hear it, smell it, feel it. To love the plateau is to love the eternal now, to enjoy the inevitable spurts of progress and the fruits of accomplishment, then serenity to accept the new plateau that waits just beyond them. To love the plateau is to love what is most essential and enduring in your life."

- George Leonard ("Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment", 1991)



I had this book rush delivered and ended up receiving it the day after submitting the order. It is a very easy and delightful read. A lot of the material is very clearly Zen (and Buddhist) based - not surprising considering the author's aikiko background. I wish I had discovered this book when it was first published - it could have saved me a lot of frustration in a number of areas in my life. Unfortunately, I had to rediscover the path to mastery on my own and the acceptance, and even enjoyment, of plateaus was a very, very hard lesson to re-learn. Though not as eloquent or concise as the George Leonard quote above, learning to accept plateaus was a point of the post "Plateaued? So What?".