The First Rule of Mastery

Introduction

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

—CARL JUNG

When we give more value to other people’s opinions than our own, we live life on their terms, not ours. Softball star Lauren Regula grappled with that dilemma in the ramp up to the 2020 Olympics. Having retired from the sport eleven years earlier, Regula was presented with an opportunity of a lifetime—to play again, for Team Canada, on the sport’s biggest stage. To win an Olympic medal after coming tantalizingly close in 2008 when she came in fourth after a heartbreaking loss in the bronze medal game in Beijing. The Canadian coach called Regula, a thirty-nine-year-old mom with three children and a business with her husband, and ...