[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][fusion_text]How you ever suspected that you’re a wizard and no one’s told you?

Like “The Truman Show”, people are watching to see when you wake up to this realization and start wielding your magic wand to create beauty and wonder. Life bends to the will of the wizard who is master over his or her condition.

Don’t worry, that doesn’t quite sound like me, either. But I still consider myself ‘successful’.

But success isn’t the same as mastery, is it? Do you go through life trying to achieve success or mastery? What’s the difference?

I spend a lot of time thinking about my own personal development. What education do I need, what classes should I take, what books should I read? But there are two divergent intentions: one, to be successful in this life, and two, to be masterful. I think the distinction is important to clarify.

I realized recently that what I really want is to develop mastery in this life, so I can live the ideal life for me. I think wizardry is all about creating your ideal life aligned with your life purpose. Per the quote I closed with in my last post, my Work is understanding how this magic operates as well the task of actually working the magic.

My life has literally exploded in a thousand ways I couldn’t have predicted since I started focusing on this Work.

I’m now choosing a life of pleasure and joy and community. I work to make money so I eventually don’t have to (more on spending less and saving more later…), but I also ‘work’ to build my community, to build my healing capacity for those around me going through tough transitions.

I play games, and run in the park, and read instead of incessantly asking for more and more—more money, more things, more power, more recognition. You know, the vices of a type-A personality.

I’ve slowed my life down, taken a step back from technology, and reconnected with nature…literally putting my bare feet on the ground. As an aside, it turns out grounding isn’t as complicated as I was making it. It’s not something you need to learn how to do. You don’t need any fancy incense or energetic practice, you just need to connect your bare skin to the Earth.

Just clarifying my intention, to focus on mastery instead of success, has yielded amazing changes and results which I’m very happy with.

“The drive for mastery is very different than the drive for success. If you want success, it typically means that you want a kind of approval—like for society to say that you’re good. Mastery is about valuing your own opinion of what you’re doing, really far more than anyone else’s. That is at the heart of mastery—loving the process.”

– Sarah Lewis, Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture and African and African American Studies at Harvard University

Are you choosing mastery or success? Comment below!

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