Personal Mastery And The Beginners Mind
One of the concepts from the Peter Senge’s book the Fifth Discipline is Personal Mastery.
“People with a high level of personal mastery live in a continual learning mode. They never ‘arrive’. Sometimes, language, such as the term ‘personal mastery’ creates a misleading sense of definiteness, of black and white. But personal mastery is not something you possess. It is a process. It is a lifelong discipline.”
So how does the beginners mind fit in?
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
Shunryu Suzuki
So it seems to be about bringing your knowledge and expertise to a situation while being open to new ideas, possibilities and options.
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May 10th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Nancy,
Thank you for posting about the importance of Beginners Mind, it is a great reminder to me. That I don’t have to know everything about what a particular piece of “work” will look like, that I can allow the process to carry me, and it into what it will be.
Again, I really needed this reminder today, thank you.
Magdalena
May 10th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Hi Nancy - wonderful quotes. I especially keep turning the Suzuki one over in my mind. Thanks so much for sharing.
May 29th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Thank you Nancy for posting your excitement about color theory in glass. It is something that I try to focus on continually in my work. Being from Maine there aren’t many opportunities to take classes such as you mentioned. I live vicariously through you lucky people who have those opportunities!
Your work is beautiful by the way.
June 16th, 2009 at 12:34 am
I think I will try to recommend this post to my friends and family, cuz it’s really helpful.