Mastery Continued - Agency through Language and Social Skills

Look into into the must-have skills of a master mason—beyond the basics. This episode unveils the transformative power of an expansive vocabulary and adept social skills, potentially coloring your world with opportunities and deepening your connection with others. Tune in to upgrade your life's toolkit!

Key Points
• Honest self-analysis is key.
• Expand your vocabulary for growth.
• Interpersonal skills are essential.
• Understand others for better communication.
• Social skills are crucial for success.

Best Quotes
00:50 - 01:05
• "Adding vocabulary is probably the single greatest thing you can do to increase the available sort of opportunities to think about things that you've maybe not have never thought about before."

01:42 - 01:57
• "Social skills are really tough because you are now not only dealing with your own mind, which in and of itself on a good day, is a hard tiger to wrestle, but you are now dealing with the minds of others."

02:59 - 03:13
• "Understanding who they are and where they are in their sort of developmental journey and kind of their background and their history and, and maybe their idiosyncrasies is going to be a, a skill that was worth its weight in gold."

03:21 - 03:27
• "You're not gonna be able to go off and live on an island by yourself at some point, you're gonna need a skillset you don't have."

03:32 - 03:41
• "You're gonna need help even, even if you are sort of a maximally agent person, if you have the most capacity."

04:12 - 04:18
• "The development of that second skill set, the social skill is going to be absolutely crucial in your journey forward."

Creators & Guests

Host

Brian Mattocks

Host and Founder of A Mason's Work - a podcast designed to help you use symbolism to grow. He's been working in the craft for over a decade and served as WM, trustee, and sat in every appointed chair in a lodge - at least once :D

What is A Mason's Work?

In this show we discuss the practical applications of masonic symbolism and how the working tools can be used to better yourself, your family, your lodge, and your community. We help good freemasons become better men through honest self development. We talk quite a bit about mental health and men's issues related to emotional and intellectual growth as well.

00:01
So in the last episode, we talked about some keystone skills to pick up a, as a master mason that you're gonna wanna develop in a for a lifetime. The, the other things that I wanna talk about, some additional skills to add to that mix. The first two being the, probably the most important, that is the honest self-analysis and emotional intelligence. The, the others are going to be proximate to that. And so what we're looking for in a second set of skills, and these are gonna be lifelong, there's no two ways about it. The first is, is gonna be the acquisition of language. So the, the way you speak and the way you think is informed by the words, you know, adding vocabulary is probably the single greatest thing you can do to increase the available sort of opportunities to think about things that you've maybe not have never thought about before.

01:06
It's very similar to naming colors. So if you only have eight colors to choose from, it's really gonna be hard to communicate maybe your vision for what a painting should look like. Whereas if you have a whole rainbow of colors or you can blend colors together and you have words for those blends, you're going to be able to describe and accurately communicate with other people a whole lot more. And, and that brings us to the second skill. So the first skill is lexicon. The second skill is, is interpersonal social skills. Social skills are really tough because you are now not only dealing with your own mind, which in and of itself on a good day, is a hard tiger to wrestle, but you are now dealing with the minds of others. And more importantly, you have to have some level of an understanding about their preconceived notions and the interiors that they're wrestling with in order for you to communicate effectively.

02:10
So what that means is scripting and changing the way you communicate with different people based on what you understand of who they are as a person. This is why communicating to the lowest common denominator in a lot of ways, represents perhaps a higher level of understanding and intelligence. At the same time, there may not be you, you may have too much work to do to, to essentially, I don't wanna say dumb it down because that's, that's dismissive, but to, to essentially make sure that everyone could possibly understand it or whatever. It's, you're trying to communicate that that process may be prohibitive from a timeline perspective. So when you wanna communicate with somebody else and you wanna do it in a way that makes sort of the maximum positive outcomes,

02:59
Understanding who they are and where they are in their sort of developmental journey and kind of their background and their history and, and maybe their idiosyncrasies is going to be a, a skill that was worth its weight in gold. Let me be clear, we are social creatures. So despite our best effort and intention, you're not gonna be able to go off and live on an island by yourself at some point, you're gonna need a skillset you don't have. At some point, you're gonna need access to materials that you're unfamiliar with working. And so you're gonna need help even, even if you are sort of a maximally agent person, if you have the most capacity. If you are, you know, an unstoppable MacGyver, somebody still has to make the tools he uses or make the bubble gum he uses to repair stuff, same thing's true for you.

03:53
You're probably not growing your own coffee or you know, making your own sugar cane or growing every single plant. You're gonna need to make some of the more advanced medicines. So given that, given that you're not gonna be able to do alone, and humans are essentially designed not to do that alone, or social creatures, the development of that second skill set, the social skill is going to be absolutely crucial in your journey forward. So between these skills, between these sort of elements of agency, you will have a really solid foundation for moving the conversation forward for yourself and essentially beginning to develop the, essentially the framework for a life well lived. And so as you pursue these things, we'll get more into it in the podcast here, but as you pursue these things, be sure to check out what we're doing here in Mason's work and see if we have some tools that maybe can knock the corners off of some of that for you, shortcut some of that process. There are some things, some best practices, some capabilities out there to essentially make some of these journeys a little bit less onerous. So with that in mind, we'll see you next time.