Think like a child

Even people at the top of their professions have coaches, from elite athletes to Fortune 500 CEOs.

Maybe you’ve noticed an athlete who excels on the world stage, breaking away from the pack, is often training in a different way, eating differently, or practicing mindfulness in a way that their peers are not.  

So open. Like a child.

In Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice, Zen Buddhist monk Shunryu Suzuki wrote:

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”

When we think we know everything there is to know, we limit ourselves. It’s a comfortable existence when you got it – with no possibility of errors.

The expert lives among these nine dots and can tell you a plethora of details about every dot, individually:

When you ask an expert to draw lines through all dots, in four lines, without lifting their pen off the paper, the expert is adamant it can’t be done.

The expert is limited by the mind.

The expert didn’t believe that a person could run the mile under four minutes, or it would be a once-in-a-lifetime event. 

After the four-minute-mile barrier was broken in May 1954, two months later, two runners broke it – and it’s been over a thousand athletes since.

That time barrier limit grew, and athletes grew to meet it once they knew it was a very real possibility.

It is easy to match what is in front of you. It is easy to play at the skill level of your opponent. 

Oftentimes, we play below our skill level when our opponent is at that level, and we play really great when our opponent is playing above our normal skill level.

How do you rise at all times, even when the energies around you are weighing you down? Know there are levels upon levels at all times.

There is depth to every interaction that you haven’t reached, there are energy highs your mind can’t fathom – what is, is not all there is.

So, when you’re feeling like you can do better. Know you are more. And like a child before limits were imposed, know you color outside the lines:

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