When our minds are overloaded with views, opinions, and assumptions, it is difficult to learn new things. We are often held back by limiting beliefs and are prone to make assumptions without challenging them.
Developing an agile mindset is about learning to promote greater self-awareness, challenging our assumptions and beliefs, and learning the discipline of seeing things as they are.
Seeing things clearly, as they are, sounds simple, but it’s not easy; it involves actively practicing observing and metacognition, being curious, dropping defences, and being able to communicate our experience to others with clarity. It leads to authenticity and makes us more trustworthy.
The first step towards greater mental clarity and agility is to press purposeful pause and create some space. This leads to cultivating the beginners mind.
“In the beginners mind there are many possibilities but in the experts there are few.” Suzuki Roshi
A famous Zen story illustrates this:
A professor of zen Buddhism once visited a zen master. After listening to the professor's impressive intellectual knowledge of zen, the master served tea. When the visitor's cup was full, the master kept pouring. Tea started spilling out of the cup and over the table.
"The cup is full!" cried out the professor. "No more will go in!"
"Like this cup," said the master, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you zen if you don't first empty your cup?"