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Abstract
This paper approaches personal mastery as a quest for finding authenticity, meaning, and fulfillment in one's life, both in the personal and professional realm. It reviews the practical strategies to harness the creative energies that lie dormant in all of us. It builds on the work of Abraham Maslow, Victor Frankl, Peter Senge, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Steven Covey, and Michael Ray in illuminating the concept of personal mastery and invites the reader to live from what has been called "the highest self " and to develop and refine personal vision, values, and meaning. Finally, it links personal mastery to effective leadership on the premise that our leadership style is an extension of who we are.
Introduction
This article builds on the work of Abraham Maslow, Victor Frankl, Peter Senge, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Steven Covey, and Michael Ray in understanding the concept of personal mastery. Personal mastery is approached as a quest for finding authenticity, meaning, and fulfillment in one's life, both in the personal and professional realm. It reviews the practical strategies to harness the creative energies that lie dormant in all of us because of inveterate misconceptions, faulty assumptions, and unwarranted expectations regarding the nature of human nature. Finally, it links personal mastery to effective leadership on the premise that our leadership style is an extension of who we are. This paper invites the reader to live from what has been called "the highest self" and to develop and refine personal vision, values, and meaning. By reflecting upon our true purpose in life, we initiate our journey of self-actualization, transformation and mastery.
The quest for self-knowledge and selffulfillment is as old as civilization. In the Western philosophical tradition, Greeks were the first thinkers to pursue these values. Socrates' wellknown dictum Know Thyself is familiar to all of us and Plato averred that Lan unexamined life is not worth living? In the Eastern tradition, the quest for self- awareness dates back to the writings of Buddha and Lao Tzu. Buddha's teaching of mindfulness and Lao Tzu's exhortation for living in harmony with the Tao are examples of humanity's early attempts to live a life of self-awareness, meaningfulness, and mastery. In the 20th century these questions preoccupied several psychologists and existential philosophers such as Jung,...