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Jiro – Coaching Lesson

Hi, I’m AJ Hoge. Welcome to the coaching lesson for Jiro. It was an interesting conversation, I think, and certainly the documentary we discussed about Jiro was very interesting. I’ve talked about this man before. I think I posted something on my social media at one point about him. This is a very fascinating man to me, Jiro, for a number of reasons.

One reason is that he is older, y’know, he’s in his 80s I believe at the time of the documentary and yet still working every day, still committed to mastery, still doing excellent work, still full of energy, still full of motivation, still full of life. And for me, that’s a fantastic model for living. I fear that sometimes in our society that we have an idea of aging that’s not very positive, that’s not very healthy, in fact.

The idea is that we’ll work, work, work, work when we’re younger, middle-aged, and then we’ll retire and then basically we’ll do nothing, y’know? This is sort of the image that’s given to us that we’ll retire and then we’ll just sit around and, I don’t know, play golf. That’s the image in America. And nothing wrong with golf but I always admire people who continue having a passion for something no matter what their age is.

Even as they get older that they keep that passion or possibly even develop a new passion when they become older. And Jiro’s a great example of that. So he’s this man in his 70s or 80s, I can’t remember exactly, but he’s totally committed still to this art of making sushi. That’s a great example for all of us because it means that it doesn’t matter what your age is. You can still have that commitment to excellence. You can still have that passion. You can still have that motivation for something.

For some people that might continue their whole life. For others it might change at different stages in life.

But it’s still a great model. So I recommend, I guess as the first step of the coaching is to go watch that movie. Go watch that documentary about Jiro if you can find it, Jiro Dreams of Sushi. It’s very well done.

It’s very interesting and he’s a fascinating man.

The other thing that Jiro shows me or motivates me about is the power of total commitment. And again, I think it’s so remarkable watching him and watching his documentary because our society, our modern society, basically everywhere at this point, our modern society really does not encourage that anymore.

Y’know, total commitment, lifelong commitment to mastery and excellence, these are not ideas that are presented to us commonly in the media anymore, or even in our schools anymore, right? It’s all about fast and new and quick and easy. But not about committing to some skill, some practice and staying with it, not just for weeks and months, not even just for years, but for decades.

This is one of my favorite things about Japanese culture. I live part-time in Japan and, y’know, there are things like anyplace, there are things I like and things that I don’t like, things that are great for me that I enjoy, things that I enjoy less. But one of the things I respect most about Japanese culture and one of the aspects of Japanese culture I like the most and enjoy the most is this respect for mastery and commitment, because the Japanese still have that at a very high level. Maybe not every single Japanese person you meet, but they respect it still.

Someone like Jiro is highly respected in Japan. And not only him personally but what he has done. This idea of focusing on one particular one particular skill, one particular practice and committing to it and developing it for decades, developing oneself into a master even well into old age.

Like I said, in the West, and certainly in the United States, we have an idea that “old people” as they’re called should just retire and stop…basically stop living, just go and they’ve earned their…their rest time finally so they should just sit around and rest all the time. But this is sort of a different view of being older which is that that’s the time when you really become the master, right?

Jiro was a sushi chef for decades. He started when he was, y’know, fairly young and continued. But it was really when he was older, y’know, in his 70s and 80s that he really has become recognized as a great master. And not only recognized in Japan but now recognized internationally as well. So I think that’s a really inspiring idea, this idea that…that old age is when you achieve a certain mastery in life, maybe in one skill or maybe in many different areas of life.

So that’s a…that’s a different model. I think it’s a healthier model, a healthier idea, a healthier vision for getting older and for enjoying the later years of our life, thinking of ourselves as becoming masters of something.

Another thing that Jiro showed clearly, when you watch the documentary you’ll see this, is that he has a love and a passion for sushi. You don’t become a master, you don’t do something at his level for decades and decades without some kind of love and passion.

So, y’know, the title even, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, is the idea that he says somewhere in the documentary that sometimes, or at least one time he fell asleep, and then when he was asleep he was just dreaming of making sushi, right? It’s what kind of shows his…his almost obsession with sushi, his incredible passion for being a sushi chef. He’s even dreaming about it when he’s asleep.

And that is, more and more I’m realizing that that is perhaps the secret sauce, we might say, the ultimate secret for achieving a very high level of success in some area of life. We can use lots of different methods and techniques and tricks and psychology to achieve some success in almost anything, at almost any skill. But to truly become a master in something which required, y’know, decades, you really need that love and passion. And that’s something that you cannot force.

Y’know, maybe you might have an intellectual idea, for example, about you want to be a great musician.

Like, y’know, I had this little, I’ve had this little dream and thought at times, oh, I’d love to play and be this great musician. However, when I’ve actually sat down to play the bass or try guitar or try some instrument, I find that I just don’t have the passion for doing it. Y’know, I might enjoy it a little bit. I certainly could learn to play decently well. I’m never going to be a master musician. I just don’t have the love and passion for it the way a true master does.

So what does this mean for you and how can we take these ideas and apply them to you, to your life?

Well, I think one thing to think about honestly is what in your life do you really want to master? It’s probably only one thing…I mean Jiro only has one thing, sushi. That’s it. So to achieve a very, very, very high level of mastery usually requires, in fact I would say always requires, a very narrow focus.

Yes, you can do other things in your life but you will not be a master at many, many things because it takes too much time and energy and focus and passion to achieve great mastery in something. So you have to choose. I think some people have an idea, oh, I’ll be good at this and this and this, and they’re jumping around all the time between different things and they never focus in on one or two main things and stay with it, commit totally to them.

So the question you want to ask yourself is, do you have something you truly love, that you feel a great passion for and that you love doing. And the next question would be do you really want to achieve great mastery in that area?

English is an example. Now we have a lot of members and I’ve taught many people. And a lot of people say I want to be this great master of English. I want to speak exactly like a native speaker, just like you, AJ. That’s great. That’s a great goal. However, what I’ve noticed is, I have noticed that many of these people do not really seem to love English. They do not seem to have a really great passion for it.

They have an intellectual idea that they want to achieve this level of success because it would be useful.

It would make them feel good. But when they’re actually learning English and listening to it, not in love with it. They’re not passionate about it. They’re not having a fantastic time doing it. And so they’re forcing themselves. They’re trying to force themselves to achieve this super high level of achievement.

And it’s not necessary. You don’t need to sound exactly like a native speaker. It’s not necessary. If you have an incredible passion and love for English and you deep inside feel that you must master it at that level, that’s great and you can do it. And you will do it. But for most people they don’t have that. They may enjoy English. They certainly want to achieve a high level of skill with English, but they’re not ready to commit completely and totally to that mastery because that will take them decades, 10, 20 or more years possibly.

And that’s fine. We don’t need to master everything. So you’ve got to be clear in your mind of what level you’re really aiming for. Because to go for total mastery, like Jiro, requires total commitment. What is total commitment? Total commitment means you cut off all other options. You make a decision to do something. I will become a master guitarist, for example. And then you cut away, you get rid of all other choices.

In other words, there’s no option. There’s no choice to quit. There’s no choice to fail. There’s no choice to be good but not great. All of those are eliminated. You are totally committed. You have decided and you are completely committed to just that one goal and you will achieve it. There’s no question about it.

Y’know, there’s that famous story about Cortez, I believe, who came from Spain to the New World which is nowadays, I guess it would be somewhere around Mexico. And he landed with his conquistadors, his guys in his boat, his troops. And they got off the boats and they’re all kind of…his men are kind of scared and they’re…they’re unsure because they’re in this new place. They have no idea of what’s going to happen.

And Cortez realized the morale was low and that if they had a choice, if the men had the choice to leave easily, just get on the boats and go back, that they would not have a total commitment. And then therefore they might fail in their expedition. And so the famous story is that he ordered all the boats to be burned. They burned all their boats.

And then guess what? They had no other choice. They were there in the new land. They can’t leave.

So they’ve got to go forward, y’know, into the jungle and explore. And I don’t really know what happened because they did get back to Spain somehow, right? So they must have built new boats. I don’t know.

The point is they burned. They got rid of any other choice. They left themselves only one choice which was to go forward towards their goal. And once all the other choices are eliminated, that’s total commitment. Forward you go.

Jiro has that commitment. He’s committed to being a master sushi chef and he committed to that when he was younger and he really had no other thoughts. He never gave any other thought in his head, no other choice. That was it, his decision, that’s all he was going to do. It didn’t matter if he was rich. It didn’t matter if he was poor. He had that one choice and that’s all. That’s what commitment is. It’s not easy.

And another thing about total commitment to something or to someone is that it’s a very long-term view.

