Power of Personal Mastery

Rolf Arnold is Scientific Director and Chairman of the Distance and International Studies Centre Technical University Kaiserslautern, Germany. He is Professor and head of the department of Pedagogy (Vocational and Adult Education) at Technical University Kaiserslautern, Germany and Scientific Director of Virtual Campus Rhineland-Palatinate (VCRP).

‘‘Know thyself’’, a phrase inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi, is often amended to the Aristotelian imperative “and become what you are’’. Oscar Wilde made the remark that over the portal of the new world shall be written “Be Thyself“. The book of Rolf Arnold gives a short, but elaborated guidance, on how we can find out our self – concept and how we can become and be what we are. It is scientifically deep-rooted and practically very beneficial. A masterpiece.

• Preface Introduction Rule 1: Teach yourself and your students to accept biographies for what they are – a story from the past. Learn to use your biography without constantly quoting from it!Rule 2: Linger not (only) on what is: instead, direct your attention to what has not been allowed to be, but could be!Rule 3: Do not grieve over what is past, but participate in what is still possible!Rule 4: Learn to examine personal values by comparing them to others!Rule 5: Learn to share deeper thoughts, not exclusive rote learning!Rule 6: Learn to plan life from how you want it to end!Rule 7: Train to see situations through different eyes and avoid expected judgments!Rule 8: Learn to see potential in others, not for confirmation of your own experience and fears!Rule 9: Work on improving your powers of observation and the elegance of how you are perceived!Rule 10: Be open to what at first may seem unimaginable, but what in fact is already transforming your everyday life and work.Rule 11: Cultivate reference points for safe, correct, and proper actions in your daily routine and professional life.Rule 12: Serve the interests of the major concerns of civilization!Rule 13: Get to know your emotion sensor and gain control in difficult situations!Rule 14: Understand the state of your and your students’ personality development.Rule 15: Practice planning and developing emotional competence in relationships!Rule 16: Play “Parcheesi plus” for self-discovery and exercising alternative ego states!Rule 17: Document the history of emotional self-examination in a portfolio of emotions!Rule 18: Reinforce emotional competence through practice exercises!Rule 19: Practice the art of real meta communication!Rule 20: Cultivate a winning attitude of learning “from others”!Rule 21: Heal yourself and your students through closeness and an appreciative non-response to suffering!Rule 22: Build an inner “look-out” for the early detection of emotional shoals, currents, and whirlpools.Rule 23: Find your students among the great thinkers of centuries past and maintain a dialogue with this external team!Rule 24: Train for the championship in successful dealings with others!Rule 25: Create occasions for supervision and feedback and routinely use what you learn!Rule 26: Practice deliberate re-interpretation and re-sensing!Rule 27: Uncover and interprete cognitive-emotional programs for self-examination and self-transformation!Rule 28: Be responsible for the self-development of yourself and your students (motto: “Become who you could be!”)Rule 29: Mistrust the 28 rules and manage without them!Conclusion: The Munchausen Syndrome: I will be who I can be! Bibliography