"If you want to grow and learn, you must approach as many things as you can as a beginner, not an expert."

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2013-10-08) from his book, Sometimes You Win--Sometimes You Learn:Life's Greatest Lessons Are Gained from Our Losses (p. 112). Center Street. Kindle Edition.

But that is the opposite of what we strive to be. We want to be the best, to be the one that everyone comes to, we want to be the expert. But the reality is, if we never grow and learn then we will be the expert only for a moment.

Now in life the reality is I can only be the expert of yesterday. I have already experienced yesterday but I am a beginner of today. I have never lived today. Now my experiences and my maturity will help but I still have not lived today. And that can be said of 2014. We are all beginners here.

One things John said about experts is that they “feel so uncomfortable as beginners that they work hard to avoid putting themselves in those situations.” But a New Year doesn’t allow that. We are all beginners in living each new day and each new month and facing it with the excitement of a beginner makes it possible to learn and grow.

I like what he said, “I try to maintain a beginner’s mind-set, but I have to admit it’s often difficult. To help me do it, I try to always keep the following three things in mind: Everyone has something to teach me. Every day I have something to learn. Every time I learn something, I benefit.”

So we are all in the same boat but we don’t all handle it the same way. I want to be humble and excited about what is ahead. I have so much to experience and so much to do and so much to learn. I love the challenge of facing this New Year.

How about you?

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