It’s not only years, it’s actually decades. You’re committing to decades, tens of years, or even a full lifetime. That’s total commitment, a very powerful thing, a very serious thing and therefore not easy to do.

So let’s imagine that there might be at least one thing in your life you might want to master. How would you find out? What would you do and how would you identify this thing. Well, first of all, as we said, the first clue is it’s something you love doing. It’s something you do. You don’t have to force yourself to do it.

I think that’s a big thing. If you have to force yourself constantly to get motivated to do something then the passion’s not there and you’re probably not going to master that thing.

Yes, there will be times when you kind of lose some energy and you get burned out, you don’t want to do it. But then always the…you take a break and it comes back and you want to do it again. You just keep coming back to it again and again and again. You can’t seem to not do it, that’s a sign that something is a great passion, that you love doing it and that’s something that you might want to focus on and totally commit to, to becoming a master.

Another trait is something you do for yourself for the enjoyment, not for outward success, not for money, not for other people’s opinions. So again, Jiro, it’s clear he would make sushi no matter what. If he lost his restaurant and all his customers were gone, I’m sure he would just keep making sushi for his friends and family anyway at his home because it’s just such an incredible passion for him.

I mean, he in fact does make a lot of money now. In his earlier life he didn’t, but now he makes lots of money and he charges…he’s got a very expensive restaurant and he’s doing very well. But he doesn’t, when you see the movie, he doesn’t really seem to care about it too much.

He’s not living a super luxurious life. And in fact most of his time is spent at his restaurant. So he’s clearly doing it for something else, not for some external reason. And the other things is, y’know, the next final step would be to commit to improving constantly over a very, very, very long time, so committing to becoming excellent and being willing to take years to do it.

And I guess the fourth thing is that you would choose something that you can do even without a specific job, like I mention the example of Jiro again. Yes, he’s got a restaurant and he’s doing sushi in that job, but if he lost his restaurant he could still do it at home or he could go to a different restaurant and he could get a job doing it or he could do it as a hobby. So his great passion is not dependent on one job.

It should be the same for you if you’re going to focus on some skill, if you’re going to commit totally to something, then make it something that you can do in many different situations over your whole life. It doesn’t matter if you have one specific job or not.

So this is an interesting topic to me. I think one reason I’m fascinated by it is that it’s…it’s something that’s very difficult for me personally. I…I love to jump in and try a lot of different things in my life. So I’m not…I don’t easily focus just on one thing and stay with it constantly all the time. Effortless English and Learn Real English, my businesses, are probably the…the most passionate, most committed things I’ve ever focused on. It’s for the longest period of time in my life.

Because otherwise, most other things, I’m constantly changing them and I get bored very easily. So it kind of shows again, it’s like there’s only this one thing in my life, which is coaching and teaching, that I really am committed to long-term and seem to just enjoy doing. I love speaking. I love teaching. I love coaching like this. And I’m happy to commit to that for a very long time and try to be excellent at it.

But it’s just that one thing, most other things in my life I usually, once I become good at something, that’s good enough for me. For example, I’m learning Spanish now. I don’t care if I sound like a native speaker. That’s not my goal. I don’t need to become a super master of Spanish. It’s not…just not necessary for me. And it’s the same for you.

That’s one way to make yourself super stressed is to try to be super good at everything you do. In America we call that type A personality, someone who…they always have to achieve at the top level in everything they do. And it’s just a super stressful way to live and there are lots of studies about these kinds of people and they tend to die earlier, fairly young. They have heart attacks much more often. Not surprising because they just can’t seem to relax.

That’s very different from someone like Jiro who’s just focused on thing, who’s enjoying it, who’s taking a very long time to become a master at it. He’s not in a hurry. He wasn’t in a hurry. He wasn’t getting stressed about it. And in all other areas of life he seems like a pretty relaxed guy, as far as I can tell. And it’s the same with me. I can get kind of crazy and focused on teaching and speaking and coaching but in other parts of my life I’m pretty easy to relax. I don’t really worry about other stuff too much.

So it’s going to be the same for you. Certainly, find that one thing that you want to commit to and really take the long-term view. And in other areas of your life, just relax. You can be good but you don’t have to be great at everything.

Alright, that’s our coaching video for this month. Get on our site. Tell us what’s your area of mastery or the area you want to master. What is it for you? What do you want to commit to completely? I look forward to hearing your answers. I’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.