Exploring the idea of mastery, I initially sought examples of mastery in the human realm. You often hear about the mastery journey of famous artists, inventors, athletes, and entrepreneurs and how the pursuit of mastery influenced their ability to create success, triumph, discovery, beauty, and their ability to make a lasting mark on the world. This chapter will go beyond the human species to get a fresh perspective on how unexpected, unassuming, and genuinely marvelous mastery may manifest its most refined expression in another more unpretentious creature. With that in mind, we found an interesting example in the animal kingdom that will surprise and delight you in the humble yet truly remarkable turtle.

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Soundtrack - "Ikigai" composed and performed by Bruce Wayne McLellan

Mary Oliver said, "Someone I loved, once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift." Growing up in the rural townships outside Portland, Maine, I was raised Catholic. And although the mold did not entirely take, I was left with some indelible impressions that would last a lifetime. The most profound impression was the power of love to heal, connect people together, and serve as a source of limitless joy.  Another was the wisdom of compassion.

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Soundtrack - "Ikigai" composed and performed by Bruce Wayne McLellan

"As a society, we come up lacking in many of the marks of compassion and wisdom by which we measure ourselves as civilized." Greg Boyle. Absent of compassion, we appear as unrestrained savages, crude hominids lacking in imagination and vision. A man of deep compassion, Boyle, helps us to envision our next level of civilization. Perhaps as we evolve, our society can embrace compassionate kindness as an essential human principle.  This evolution begins with each one of us. Kindness is the next leap in the realization of our innate human potential.

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Robin Sharma, a Canadian author and my personal leadership coach, reminds me to maintain a curious mind saying, "A bad day for the ego is a great day for the soul." It never ceases to amaze me that things can be chugging along just fine, and then wham! Out of the blue, something unexpected comes along that seems to have a life of its own. It grabs you by the scruff of the neck and sets you on a daring path that you never knew existed. It takes control of the wheel of your life and veers into the perplexing and foreboding parts unknown of some ancient mariner's tattered map. And it does all of this without permission or advanced notice.