Last weekend Lynda and myself went to a 4 day Tony Robbins workshop. Talk about intense!  50 hours of learning between the hours of 1PM Thursday and 6PM on Sunday, it was complete immersion and didn’t leave much time for sleeping or eating. However it was time well spent, I can’t say enough about it. If you get the chance, do yourself a favour and go to his “Unleash the Power Within” workshops. I think his next one is in San Jose, California.

Tony Robbins

Tony Robbins

I have lots to share with you about what went on (such as  walking across an 8′ long bed of hot coals (over 1500 degree) in our bare feet!). But today I would like to share Tony’s insight into mastery. He believes that the keys to achieving a “mastery” level at anything, lie in these 3 points.

1. Find a model. Success leaves clues. Find someone that is not just good, not just excellent, but outstanding in the field of your interest. Someone that has already achieved the results you desire, not just once but multiple times. Find this person, then model yourself after them. You can compress decades of learning into days if you seek out the right person to model yourself after and mimic what they do.

2.Total Immersion. Don’t just dabble but immerse yourself in their teachings. This is the best way to learn a language, isn’t it?  You want to learn great Italian, you move to Italy (doesn’t that sound like fun:)).  Learning only through a weekly lesson or the occasional private lesson will unnecessarily extend your learning process.

3. Spaced repetition. Walk away and then come back. If you are constantly on top of what you are trying to learn you lose your perspective. But a return trip to work with your model of mastery will unlock the clues to your own long-term success.

This is very much like our agility training program. We start with puppy camp and move from that to skills etc until you are working at the handling camps. Each camp gives you the four-day immersion that takes you closer to mastery (yes I will post the progressions for all of you).

For a long time, I used to be frustrated by the fact that our “weekly” students never excelled in agility the way the ones that came to Say Yes for our multi-day Camps.  But think about it. When you are at a 4-day workshop you get over 30 hours of learning. Those 30 hours will never translate into 30 weeks of 1-hour classes because there will always be the need for repetition. So each week 10-15 minutes of the class will be spent reviewing what was previously taught. So now that makes those 30 classes 25% longer or close to 40 weeks of classes.

When I have a student at a camp I can say on day three, “remember what I said on day one. . .” If I was speaking to a “weekly” student it would be an equivalent of saying “remember what I told you 7 months ago?” I am sure you can see how the concept would not be ingrained as thoroughly in the weekly student as the multi-day camper that has been immersed in it.

Now I admit there are advantages to weekly classes where the student has the opportunity to go home and absorb the material for 7 days. I know there are times when students at our camps are trying to take in all that we teach and feel as if they are trying to get a sip of water from a fire hose.

However speaking from my own experience, I have to agree with Tony Robbins,  the pathway to mastery starts with immersion and modelling yourself after a master.  I am very grateful for Tony Robbins, I have been a fan for many years and can’t believe it took me so long to finally go a hear him in person.