We always like to imagine mastery as a kind of arrival. You work and work and work, you practice something for 10,000 hours or – in the case of the violin – even longer, and then, one day, you’re there. You’ve reached the peak, the struggle is over. You can lean back and enjoy. But it’s not really like that, is it? And wouldn’t it be a bit boring as well? The gift of mastery is that it sharpens your senses. The cost is that you never again hear things the same. Because you care.
Matthias Ott writing about the true meaning of mastery and its impact on your life. I would add one thing, true masters require great humility. The ability to understand their current limits and to honestly look at themselves and figure out where they can get better.