This is Beginner’s Mind
You’ve probably experienced Beginner’s Mind before. Perhaps it was when you first started your business, and you saw nothing but potential and possibilities in front of you.
You didn’t know what you didn’t know, and that was precisely what led to your early success. You took risks. You innovated. You created without constraints.
But over time, you spent more and more time in your head. And the more you did, the more all this stuff started piling up.
The limiting beliefs of the things you’re “supposed to” do as a founder.
The assumptions about the way that your business is “supposed to” work.
The messages you’re bombarded with (including from yourself) about the strategies, tools, and tactics you’re “supposed to” use if you want to be successful.
These are the same mental constructs that tell us in a game of Go that we only have two moves to make.
And it’s holding you back.
Choosing Who to Work With
Seeing the third choice is nearly impossible for most of us. We’re just too in it to see it.
But just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
You already have most of the answers. The path forward is right in front of you. You just can’t see it because there’s all this mess in your head blocking your vision.
And that’s why it’s so valuable to work with an outside expert or an advisor, right? Someone who’s walked in your shoes. Who knows what’s what and will show you the way.
Yes, but…
Before you pick that person, think carefully about where they will lead you.
Had Alpha Go been trained by the grandmaster, it never would have played the game it played.
Someone who has walked the path you’re on, and knows more about your industry than you do, is likely to have all of the same assumptions and constraints that you have.
They can only take you one place. And that’s where they’ve been before.
Is that where you want to go?
Or do you want to go to the place that doesn’t exist yet? The place you’ve envisioned for years and inspired you to start your business in the first place?
For that, you need someone that knows less about your business than you do, not more.
Someone that isn’t constrained by the standards and norms in your industry, or distracted by all the noise in your head.
Someone that has more questions for you than answers. That isn’t afraid to say “explain it to me like I’m five.”
What would it feel like to be unencumbered by all the complexity and limitations you’re wrestling with? To be confident in the path you’re on?
What would it feel like to see the things you cannot see?
My clients tell me it feels freeing and exciting. Like they can get back to the fun part of growing their business again.
And that’s because I’m not the one that has the answers. The answers are already there. It’s my job to help you uncover them by seeing what you can’t.
And sure, I’ve got a track record and a toolbox filled with strategies and tactics to find the answers and bring them to life, but they’re all in service of the ideas and vision that you already have. That future of your business that has never existed before…
…but one day will.
Are you ready to get out of your head and start having fun again? Are you ready for your vision to finally become a reality?
