Daniel Pink’s Drive shows that mastery requires “deliberate practice” which is not simply consistency of work, but “very purposeful, focused and…painful” work.

Five steps to mastery:

1. Deliberate practice includes changing your performance and setting new goals, not simply doing the same thing over and over again (Pink, 158).
2. Repetition matters. “Basketball greats don’t shoot ten free throws…they shoot five hundred.”
3. Seek constant, critical feedback.
4. Focus on your weaknesses and how you can get better.
5. Prepare for an arduously exhausting mental and physical process. This is why so few succeed. Not too many people commit this strongly. Will you?