Week 6 “The first and best victory is to conquer self; to be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile.” ~Plato

Sadly I failed to write my thoughts for week six. Time and events swept me through the week and  suddenly the time was gone. I have been an A student for the past four years (not counting math where I got a B, but that was expected and still a surprise to do so well). But this term in both of my business classes I keep getting erratic grades across the spectrum. It is not that the work is hard either...it is mostly forgetfulness on my part and that sucks.

But this past week we have continued reading Mastery by George Leonard. He has some great insights about  what it means to master self. Instruction, Practice, Surrender, Intentionality and The Edge were the titles read this week. Some of those are self explanatory. To surrender means to let go of your own  ideas and allow the lesson to unfold in order to really get the message. Intentionality means to enter the arena, or task with a real purpose and goal in mind. The Edge means despite the need for practice and following the rules with precision a person must also push to their limit, to explore the boundaries. To stand on the edge without going over can be good in some things. Of course never as far as morals are concerned.

da Vinci once said: “You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself.” Then he goes on to say that “the height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. … And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.” ​