All too often countless hours are spent “trying out” various things. You develop skills and abilities on things that you only ever really end up becoming just okay at. While its important to try many different things to find what you like and don’t like, its very beneficial to just buckle down and really master at least one thing in your life. Focusing your time and energy on knowing how to do one thing really well can end up being more than worth the boredom, stress, and time lost not doing other things. The rewards for knowing how to do something exceptionally well are exponentially greater than being just okay at a variety of things. Picking something to master instead of just being okay at a lot of things usually pays off quite well.

But what if you are too indecisive? What if you just cant commit to just one thing? You like to dabble. You know… Try lots of different things. Maybe your afraid that you’ll get bored doing just one thing. Well, lets remove that doubt right now. The fact is you probably will get bored doing just one thing. Even masters get bored with their subject. The difference between someone who is able to master something and someone who only ever becomes mediocre at it is mostly determined by their ability to stick with it.

Sure passion, discipline, luck, talent, motivation, etc all have a bit to do with becoming a master.. but your ability to stick with it is what really matters. You need to be able to face the fact that there will probably be times when you get bored, irritated, upset, annoyed, and feel like quitting. These should be expected. No one said being a master was easy. If mastering something was easy, then most people would do it and its value would degrade. But luckily(and unfortunately depending on how you look at it) mastering something is usually quite difficult. Therefore it is rare and valuable.

Masters are rewarded, remembered, and respected, while mere dabblers hardly ever even get to show off what they can only do a mediocre job of. Just being able to say you can sort of do x or y thing is hardly impressive. What draws a crowd is being able to show that you are really great at something. Showing off something you had to practice for countless hours/months/days/years gains you a tremendous amount of benefits.

When you show off something that is truly impressive, the world around you responds as you would probably expect. Once you can prove your abilities and show you have mastered your subject, people will start to turn to you for help and advice. You will be viewed as someone who “Just Knows” how things work within your particular skill set. Someday you might even be the one who is writing books and teaching others about the very thing you yourself were once just learning.

In short, pick something you want to master, and make sure you stick with it.