For me, I really like this book. As I have mentioned above, I appreciate the focus of it on one particular topic. It allows the subject to be looked at more in-depth. In that respect, this book does not disappoint. If I had had this book before I went out there to be a bad mofo, I might not have ended up getting floored that one night in Pattaya and getting my visa revoked. Buy this book with your money, or your mom's!

Second, the initial stages of learning a skill invariably involve tedium. Yet rather than avoiding this inevitable tedium, you must accept and embrace it. The pain and boredom we experience in the initial stage of learning a skill toughens our minds, much like physical exercise. Too many people believe that everything must be pleasurable in life, which makes them constantly search for distractions and short-circuits the learning process.” Keep expanding your horizons: Mingle with as many different people and ideas as possible, they’ll all contribute to enhancing your learning. Whenever you feel like you are settling into some circle, force yourself to shake things up and look for new challenges As you can no doubt start to see, there is no one single Muay Thai book that is perfect for everyone. Each one focuses on covering different topics and is typically written with a particular reading demographic in mind. As we practice things, even though it feels like we are making no progress at all, we are turningnew behaviors into habits. Learning is happening all along. I would even go so far as to say it is very much under appreciated in this area. Most Thai fighters will regularly use the concepts and methods shown within.You have to learn to see people as they are. “To begin this process, you need to train yourself to pay less attention to the words that people say and greater attention to their tone of voice, the look in their eye, their body language— all signals that might reveal a nervousness or excitement that is not expressed verbally. If you can get people to become emotional, they will reveal a lot more.” Combine the “how” and the “what”: Get a full understanding of the skill, not just the recipes or tools, don’t leave parts of it unlearned. The mind will naturally tighten up unless it’s constantly stretched out. Use these five strategies to keep your mind open and flexible.

Grandiosity: What must ultimately motivate you is the work itself and the process. Public attention is actually a nuisance and a distraction. Such an attitude is the only defense against falling into the traps set by our ego.The greatest mistake you can make in the initial months of your apprenticeship is to imagine that you have to get attention, impress people, and prove yourself. These thoughts will dominate your mind and close it off from the reality around you.” Submit to the Other — The Inside Out Perspective: We can never really experience what other people are experiencing. We always remain on the outside looking in, and this is the cause of so many misunderstandings and conflicts. Robert Greene. The Aha! Moments That Made Paul Graham's Y Combinator Possible. Fast Company. November 12, 2012.

We’re all the creations of our very own, unique double helix, but we spend so much time blending in and hiding behind the crowdthat we’ve become scared to listen to our inner voice. Yes, finding your true calling isn’t easy. It might take a while. Some deep digging and a whole lot of testing. This desire for what is simple and easy infects all of us, often in ways we are mostly unaware of. The only solution is the following: We must learn how to quiet the anxiety we feel whenever we are confronted with anything that seems complex or chaotic.” Strategies for Attaining Mastery He makes the distinction here, too, that you shouldn’t let it be separate from your life: “Work is often seen as a means for making money so we can enjoy that second life that we lead. Even if we derive some satisfaction from our careers we still tend to compartmentalize our lives in this way. This is a depressing attitude, because in the end we spend a substantial part of our waking life at work. If we experience this time as something to get through on the way to real pleasure, then our hours at work represent a tragic waste of the short time we have to live. Instead you want to see your work as something more inspiring, as part of your vocation… Your work then is something connected deeply to who you are, not a separate compartment in your life. You develop then a sense of your vocation.” Idea: pursuing the path to mastery requires a certain type of mindset and willingness to work. This is likely influenced by genetics just as our physical abilities are influenced by genetics. People oftensay something to the effect of, “I’ve seen so many talented athletes with God-given ability who just didn’t want to work hard. They faded away.” These statements are overlooking the fact that psychological abilities are largely fixed too. The odds that someone has the peak physical abilities (“God-given talent”) AND the peak mental abilities (willingness to work hard) are incredibly low. Thus, you would expect the people to perform the best who are very high on mental abilities and high enough on physical abilities. A job that pays more now will probably offer you less support and education, which will pay for itself 10 times over down the road.In the book Mastery, Robert Greene examines the lives of exceptional historical figures like Charles Darwin and Leonardo Da Vinci to uncover how they become widely-admired Masters. Using the strategies in this book, you too can become a high achiever and attain mastery in your desired field(s). In this Mastery summary, we’ll briefly outline the key concepts, processes and strategies involved in attaining mastery, fulfillment and success in your life. For the full details, examples and tips, do get a copy of the book, or get a detailed overview with our complete book summary bundle. Introduction: Mastery Selig’s three previous books — I Am the Word, The Book of Love and Creation, and The Book of Knowing and Worth — have won a growing following around the world for their depth, intimacy, and psychological insight. Now, Selig embarks upon an extraordinary new trilogy on the “Teachings of Mastery” with his inaugural volume: The Book of Mastery. Although the conditioning, strength and exercise elements are going to be useful to all levels of ability. Same with regards to the well laid out tactical and technical applications of striking training. Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it’s the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated.” —JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE Choose a role that will give you the greatest growth opportunities. Charles Darwin spent almost 5 years on a ship collecting life and mineral specimens. The voyage transformed him from a reluctant student to a committed, enthusiastic naturalist. The insights from those months of real-world study sparked his theory of evolution, which he then devoted his life to validating.

If you work on yourself first, as Faraday did, developing a solid work ethic and organizational skills, eventually the right teacher will appear in your life.” Avoid injury. Most people get injured because of goal obsessiveness. Pay attention to the signals your body gives and negotiate with them—but don’t override them or ignore them. The training is not aimed at beginners. It is more suitable for those who already have an existing understanding of techniques and movements Play to your strengths — Supreme Focus: Mastery is like swimming— it is too difficult to move forward when we are creating our own resistance or swimming against the current. Know your strengths and move with them. To be psychologically balanced and centered depends heavily on being physically balanced and centered.Avoid the false path: We’ll all be attracted to fields for the wrong reasons: money, fame, parental influence. We have to rebel against these forces and be honest about what our interests are. Around the globe, people are facing the same problem - that we are born as individuals but are forced to conform to the rules of society if we want to succeed. To see our uniqueness expressed in our achievements, we must first learn the rules - and then how to change them completely. It’s truly bizarre when you think about it that we will devote ourselves fully to developing our tennis game, but leave something like our relationships largely to chance. The age of the book does now show itself. Times have changed and some of the information is now no longer as relevant