There is a broad-based phenomenon I have observed throughout my life. It has to do with the learning of, and then the breaking of, “the rules.”
This happens in many different areas of endeavor, but I’ll limit myself to artistic ones for purposes of brevity.
When you start playing a musical instrument, one is generally put into a system that is designed to get a quick, if somewhat dirty, result. To bring little kids up to a basic level of functionality on a clarinet, they are taught a “system,” and in that system, they are taught various rules for what they should and should not do. Little, if any, time is spent explaining the “why” of these various rules, and students are seldom taught fundamentals. Students at this level are expected to be blindly obedient to their instructors and these rules.
This is great for the quick creation of high school marching bands, but if you decide to “make the leap” into mastery, all sorts of problems occur. The “rules” that you once learned in order to quickly bring you up to a level of basic competency become an obstacle in achieving mastery, as they led you to believe the operation would be easier than it really is. Also, now you have sloppy habits that have to be undone.
Relationships with former teachers become problematic, as you are now no longer being blindly obedient; you start to question the “why” of everything. This is always an unpopular move. And worse, as part of one’s bold experimentation, one starts to break rules just to see what will happen.
So if you want to make it to the next level of mastery/expertise, one of the biggest internal obstacles is the need to overcome a habitual loyalty to these rules that no longer apply to you, as well figuring out how to deal with people whose world view is limited to obedience to a system.
If you are seeking to become your true unique self, you have to have some process in place for dealing with the people who have accepted a life at a lesser level of consciousness.
I always allow for the possibility that I, too, am deluding myself, but if I am not, I hope my books and talks make this process a little easier on other people than it was for me.
© Justin Locke
