442: Jonathan Hardesty, part 1: The Journey from Absolute Rookie to Mastery

This Sustainable Life

Longtime listeners and readers of my books and podcast know I draw the analogy to learning and mastering a skill to learning to play piano or a sport. You start by playing scales or practicing groundstrokes. Likewise with leadership or taking initiative, acting entrepreneurially, both performance arts you can master. Also acting in stewardship. People don't get that learning to cook without producing tons of garbage took training from when I started, producing a bag a week. Maybe I should explain better.

Some listeners my have heard how I once found but lost a web page of a guy who sketched every day for a year and posted each day's sketch. Chicken scratches for 300 days, then a month of interesting stuff, then beauty. Anyone can master if they train. It takes neither a lot of time or money, just keep at it. Most people spend much more time and money watching TV or scrolling social media, which they get good at instead.

Jonathan Hardesty, today's guest, kept at it. Starting without experience, connections, or resources, he reached mastery. On the way, he recorded and posted his years of development. You can see how rudimentarily, even remedially, he began. Watch that video, Journey of an Absolute Rookie. Prepare to be inspired at how accessible your potential is.

He's kept going beyond where that video showed. In this episode he describes where he began and where he went. You'll love how accessible mastery is and how much more you get from it than you expect.

It's also one of my most fun conversations. Can you tell how much I learned about self-expression and personal growth?

I don't think I'm fooling myself to think acting in stewardship, in service of others is a performance art one can do with sensitivity, nuance, personal discovery, and what other performance art forms bring.

• Jonathan's video: Journey of an Absolute Rookie
• My singing episode: I sang every day for two months, unplugged (still going)
• Abbey Ryan's episode
• Steven Pressfield's episode

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