#ThinkfullyHabit: Be a beginner
When we are an expert in something we can become trapped by our own expertise, entrenched in old routes and reassured by what we have known to be true in the past. It has been described by some as the ‘curse of knowledge’, and it can hinder us exploring new ways of doing things.
Take the bicycle-building brothers from Ohio who, in 1903, entered a race to build a revolutionary flying machine. They were amateurs when it came to flying and up against well respected inventors. No one took the two brothers seriously and more certainly, no one expected them to win. However, they were also not weighed down by existing flying theories which meant they were able to look at human-powered flight without the same constraints as others. The result? The Wright Brothers, in their self-funded amateur contraption and with just a few spectators looking on, made the first ever successful manned flight in history!
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”
WHY?
Expertise can weigh us down with existing assumptions and knowledge. There are times when dropping out of our expert mind can help us become more sensitive and alive to the problems or situations we face. The beginner’s mind is a concept from Zen Buddhism called 'Shoshin' which is about, “having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would.”
Shoshin is in direct contrast to the expert mind. For this reason it can be difficult to drop the expert's mindset in favour of a beginner's mindset. It's just not easy to simply imagine forgetting what you know. A better tactic is to put yourself into the shoes of a novice. Ask yourself what a beginner or someone with no expertise or experience may imagine or think when faced with your situation. Temporarily free yourself from the known constraints, assumptions and realities, and without your usual preconceived ideas, see with new eyes. Alternatively, find someone who actually is a novice with no expertise and share your situation with them to get their fresh-eyed perspective.
We need to find ways to go between the expert and beginner mind to get the advantages of both perspectives. The trick is to do this more than once and to make it a routine practice.
Essentially, we need to become experts at taking a beginner’s mind.
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