Interesting to take a step away from science-based advice for a second and talk to someone who pulls lessons from thousands of year of history.

I love the section on mastery:

What should you do with your life? 

Robert says that the only way to survive the years of struggle required to master something is to do what you love.

Here’s Robert:

To get to the point where you master your field, you have to love it. You must have a personal, emotional connection to it. I could go down the list of the hundred masters that are in the book, from Steve Jobs to Einstein to Thomas Edison to Martha Graham, they all have that one trait in common.

You’ll never have the patience and the persistence to put up with all of the boring parts that go into mastery, the repetition and the learning rules and procedures, following orders, being someone very low down on the totem pole in the beginning if you don’t love what you’re doing.

How do you figure out what you love?

First off, stop waiting for a lightbulb to suddenly appear over your head. Start trying things until something clicks.

Read more: http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/02/seduction-power-mastery/

Anyone who has watched the TV show Survivor knows:

What is often the root of gaining power? Deception.

Why does deception work so well?

Because people usually believe appearances.

Here’s Robert:

A lot of it has to do with how easily we judge things by appearances. If someone appears to be saintly, if someone appears to be nice, well, then that’s who they are, that’s who they must be. Our first reaction isn’t to tell ourselves, “Well, maybe that person who seems so nice, he or she’s actually playing a game, they’re wearing a mask. They’re doing it for a reason.” It’s very hard for us to think like that in those terms. We’re very gullible.

Watch Robert: