📝 Mastery and the beginners mind

The journey has no destination, it’s an out and back.

I was talking to Rachel Michelle Wilson in the comments yesterday about the relationship between Mastery and the Beginners Mind.

On the surface they look like competing ideas. Both Rachel and I agreed that they probably can somehow fit together but we’re not quite able to articulate how.

I think the problem is seeing Mastery as a destination. If we see Mastery as a destination then the beginning and the end are obviously at different ends of the journey.

In Austin Kleon’s book ‘Keep Going’, he challenges this idea of a creative journey being a point A-B kind of adventure. Instead, it’s more like Sisyphus pushing a boulder up a hill or Groundhog Day.

My analogy would be a footballer taking to the field, the arena, game after game. Every game is new and full of potential, but your level of mastery within the game grows.

The creative journey is showing up at the beginning over and over again. Every project every new piece is completely new and different.

If we use the Groundhog Day analogy, Mastery is the knowledge of how the day could unfold based on how you apply yourself. And the beginner’s mind is asking, “how else can this day unfold”. It’s a feedback loop.

Ps: 🎟 I share a recommendation of a book, a song, a speech, a podcast and a video with ‘the party’ today.