Beginner’s Mind

Over past three years, I have rarely posted a blog without having my daughter read it first.  She often points out places where my ideas aren’t clear or where I need additional details – things that seemed obvious to me but weren’t to another reader.

She’s very smart and a very good writer, but there’s more going on here.  She’s been working for 7 years; I’ve been working for many times that.  She still has “beginner’s mind,” and I don’t.

There is no doubt that wisdom and experience are powerful, but they must be sparked and enlivened by fresh perspectives.  Otherwise, we can get stuck in our beliefs and our ways of doing things well beyond their “use by” date.

In the New Year, ask yourself if you are willing to expose your hard-earned beliefs and patterns to scrutiny. If you are:
– Who in your life can provide a different perspective?
– Who can ask you questions that create new thinking?

Beyond this, are you willing to try something completely new, something in which you have little or no experience?  Are you willing to risk failing or looking foolish for the upside reward of learning, growing, and, as research has shown, happiness?

As Shunryu Suzuki said in ZEN MIND, BEGINNER’S MIND,  “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”  Wishing you a New Year filled with possibilities!