Micromastery: 39 Little Skills to Help You Find Happiness

Description

We are not born to be specialists. Feed your curiosity and become a Micromaster. We read that we must be passionate about only one thing, that 10,000 hours of hard practice is needed to achieve mastery. But in fact most successful people, including Nobel prize winners, nurture multiple areas of knowledge and activity that feed their central subject. Whether it's making a perfect souffle, dancing a tango or lighting a fire, when we take the time to cultivate small and quantifiable areas of expertise, we change everything. We become faster and more fearless learners, spot more creative opportunities, improve our brain health and boost our happiness. We see knowledge itself completely differently. The skills acquired in painting a door flawlessly or growing delicious chillies will unexpectedly transform your life. So start small. Start specific. But start - and you'll be on the path to mastery.

Robert Twigger is an author, adventure traveller and apprentice micromaster. His first book, Angry White Pyjamas, about a year spent in a Japanese martial arts dojo, won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award and the Somerset Maugham Award. He has lectured on risk management, polymathics and leadership at Oxford Brookes Business School, Oxford University, the Royal College of Art, and to companies including P&G, Maersk shipping, Oracle computing and SAB Miller.

Brilliant. . . . mastering a series of small tasks has created pockets of perfection through my day, and made me calmer and happier in the process -- Rachel Kelly, author of 'Walking on Sunshine: 52 Small Steps to Happiness' Micromastery is a triumph. A brilliant idea, utterly convincing, and superbly carried through. I read it with delight, and instantly vowed to put more conviction into the latest thing I'm trying... You're on to a winner here -- Philip Pullman, author of the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy I couldn't stop telling people about this book. Wise and joyful, it genuinely changed the way I thought about learning - and it left me bursting to put it into action -- Tim Harford, author of 'Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy'