Deeper Mastery

I once talked with an older adult student who told me she had “the knowledge as big as a football field, but only a quarter-inch thick.” When pressed to elaborate she replied how she loved to learn new things and expand her understanding of what interested her. Unfortunately, so she claimed, she lacked the patience or willpower to delve deeply into any single subject.

Perhaps you notice a bit of her in your forays into the wonders of this universe. I certainly do. I relish discovering new knowledge, but with one notable exception. I may dabble in a lot of areas, but I still possess full knowledge of a couple of areas: music and audio production and writing and publishing. And this is how it should be.

"Gather in your resources, rally all your faculties, marshal all your energies, focus all your capacities upon mastery of at least one field of endeavor." – John Haggai

Be willing to delve deeply into one or two subjects to really understand them. Without this deep knowledge it’s difficult to truly benefit from what you know. For me, I read, listen, watch, and ask questions all the time. And I take what I learn and apply it to my project du jour. That keeps me creative. That keeps my skills up-to-date. And all of that extra studying keeps me competitive.

It's your fundamental obligation to continue your learning. It can’t stop once you get away from formal education. Life-long learning is a requisite to leading a creative life. It’s a recipe for success. You have to keep expanding your knowledge and experiencing more and then mixing all that together into a concoction that feeds your muse.

Scientists call what we learn from our studies ‘explicit’ knowledge. It’s the knowing of this and that. More importantly, there is also ‘tacit’ knowledge. This is the more complete knowing of how something works. Gathering explicit knowledge ultimately leads to the tacit understanding and ultimate mastery of a skill.

To know really how to do something well is far more valuable than just simply knowing about something. Superficiality breeds the worn, tired, and cliché. Real depth creates the fresh, interesting, and novel approaches to your art. So, go deep. Now.