I am absolutely tired of hearing the “jack of all trades, master of none” quote that people use to justify putting themselves in a box. Not only is this perpetuated in the online business or creator space, but in life as a whole. Want a better job? Become a master of the main skill required at that job (instead of the dozens of other skills, traits, and behaviors that are required to become a true master of that skill). As you can tell, I am a fan of a holistic approach to everything. Mind, body, spirit, business.
Gone are the days when it took 10,000 hours to learn — or master — a new domain of life. It just doesn’t make sense when you see through the statistic. By not challenging this collective belief you close your mind to the infinite potential that it is capable of.
I’m not a jack of all trades; I’m a master of many. I don’t feel there is anything I can’t do if I want to. — Evel Knievel
Jack of all trades, master of all. Anything other line of thought is self-limiting and will seep into your psyche to toy with your emotions like a puppet master.
Let’s take Leonardo Da Vinci for example. Leo — as we will call him — was an architect, sculptor, painter, and is known by the entire world as the greatest artist of the Renaissance era. Riches are in the niches my ass.
Rogan? Gambino? Musk?
It seems like the key to all of this is becoming a master of all, but channeling that mastery toward one BIG goal in life.
The Dangers of Blurred Perception
A few weeks ago we talked about the depth behind focus and how it’s not all about deep work — it’s about every single aspect of your life. Focus, to me, can be synonymous with ordered consciousness, the opposite of chaotic consciousness that leads to “psychic entropy,” or that the mind tends toward disorder if not focused. This is the difference between certainty and uncertainty. A sense of control or a sense of despair over the outcome of your life. Arguably the key to happiness. It’s time to upgrade the tools of our focus.
Think of your individual perspective — or worldview — as a DSLR camera. The ones that fancy photographers use. The cameras themselves have varied settings and programming that allow them to see the world in front of them. These cameras allow you to attach different lenses that allow for different focal lengths and amount of light that is being received. The cameras also have an “auto” and a “manual” setting for many different functions, but lets talk about it in relation to focus.
When your lens is blurred, you can’t see what’s on the other side of the blur, you can only assume. You can only tell yourself a story of what’s on the other side. This is perception.
What comprises our worldview — or perspective — in reality? Our beliefs, biases, goals, values, vision, and everything else that has been programmed into our heads. The beliefs, biases, etc are not the problems in themselves. A lack of choice and consciousness are the problem. When left unconscious — or when our camera is left on “auto” mode — survival comes into play.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” — C.G. Jung
Survival is a part of our everyday lives and is an unavoidable function of the human psyche, until we evolve beyond it(?). But when these survival mechanisms are unconscious, what are we trying to survive? The notion of the self. Meaning, we attach to these beliefs and biases and act as if we are them. They become a part of our identity. If something as simple as your unconscious attachment to bodybuilding feels threatened by someones opinion, your focus contracts and your perception blurs. If your identification with becoming jacked and tan gets threatened, you perceive the world from the lens of your survival being at stake.
This is a lifelong process of becoming aware of your shadow and integrating it through acceptance and behavior change, but there’s a bigger lesson here:
When your perception is blurred, you cannot see the world for what it is. You will miss out on the learning process that is life itself.
This is about learning, and becoming aware of your inaccurate perception is the first step to opening yourself to learning. I am sure we will dive deeper than we already have into this subject, but it feels necessary to bring it to your attention.
Mid Koe Letter reminder: Readers can join Modern Mastery for $5. What’s inside? 180+ proven strategies and personalized help to succeed in life and one-person business ownership.
Opening Your Mind To The Unknown
With blurred perception, you will judge and assume the world around you in a mechanical, automatic fashion. With clear perception, you will observe and discern in an open and conscious fashion. That is the message with all of this. If you are trying to learn business, but are so focused on the wrong aspects of business because you have a poor, attached relationship with money… you will be scratching your head wondering why everyone else is making twice as much progress with half the brains.
We’ve discussed the concept of the unknown — the land of infinite potential — many times before. This time is no different. The Unknown, in this context, is seeing reality for what it is. That is, being open to what our everyday consciousness leaves out due to our conditioned perceptions. This stems far beyond clearing your own lens. It means being able to throw your lens away completely and being open to seeing through any lens. Some know this as empathy and I don’t want to get it twisted. We are simply being open here to start. Assumptions and judgements while trying to adopt other’s perspectives seems against the point. Be open to the moment as it arises, as that’s what it is, a happening.
Perception is selective. Right now, think, what are you focusing on? The words on this screen. But what allows the words to be? The white space behind it. Like how a song is a series of noises, but without spaces of silence, without lows to the highs, without slow to the fast, it wouldn’t be a song… it would be a long screech. As is the Universe. Uni = one. Verse = song.
Let’s apply.
The Meta Skill Of Meta Skills
Learning is a foundational human drive. What do we do from the second we are born? Learn. How else would we end up in the position we are in now? The problem is that we have been conditioned into seeing a one-dimensional way of life. A shallow existence without depth. Study this, ignore that. Write this way, not that way. Follow these goals, not your own. Do as I say, not as you say.
This has caused a polarization of human consciousness itself. Low consciousness, high unconsciousness. What is going under your nose and how is that preventing you from getting the most out of life? We are taking a very broad approach to learning here. Life is our context. But as with most things I talk about that reflect universal laws, it can be applied to any dimension. Macro or micro.
Here are 5 steps to 10x your learning in any reality you choose: personal, cultural, social, universal, situational, conversational… any.
1) Open Your Mind
This is a given. How can you learn if your mind is closed to learning itself? This, of course, will take time and practice as with anything good in life.
