The Forever Beginners Club

Beginning something new never gets old. The excitement mixed with fear that puts a pit in the stomach, shivers running down the spine, the goosebumps. If only we could have that feeling every day, life would never cease to be wonderful and we would never run out of energy to achieve whatever we desire.

On the other hand, beginners are slow, inexperienced, gullible. We can easily identify them by the telltale signs: the wide eyes, the nervous smiles, the words stumbling out of their mouths. At work, they are unproductive and dependent on other people to tell them the most basic things: what to do, how to operate a piece of equipment, where the meeting room is. Heck, they can't even figure out the coffee machine by themselves.?

Frequently, beginners suffer from self-doubt and have a sense of being out of place, of not belonging. They feel that being a beginner is a liability, a fragility, or a weakness. It's no wonder so many people hate being beginners and try hard to move on from that awkward stage as fast as they can.

That's too bad. When we're no longer beginners at something, we stop learning, we don't ask questions, we don't observe others to see how it's done, and we lose the sense of wonder. It's a typical case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, of letting go of something extremely valuable as we get rid of something dispensable.

The 19th-century American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce said that the sole rule of reason is that "in order to learn, you must desire to learn, and in so desiring not to be satisfied with what you are already inclined to think."

Hence, my invitation to you is this: join the Forever Beginners Club and feel the joy and panic of living new beginnings every day. Members of this club are always learning new moves, constantly improving their skills, listening to the experts, observing the more experienced, and getting better at everything they do. Never mind the pit in the stomach, the sweaty hands, the wide eyes. Open yourself up to the new and let the fragility of the young be your new strength.

The Forever Beginners Club has its song, written by Nicholas Roche and entitled, appropriately, Forever Beginner. It goes like this:

Remember we all start when we're small and we don't know the parts yet

You can go slowly

But take your whole heart

Keep moving boldly

And if you fail

You can always find a new start.