Mistakes and Mastery

What makes a teacher great?

As I am doing more and more teaching, I find myself asking this question to myself.
What made my great teachers great? What made the difference?

What made the difference for me?

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I believe that what made my teachers special was the desire they created in me to learn and explore. How did they manage to create it?

This is the question I keep on asking myself - How can I create the desire to want to learn in others?

As I am getting older, I am also discovering that being a teacher is becoming a more difficult responsibility.

And I keep on uncovering pieces of this challenging and magical world...

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I strongly believe that our approach to mistakes makes a big difference in our learning experience and in life. What are your own opinions about mistakes?
I would like to ask you some questions Michael Gelb poses in his book “How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci”:
? What did you learn at school about making mistakes?

? What did you parents teach you about making mistakes?

? What is the biggest mistake you ever made?

? What did you learn from it?

? What mistakes do you repeat?

? What role does the fear of making mistakes play in your daily life, at work and at home?

? Are you more likely to make mistakes of commission or omission?


These are tough questions to ask, and to answer.
The important point with mistakes is: How do we keep on going despite the mistakes?

For example, in the Reiki tradition Reiki teachers are called Reiki Masters. Master is a powerful word – a very strong word. I still find it difficult to use the term “Reiki Master” as I refer to what I do.

Who is a Master? I am not sure if I am certain about what I would prefer it to be. ...

Mastery also seems to be mastering the use of our time. Spending time where our heart belongs seems to make a big difference. Keeping cool and calm at times of change, turbulence and crisis seems to be a common trait of masters as well.
“It is not what you are that is holding you back in life. It’s what you think you’re not.”

“Remember, nothing can stop a person who refuses to be stopped” says Robin Sharma.


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Back to now and back to questions that may help us.

My father used to tell me about the time when he broke his arm in elementary school. He had told me that he learned write with his left hand although he was right-handed. To increase our brain activity and to balance it, teachers recommend using both of our hands. Here are some simple exercises that you can do on your own:

- You could turn lights on and off with your non-dominant hand.
- Try drawing circles, squares, triangles with both hands at the same time.
- Try writing your name with your non-dominant hand.
- Try brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand.

Since left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, exercises like the ones mentioned above are known to balance the mind and the body.

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If you would like to inject the taste of mastery, it is not all that difficult. There is a wonderful exercise that I use. It involves remembering something that we do with mastery, something like driving or cooking or writing or swimming, and transferring this energy to all of our actions, to our being.

Close your eyes. See yourself at your mastery of whatever it is that you do very well. It does not matter what the activity is; what matters is that you do it like a master, very well and without effort or tension. Then take this feeling, this energy and visualize it surrounding whatever you would like to master. You will see miraculous results.

Body and Mind
The state of our body also affects our mind. Words sometimes mean more that we realize. Moving our body is known to create flexibility in our thinking and increase our flexibility manoeuvring through life.

3 questions are suggested by Robin Sharma to test our words:
? Are these words truthful?
? Are these words necessary?
? Are these words kind?
He speaks of these 3 questions as the gates that the words that we would like to utter needs to pass through.
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From Paul Arden:
There is a book that I read on and off. Its name is “Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite”. The author Paul Arden says “Good marks will not secure you an interesting life. Your imagination will.” And in the front cover of the book it says: “This book explains the benefits of making bad decisions. It shows how risk is your security in life. And why unreason is better than reason. It’s about having the confidence to roll the dice.” This book is now also available in Turkish.

Exercise of the Week:
Draw Music
Listen to your favourite song or music. And while listening to this piece of music, draw your feelings, thoughts and impressions with shapes and colours. Try this whenever you feel like it. Write the name of the song or piece and the date for future reference. You may try drawing with the same music at different times.


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“The Last Samurai” was a movie that I really like. I watched it again after I came back from Japan. I believe it reflects what Japan really was and a lot about what it still is. There is a lot to be learned from that movie about mastery as well. Am I longing for feelings and times long forgotten?

There is a conversation I really like in this movie.
Preparing for battle:
Samurai Katsumoto asks: “Do you believe a man can change his destiny?”
Nathan Algren acted by Tom Cruise replies:
“…A man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed...”

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Affirmation of the Week:
“Joy. Joy. Joy. I lovingly allow joy to flow through my mind and body and experience.”
By Louise L. Hay
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Quote of the Week:
“What you do instead of your work is your real work.”
Caitlin Metthews
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Suggested Reading:
“The Laws of Spirit” By Dan Millman
The Turkish translation of the book may be found under the name “Ruhun Yasaları”.

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