BEGINNER’S MIND
Welcome to 2023. What’s on your mind as you start out the new year? Are you looking back and thinking about what you did and didn’t do, promising yourself to change? Are you making plans to achieve goals you missed last year or to finally master self-care, take better care of yourself and get healthier?
There’s something great about letting go of what’s in the past and getting excited about what’s ahead. But why is New Year so often the only time we do that and put too much pressure on ourselves?
The year-end anxiety can leave us feeling guilty about what we didn’t achieve. Not reaching your goals might have you put even more emphasis on the new year. It might have you feeling a little beaten up and cautious about what’s ahead. Let me assure you; it is all normal human experience and behavior.
Here's the positive. We don’t have to get stuck in the same old trap that the new year puts on us.
What’s your word, some ask. It’s become popular to choose a word that represents the intention and focus you want to have for the new year. Think of it as a theme. It can help you reset when you get lost in the busy and fall back into old patterns. You know, the ones you promised yourself to change.
The thing is, just because we decide that we want to change doesn’t mean we do. I’m sorry to confirm it’s not easy, and it takes attention. No, not work, attention.
We tend to think that change is hard and takes a lot of work; you can argue it does because effort is uncomfortable. But the reality is that it doesn’t take more time or work to do something new than something old; it takes more attention and care.
The discomfort of doing something new. The discomfort of letting the past be when we cannot fix or change something done. The discomfort of not knowing how to navigate the uncertainty of the future, even if it’s only this afternoon, has us stuck in holding on to what we know, the patterns we think of as daily habits, and the way we do things and solve problems. Why? Because the known is easy, comfortable and predictable.
What if, instead, every day, we could have a beginner's mind? The curiosity, courage and confidence to not know, to question our automatic reactions and do something with mindful care and attention? The beginner's mind allows us to make choices according to what is present, based on where we want to go. Instead of focusing so much on the goal, we focus on the journey of getting there.
When I first learned about the beginner's mind, it was 1990. I wanted to understand why the Japanese seemed more innovative. I had arrived in NYC a year earlier, thinking my career in retail management was going to take off, only to find that I felt lost and confused because business in the US was far more focused on knowing than learning. I would always ask questions and be curious about how to do things differently, better, and more effectively.
That might sound exhausting, but a beginner's mind gives more energy and space because it lets be what was and stays focused on what we can do from here now. It doesn't waste time and mental energy on what was left undone or done incorrectly. How much mind time do you spend in the past, and how much emotional energy do you spend worrying about a future that’s not yet here? I’m not saying not to plan or have intention. What I’m saying is, how do you spend the most precious time you have - your mind time.
The beginner's mind sees the past as information and the future as possibility. Beginner's mind gives us back the most powerful tool we have in the present moment—choice.
What will you choose as you navigate your daily life?
Will you choose to meet the challenges with a beginner's mind?
Will you choose to listen with an active, engaged mind?
Will you choose to stay curious?
Will you choose to smile?
Will you choose to engage?
Will you choose to be patient?
Will you choose to leave be and not react?
Will you choose to ask more questions?
Will you choose what you spend your mind-time on, how you behave and show up, based on what you want to achieve?
Will you choose to stay peaceful, present, and productive by using The Self-Care Mindset to harness your most important resource—you?
Will you choose YOU?
Instead of choosing a goal to achieve this year, choose to choose you. As you go along, choose what matters most, what makes the most sense, and what adds up to the change that will impact and create growth for you.
Now there is no beginner's mind without a pause. A Power-Pause. I hope that for the years ahead, you will choose beginner's mind.
