Habits Create the Foundation for Mastery

Mastery is the process of narrowing your focus to a tiny element of success, repeating it until you have internalized the skill, and then using this new habit as the foundation to advance to the next frontier of your development. Old tasks become easier the second time around, but it doesn’t get easier overall because now you’re pouring your energy into the next challenge. Each habit unlocks the next level of performance. It’s an endless cycle.

Habits create the foundation for mastery, and are the building blocks of any kind of skill or activity. As something becomes more habitual, less effortful thinking is required. You develop fluency, which allows you to move on to the next thing.

Although habits are small, they compound, where existing habits become easier to do, and new habits can be built on top of existing habits. As the foundation of habits becomes bigger, the new habits that are built can be bigger, resulting in compounding results.

References

Atomic Habits by James Clear