In Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), building mastery refers to doing things that are slightly difficult in nature to build an individual’s sense of achievement and competence. When we were younger, we all had a natural drive to build mastery. We would push our way through to learn to talk, walk, run, or do the things that we see older children do. We would accept that while it was not easy to pick up, we would always get back on our feet when we fell.

However, when we get older, we may end up giving up on our goals or tasks when they become challenging or tedious. It can be difficult to persevere especially when our mood is affected or when we find ourselves performing not as well as others. We feel the urge to quit and to stop what we are doing when we feel frustrated because we are not able to learn or adapt as quickly.

Building mastery involves taking achievable little steps. By doing so, we can significantly boost our confidence, self-esteem, and mood. Often, when someone lacks confidence and self-esteem, it stops them from trying further. Mindsets such as “I’m not capable of achieving my goal,” “I can’t do it anymore,” and “I don’t deserve it” reinforce the need to build mastery in order to boost confidence and self-esteem. 

The fundamentals behind building mastery is to do things that encourages control, capability, and competency. When you engage in such activities regularly, your mindset begins to shift to a more positive one. You begin to adopt more adaptive ways of thinking, such as “I am worthy” or “I am capable of doing this.” As your mindset become more positive, you also begin to be open to more opportunities for self-discovery and trying new activities. It also helps to build resiliency for when situations do not go the way you planned or wanted.

Benefits that building mastery brings to your mental health

• Increased resilience: Building mastery enables you to be more confident about yourself, which also makes you more resilient and cope better, especially when you come across unfavourable situations.

• Lowers anxiety: Individuals struggling with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) often experience low confidence, poor concentration, and low self-esteem. Building mastery helps to lower anxiety while increasing all those traits.

• Reduces stress: Feeling overwhelmed or stressed? Building mastery while working on something you enjoy doing helps to relieve stress. No matter how busy you are, it is always best for your mental health to have some ‘me time’.

At the end of the day, building mastery enables you to build up a positive mindset. However, it is not something that you can achieve in a day’s work. Building mastery requires commitment and patience.

How to build mastery?

Step 1: Try something new and do it once a day – Set aside some time every day, even if it is for a couple of minutes, to try something new.

Step 2: Plan for achievable goals  – Try to aim for something a little challenging but well within your means. For example, if you aim to shoot a 3-pointer basketball shot, it will not be effective if you try it straight away. Going for your goal right at the start is just going to make you question your abilities. Hence, start with simple steps, maybe score consistently at a 1-pointer mark.

Step 3: Gradually increase the difficulty – Once you have mastered the basics and become more confident, it is time to increase the difficulty of your task. For example, once you have consistently scored at the 1-pointer mark, you might want to increase the difficulty by stepping further to the 2-pointer mark and attempting to score consistently. The trick behind building mastery is that you want to work your way up to more difficult things until you reach the goal you set.

Step 4: Celebrate every milestone – Try not to be too hard on yourself. Instead, focus on how far you are from your end goal. Celebrate every milestone you have achieved. As you look back at how far you have come, it will undoubtedly foster confidence and self-esteem.

Conclusion 

Building mastery is all about finding the fine balance between challenge and accomplishment. You don’t want to attempt something impossible only to feel a sense of failure. Neither do you want to attempt something so easy only to feel a lack of accomplishment. As with many things in life, the crucial factor of your journey to building mastery is the journey itself rather than the destination.

As a famous Chinese proverb once says: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Always start simple and slowly work your way up. Everybody has their own pace, so try not to focus too much on what others are doing but your own.

If you need professional guidance and advice on building strong mental health, then look no further than Annabelle Psychology. Through our therapy services, such as EAP counselling services for corporate groups, our psychologists are able to guide you in coping with whatever mental struggles you are going through. For more information, do visit us at https://www.annabellepsychology.com/.