Life can be overwhelming.We want to do as much as we can, see the world, learn new things — and it can all get a bit too much. Sometimes we reach a point when we feel that we can no longer be interested in everything. We have to shut some of life out, and we don’t like that. We are living under the false assumption that to know anything worthwhile takes years of study, so we might as well forget it. But sometimes inside us rebels. We still want to learn new things and make new things. They don’t have to be big things. Coping with too big a challenge can be daunting.The secret is to be a “micromaster” by perfecting lots and lots of small things — for a big payoff. A micromastery is a self-contained unit of doing, complete in itself, but connected to a greater field. You can perfect that single thing and move on to bigger things. A micromastery is the way we learn as kids. You never absorb all the fundamentals straight away — you learn one cool thing, then another. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has written about “flow” — a state in which time seems to be suspended because our involvement in what we’re doing is so great. A micromastery, because it is repeatable without being repetitious, has all the elements that allow us to enter a flow state, which produces great contentment. As we get older our default setting becomes “off” not “on”. We stop getting interested in new things because we haven’t got enough time or energy. This is an excuse but who can blame us when we hear we need 10,000 hours to “master” something. Micromastery slices through all the excuses. You start with something so small and easy that it doesn’t impact on your life except positively. We envy the person who has a perfect French accent, who can roll kayak, or compose a poem that isn’t laughable, who can lay a brick wall that doesn’t fall down. These are regarded as hard things to learn which mean a greater mastery of the filed concerned. But with micromastery you can start with the test piece and then — and only then — do you go back upstream to learn anything more about the new world. Seeing the world in terms of micromasteries makes anything seem possible. Fancy bookbinding? Yoga? Tap dancing or tank driving? All have their micromasteries. It’s very liberating — you no longer have to feel trapped in your day job. You will start, in a small way, to get your life back from the idea that the world seems to push on us that we should do just one thing all our lives. An annoying situation ♦We are too (71) to accomplish everything we are interested in and sometimes we have to make a trade-off. ♦We take it for granted that anything worthwhile doesn’t have an (72) payoff, so we might as well forget it. A practical approach ♦ Instead of accomplishing big things, the secret is to be a micromaster by starting (73) . Facts about a micromastery ♦It is connected to a greater field. We can (74) upon small successes to achieve greatness. ♦It enables us to have a good command of important things (75) . ♦It can help enter a flow state when we are (76) in what we are doing. ♦For the adults who lack time and energy to try new things, it can have a (77) impact on their lives. ♦Instead of envying the achievers, we can (78) the unknown world by starting with the test piece. Conclusion ♦A micromastery can help us to liberate our minds and (79) our boundaries. ♦For a satisfying life, be (80) of small things.