Apply the Beginner’s Mindset to Your Creative Life

21/12/2014

Empty fields and saplings in Andalusia, Spain. Photo © Cherry Jeffs 2014

New Year! The ideal time for fresh beginnings. Or is it?

How many times have you started full of good intentions for changing your habits or practices, only to see them fall beside the wayside after a couple of months?

It's not enough to make new year's resolutions about changes and improvements in our creative lives unless we also change both how we approach making these changes and how we deal with the unpredictable results they might throw up.

Instead what normally happens is that we take all the baggage associated with our previous 'failures' at implementing change and we dump it all over our new year strategies - regardless of whether we are trying to implement a change we've attempted before or tackling a brand new challenge.

Ruins against blue sky - Andalusia, Spain. Photo © Cherry Jeffs 2014

Get a Fresh Perspective on Your Life

But what if instead of dragging all those old habits into the new year, you could:

completely erase your previous experiences and really start the year afresh instead of as that old someone who’s been there and done that?
be keenly alive to the possibilities that present themselves in your path without any preconceived ideas of what might result?
open yourself to *all* experiences being qualitatively different to and quantitatively larger than those you've had before?

Well you can! Zen Buddhists call this approach the ‘Beginner’s Mind’:

"A beginner’s mind is an open mind, an unbiased mind, a welcoming mind, and a curious mind. But it’s not just a cognitive perspective or a mind set; it’s an experiential perspective, a way of being in the world."

Peter Kaufman, The Beginner’s Mind (Everyday Sociology Blog)

Rocky walls with view of bare hills - Andalusia, Spain. © Cherry Jeffs 2014

Back to the Beginning

In other words, when you adopt the beginner's mindset you stop behaving as a know-it all expert and start approaching things as if you'd never encountered them before; you suddenly see ten possible approaches to any given situation instead of one or two; you stop treading the same well-trodden path and start excitedly forging new openings through virgin territory.

Isn't this just how you would want to start a new year?

rusty lock on old door next to wall - - Andalusia, Spain. © Cherry Jeffs 2014

New Possibilities Journalling Exercise

This journalling exercise from the book will help you:

see a bigger picture rather than the narrow view of your creative life that you might normally hold
look beyond the obvious explanations for areas in your creative life where you feel your progress is blocked
get excited about the new experiences and unique challenges in store for you in the new year

Telegraph pole against sky with airplane trail - Andalusia, Spain. © Cherry Jeffs 2014

INSTRUCTIONS
In order to get the hang of how this process works, begin by thinking of one area of your life OUTSIDE your artistic practice in which you consider yourself to be an expert e.g. cooking, sewing, DIY, bringing up children and so forth.

(Don't be tempted to skip this part. Once you've done it you'll be much better prepared to apply the beginner's mindset to your creative life.)
Grab a notebook or journal and a pen and consider the following questions when applied to the area of your life you picked:

How would you need to change your behaviour in order to approach this as a complete beginner?
What actions could you take that would be typical of someone who was enquiring into the subject for the first time?
What role could you take on that would be completely different from your normal ‘expert’ one?
How would you adjust your customary behaviour if you knew nothing about this area?
What risks might you take if you had no hindsight to prejudice you?
What level of achievement would you expect from yourself as a complete beginner?

Make a list of 10 ways in which you could adjust your behaviour with respect to your chosen area of expertise in order to approach it more like a novice.

Jot down a paragraph about the benefits that these actions / adjustments might bring you.

reflection in fountain - Andalusia, Spain. © Cherry Jeffs 2014

Once you have your answers, let the ideas permeate in your subconscious for a while. You will then be ready to apply the beginner's mindset to your creative life.

PART 2
Repeat the questioning, this time focussing on an area your creative life in which you feel blocked or in which you would like to make a substantial shift.