Greatest of All Time

Aikido instructor George Leonard on mastery:

​"How long will it take me to master Aikido?" a prospective student asks.

"How long do you expect to live?" is the only respectable response.

“Ultimately, practice is the path of mastery. If you stay on it long enough, you’ll find it to be a vivid place, with its ups and downs, is challenges and comforts, its surprises, disappointments, and unconditional joys. You’ll take your share of bumps and bruises while traveling – bruises of the ego as well as of the body, mind and spirit – but it might well turn out to be the most reliable thing in your life. Then, too, it might eventually make you a winner in your chosen field, if that’s what you’re looking for, and then people will refer to you as a master. But that’s not really the point.

What is mastery? At the heart of it, mastery is practice. Mastery is staying on the path."

That rush that comes about when debating with a peer isn’t new. Speech and debate is as old as recorded language goes back to.

And a well known topic of debate in American culture is surrounded around the question of “who is the greatest athlete of all time?”

As we witnessed Tom Brady win a seventh title two nights ago, many will continue to call him the greatest of all time.

But all simpleminded arguments aside — no matter who anyone considers the greatest there is one similarity across all disciplines.

From basket weaving to basketball, every “GOAT” understood that mastery was formed through practice.

The six pack shortcut lifestyle is outdated, the answer is right in front of you.