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When we hear the term self-mastery we envision someone calm, confident, and disciplined. They know what they are doing, they believe in what they are doing, but they are also measured and steady in their approach to it. They are hard to provoke and just as difficult to sway or influence without sufficient evidence and persistence. We picture someone capable of self-mastery as being peacefully forceful who probably meditates a lot.
While meditation practices are always helpful to life in general to pursue mastery of any skill requires time, dedication, and discipline however the one people tend to envision is the discipline. Strict regimens adhered to with unwavering stoicism. While discipline is certainly an essential part of maintaining a dedicated focus it is only one ingredient and its effectiveness depends heavily on our reasons for employing it.
The word mastery can engender an excessive focus on the sense of ownership, thus equating self-mastery with being in commanding control of ourselves at all times. But ownership also brings with it ongoing responsibilities and mastery is not a state or a status it is a process, a never-ending process of developing a skill. And the self is most definitely a skill.