I like to think of this in terms of the social media comment section. When someone with a lot of followers makes a post — doesn’t matter what it is — the comments fall into 4 different camps:
- Those that ask questions out of curiosity (open mind)
- Those that react based off of what they perceive, not seeing beyond what was said (closed mind)
- Those that reply for the sake of siphoning followers (business)
- Those that are encouraging or just reply with an emoji (good people)
The first is open to learning. However that leads to another problem which we discuss in point two. The second, through lack of self-awareness and a puzzling desire to not enjoy themselves, see what they see and use what they know to spark an argument.
I don’t have to tell you the problem with this. If I tell you that you can make $1M as a one-person business, what’s your reaction? Is it “impossible” because you haven’t been exposed to that potential reality? Is the logical solution to close your mind to it forever and hide in the comfortable reality you’ve trapped yourself in?
This is one thing that truly gets on my nerves when on socials (working on it) but why are you even on social media or living if not to make the most of it? In reflection, one of my goals has always been to prove people wrong. Good or bad, it has led to in depth newsletters, courses, and other content because I cannot stop learning about how to prove limiting perspectives (and myself) wrong.
2) Environment Immersion
When you are open to learning, it would be silly to rely on any given person to provide all of the material for you. With the social media example, let’s picture that someone made an educational post on getting six pack abs. You can already here the closed-mindedness and limiting beliefs.
“Lol you think that everyone can just lose weight???”
“Intermittent fasting? That’s idiotic, we’ve been eating breakfast for centuries!”
“Raw beef liver is the most nutrient dense food on the planet? Wow, don’t care either way.”
While I have no ties to these things (for those wondering if I still eat raw liver, no) closing your mind to just one thing closes your mind from branching into other pathways for something that may be conducive to a better future. Opening your mind to intermittent fasting — as an example — gives you a new perspective to open your mind further. Through perspective collection, you can connect the dots and create a solution for your health that is perfectly tailored to you.
Those that are open to improving their health after seeing that post can go one of two routes:
- Start asking the creator for all of the answers, expecting 5 books worth of information from somebody who has their own priorities
- Take it as their responsibility to educate themselves in a domain that will improve their life.
In the second case, environment immersion is the answer. In essence, this means controlling or framing your focus to be exposed to information relating to the desired outcome. Following social media accounts that are giving different perspectives. Buying books, listening to podcasts, talking to your health nut friends, signing up for classes, or anything else within your power to become immersed in the environment that will seemingly overload you with information.
To prevent overload, practice detachment and critical thinking. Do not take any advice as law. Yes, even mine. I am simply a perspective in infinity.
3) Silent Observation
I just got back to Arizona yesterday afternoon. After driving for 10 hours 2 days in a row, it was a given that I had to catch up on steps, so I went on a ~2 hour walk to explore the city. The novelty of the shops paired with the intention to learn where I would want to walk on a daily basis, I learned quite quick.
Silent observation is about keeping your mind open to learning. It can be easy to “shut down” after you feel like you’ve learned everything. Our mind is tricky. It likes to latch onto the ideas that best serve the ego.
If I hear diet advice online that is perfectly marketed to me, I could easily accept it as law, test it out, see good results, and feel like that is the best option for everyone — when it may not even be the best option for me!
4) Connect The Dots
The Law of Use.
“If you don’t use it, you lose it.”
There is a reason everyone and their mother is screaming at the top of their lungs for you to take action. Why, you ask?
Because you do not learn a single thing if you don’t. If you do not solidify your findings with direct experience and go on to teach someone, you are spreading a lie. You are parroting what someone else said. You are acting out a robotic life giving advice that you haven’t implemented yourself. This is more of a disservice to you than it is the person you are giving the advice.
There are more ways than physical to take action. You can write, think, meditate, and use other methods depending on what it is that you learned.
When you Use what you learn, you are forced to do it in your own way. You will face resistance until you breakthrough. When everything “clicks” and you have that “aha!” moment, you will feel the dopamine levels in your brain increase. You will feel the excitement.
This phenomenon will continue happening as long as you are immersed in an environment and using what you learn. That is why I write so much — because I enjoy consuming information that I want to learn more about. I treat my mind, body, and business as a science project. I implement fast and reap the neurobiological benefits of doing so.
5) Stack Experience
With an open mind, conducive environment, clear observation, and dots being connected — your learning will compound. It is incredible how fast you can learn when you don’t latch on to specific beliefs.
Complexity is the result of two broad psychological processes: differentiation and integration. Differentiation implies a movement toward uniqueness, toward separating oneself from others. Integration refers to its opposite: a union with other people, with ideas and entities beyond the self. A complex self is one that succeeds in combining these opposite tendencies. — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
With time, your life XP will continue increasing. Your self will become more complex. You will start to enjoy life more because you don’t feel the need to defend your own perspective — because you know there are infinite other perspectives out there. Latching onto one is the cause of suffering.
— Dan Koe
What Happened This Week
I just got back to AZ and will be getting back on the YouTube schedule soon. I have some cool things planned for the newsletter and other content as a whole.
Inside Modern Mastery, Sana — a personal brand consultant — posted a framework on how she walks clients through crafting their own story. So many creators want (and need) to write about their story. She shows you how to do it for maximum affect. Your story is your most powerful marketing tool.
One last thing, I will be starting pre-sale for a new product, The 2 Hour Writer, in next weeks Koe Letter. If you want to learn how I batch my newsletter, tweet, and thread writing (while repurposing for all platforms) in under 2 hours, keep an eye out for that.
