What book do I recommend most often, and why?

I was recently invited to contribute to a book that will be published at year end. I was asked to select from a list of questions and answer thoughtfully. I selected four questions to answer. The first I chose was “What book have you given most often as a gift, and why?” Here’s my response:

 I’ve given about six copies of Mastery by George Leonard as a gift, but have recommended it hundreds of times. I first read this book 20 years ago, after belatedly reading Leonard’s Esquire article from May 1987, the seed from which the book grew. Leonard wrote the book to share lessons from becoming an Aikido master teacher, despite starting practice at the advanced age of 47.

I raced through its 170+ pages in a state of almost feverish excitement, so strongly did it affirm the methods TI was already using to teach swimming. The book helped me see swimming as an ideal vehicle for teaching mastery habits and behaviors closely interwoven with our instruction in the physical techniques of swimming. I love this book because it is as good a guide as I’ve ever seen to a life-well-lived.

Brief Summary:

Life is not designed to hand us success or satisfaction, but rather to present us with challenges that make us grow. Mastery is the mysterious process by which those challenges become progressively easier and more satisfying through practice. The key to that satisfaction is to reach the nirvana in which love of practice for its own sake (intrinsic) replaces the original goal (extrinsic) as our grail. The antithesis of mastery is the pursuit of quick fixes.

My Five Steps to Mastery

1. Choose a worthy and meaningful challenge
2. Seek a sensei or master teacher with expertise in that field to help you set out on the right path and establish priorities.
3. Practice diligently, striving tirelessly to learn or improve key skills and to progress incrementally toward new levels of competence.
4. Love the Plateau. All worthwhile progress occurs through brief, thrilling leaps forward followed by long stretches during which you feel you’re going nowhere. Though it seems as if you’re making no progress, learning continues at the cellular level. If you follow good practice principles, you are turning new behaviors into habits.
5. Mastery is a journey, not a destination. True masters never believe they have attained mastery. There is always more to be learned and greater skill to be developed.