• The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace a long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. 
• Mastery is its own reward. Fall in love with an activity, rather than the set path to achievement. As he writes: “In my experience, successful people shoot for the stars, put their hearts on the line in every battle, and ultimately discover that the lessons learned from the pursuit of excellence mean much more than the immediate trophies and glory.”
• Growth comes at the point of resistance. We learn by pushing ourselves and finding what really lies at the outer reaches of our abilities
• Praise the process. Celebrate and appreciate the work that was done to get the outcome, instead of focusing solely on the outcome.
• Invest in loss. Embrace vulnerability and mistakes. Once you learn to be at peace with failures, you can then learn to use their imperfections to your advantage when faced with adversity. 
• A telling feature of a dominant performer is the routine use of recovery periods. Resist sacrificing recovery. By allowing yourself time to rest and recover, you can jump back into your concentrated state after. 
• Treat disruptions as opportunities to grow your resilience. If you react by getting annoyed or stressed it means you were in the ‘hard zone’ and expected the world to cooperate with your state of mind. If you enter the ‘soft zone’ instead, you allow yourself to keep your concentration and your patience even in less-than-ideal circumstances whilst cultivating resilience.
• Be OK with losing. Losing, despite being frustrating, does have its benefits as you can reflect on why you’ve lost.
• Take a step back each time you make a mistake and bring presence so that you can regain clarity of mind and keep the positive energy flowing.
• Taking an incremental approach helps you stay on track. Treating your goal with an incremental approach means you gain from the mistakes and shortcomings that you will inevitably face. 
• Routines get you into the zone. It’s possible to get into ‘peak performance mode’ and enjoy serene concentration by creating and practicing a routine.
• Mastery involves discovering the most resonant information and integrating it deeply and fully that it disappears and allows us to fly free
• When uncomfortable, do not avoid the discomfort. Instead learn to become at peace with it. Learn to flow with whatever comes and then use it to your advantage.

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The above is inspired from the bestselling book "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin

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