Keep Your Beginner's Mind Forever

You might know where you want to end up, but you have no idea how to get there.

After the euphoria and hope that comes with the big idea, there are a million little steps before it becomes real. The tedium of creativity kicks in, and it's a grind.

My friend gave me a bunch of seeds and asked me to plant them on December 21, the shortest day of the year. I followed the instructions and wondered if it was really possible to start growing a tree from a little black seed at the height of the coldest, darkest point in the year.

Each day I checked the soil, waiting for a sign of life. Nothing. Nothing.

Nothing.

Until the other day, when the slightest hint of green appeared.

Each day since then, the stem has become a little stronger. The image above is the way it looks today. I have no idea whether this little seedling, the only one of five that emerged, will survive as long as it takes to become a tree.

In relation to ideas, all we can do is whatever it takes every day to move the seed toward its possible tree future. One thing that helps on this journey is shoshin, which means beginner's mind. By retaining the openness experienced by a beginner, no matter what stage of the game or how strong your expertise, helps maintain the early enthusiasm that makes the effort worthwhile. Perseverance is the main difference between people who succeed after they get an idea and those who fail.

The phrase is also used in the title of the book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by the Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki, who says: "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few."

In a rapidly changing world, you should never get too comfortable with the idea that you're an expert, because there's always a lot more to learn. People with beginner's mind are a lot more fun in collaborative groups, as well. They don't think they know it all, and they don't need to be right. They just want the envisioned outcome to become real, and they know that lots of variables will influence success.

__________________________________________________________________

Rita J King is the EVP for Business Development at Science House, a cathedral of the imagination in Manhattan focused on the art and science of doing business. She is a strategist who specializes in the development of collaborative culture by making organizational culture visible so it can be measured and transformed. She is a senior advisor to The Culture Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, and a Fellow at the Salzburg Global Forum. She makes Mystery Jars, writes about the future for Fast Company and invents story architecture, characters and novel technologies for film and TV as a futurist for the Science and Entertainment Exchange. Follow@RitaJKing on Twitter.