Self-Mastery: 3 Crucial Keys to Developing the Winner’s Advantage

“The paradox seems to be, as Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.” – Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

Self-mastery is often seen as the shining light of achievement and personal development. Why?

Without any sense of it in your life, you’ll find your life quickly devolving into chaos.

This article is going to be highlighting the need for it and how to attain it.

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What is Self Mastery and Why Is It Important?

“Concentrated observation of one thing shuts out other things and causes them to disappear.” – Neville Goddard

Self-mastery is the ability to contain and control your passions and desires in order to achieve a fixed end or maintain productivity throughout any given length of time.

Society rewards those who can exercise restraint because this provides a base for creative pursuits.

If you want to become a leader of any kind, learn a skill, get in amazing physical shape, create something, improve yourself, or just do anything worth doing – you’re going to have to have self-mastery. It is the prerequisite.

For example, think of children under the age of 10.

They can throw temper tantrums, they can be destructive, they give into lesser passions…

As cute as children are, they only represent potential. That’s what makes them great, but that’s also their downside.

A child can’t save someone from a burning building.

A child can’t create complex computer programs.

A child can’t write a Stephen King-like novel.

Children need to learn the foundational skills for these things.

They need to be taught how to interact with other people, how to manage themselves and their emotional state, how to learn effectively, how to transcend the desire for instant gratification…along with a laundry list of other things.

A child can only learn these things when they learn self-mastery. That’s step one.

And if you can’t take step one, how are you going to take step 23?

So that’s easy to grasp. But how does this look in an adult’s life?

• Without self-mastery, the choice between eating a cookie and not eating it becomes unclear when your goal is to diet and lose weight.
• Without self-mastery, flirting behind your partner’s back on an app like Tinder is permissible because “I’m not actually cheating”.
• Without self-mastery, committing intellectual property fraud as a small business owner is fine because “no one will find out”.
• Without self-mastery, reading a book for an hour is a bore because it’s not Netflix.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.

From reading the above, it seems like self-mastery and self-discipline are the same thing – but they’re not, interestingly enough.

Why Self-Mastery and Self-Discipline Are Different

On the surface, self-mastery and self-discipline seem like interchangeable synonyms, but they’re not.

Self-mastery is the mindset, self-discipline is the application of that mindset.

Think of it as a martial art like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Krav Maga, or Karate.

Think of self-discipline as a grapple hold, palm strike, or a karate chop.

It is the system through which self-discipline is contained.

Without self-mastery, self-discipline is like going to the gym once a month on any random day.

It’s better than not going to the gym at all, but over the long term, that’s not going to develop any sort of tangible results.

Here’s some other things self-mastery contains:

• Positive mental attitude
• Creative visualization
• Pragmatism
• 1% progression
• Gratitude
• Etc.

So many good things fall into the net of self-mastery.

This all sounds awesome…but how do you develop this?

How to Develop Self-Mastery

Creating self mastery requires a dedication to do so and a willingness to push past preconceived notions and sacrifice for success.

If you’re willing to do that, then achieving high levels of self mastery is within your grasp.

But still, you might be asking: How do you cultivate self mastery?

Well, here’s a small framework to get started.

Determine who you want to be

Your vision of who you want to be over the long run will determine the actions that shape your future.

You want to be a super fit weekend warrior? Then eating that piece of chocolate cake or doing that workout will determine if you get to become him.

You want to be a millionaire? Then start saving that $10 every paycheck.

Small actions create an identity. Every time you take an action, you are casting a vote for that identity.

Determine what you want you want to become and start taking steps towards it. Just because it’s a small step doesn’t mean it’s not a step.

Think of it as a form of mental toughness, when you’re shaping this identity.

Manage your time

Proper self mastery begins with good time management. Time is the stuff life is made of, without time you have no life.

It’s kind of paradoxical, you need self mastery and self-discipline to manage your time but without carving out the time to build self mastery and self-discipline, time management is impossible.

It’s one of those self-reinforcing loops, much like a whirlpool.

There are many methods and ways to manage your time, but I’d recommending becoming a stark essentialist and thinking of your time in 15 minute – 30 minute – 45 minute – and 1 hour blocks.

Every time block builds upon it. By exercising the discipline needed to build 15 minutes of good time, you make it possible to later on build the discipline to build 30 minutes of good time.

Soon, you can stretch this out so much that it’s unbelievable how productive your can become.

Create “standards of conduct”

One of the reasons why people lack self mastery is because they don’t have any sort of standard of which to live up to or center their life around.

In the past, people could look to different institutions like church or the family unit to give them some sense of structure.

In the modern era, the individual is largely responsible for his own self-management, so it’s up to you to create these “standards of conduct”.

If you have no standards of conduct, you’ll find yourself easily being ensnared by many of the numerous traps of the modern world that keep people off their path and lead to procrastination.

It’s largely a question of “how am I going to show up in life?”

Am I someone who tries to frame his day within that of a daily routine?

Am I someone who watches other people have sexual experiences, being a voyeur online?

Am I someone who stands up for himself and other people even in the face of intimidation?

Am I someone who goes after what I want despite opposition to the contrary?

All of these things – you’ll have to make a decision on how the standard you want to carry and be known for in the world.

Conclusion + Wrapping Up

Self mastery is ultimately an overall approach to life. It’s one that takes the original inflamed passions of the human being and douses them in the waters of the rational, controlled mind.

Self mastery isn’t necessarily easy to build because there’s so many things urging us to do the opposite, but it is one of the only ways to live a life of design rather than by default.

Self mastery…is the winner’s advantage.

And if you want some good ways to help master your mind, check out the course Cornerstone. Psychology is a main module in the course and it’s chock full of strategies, tactics, and mindsets I haven’t shared here.

If you want more information on it, hit the jump below.