Striving For Mastery
By Manuel Ospina
I like being around books. Walking between bookshelves within libraries and bookshops relaxes me. Whenever I have free time, I head to a bookshop and browse the shelves for hours, picking up books and reading a few paragraphs. It was no different when I returned from my last trip to Colombia: I had a couple of hours in John F Kennedy airport in New York and I was browsing some books in a bookshop whose name I don’t remember. One of those books was from Robert Greene, an author I like and read from time to time. It was his new book: Mastery. I really like Greene’s writing style, particularly the way he includes anecdotes from historical figures to drive his points. But what made me buy the book is that the title resonated with my personal purpose: reach mastery.
From a young age, I’ve always been driven to be ‘good’ at something. Music, literature, programming, languages, just about anything I could get my hand on. But therein lies the issue: I have too many interests and finding one topic to master has always been a challenge. I have jumped into a new topic to move to another one after four or six months. This way of work has some advantages — people value knowledge — but it has been an impediment to becoming a master of a singular thing.
Mastery was a reminder of my decision to become a master. It was also a reminder of the first step I should take: to choose one craft to master.
It was harder than I thought it would be. It is still hard. It will probably always be hard. After a couple of years with a failing project and working for a start-up where I move constantly from project management to software development, I understood; I didn’t choose one craft but two, software engineering and writing.
From then on, all my efforts would be focused on these two crafts., I may work on them separately, but I will focus on them only.
When you have purpose, you are driven. The universe seems to want you to succeed. Perhaps, your senses are honed on opportunities and circumstances around your goal.
In March 2021 I saw the advertisement for a Software Developer role at No Moss. I read the job description, the company’s purpose, what they do and who they were looking for.
The focus of all of this was purpose.
No Moss was the place where I could continue with my journey for mastery. So, I applied.
In the No Moss Interviews, I could talk about my passions and my purpose in life and I knew I had found a place where they would be shared and celebrated. Since starting in April, No Moss is becoming more and more the ideal place for me to work. The place where it is not only my job, but I am heavily encouraged to think about my purpose, define it, redefine it, and work to reach it. I know my purpose is to reach mastery; I know my craft is related to software development and writing. But I also know I still need to narrow it down, create goals and actions that help me track my progress and keep me moving forward. I can do that here at No Moss because No Moss purpose is my purpose. And this is very comforting.
Originally published at https://nomoss.co by Manuel Ospina on June 23, 2021.
