It can be very, very discouraging when plans fall through, especially if these plans involve money, time, loved ones, or anything that you have committed to, like learning a new language or musical instrument.
You have been practicing 5 minutes a day on your guitar and then - maybe the airlines lose or break your guitar. Maybe you have a 10 hr travel day that was supposed to be a 3 hr travel day, and you are too exhausted to practice. Maybe life concerns overwhelm you and you just are not able to practice that day. Maybe you have a horrible chest cold that you cannot shake (like the person typing this) and you feel your daily tasks of self-employment building up like a giant wall about to fall on you the moment you get better.
It is so easy to let life come between us and our 5 minutes or however long of solitude. And it can be so hard to carve this time and space out in stone and say "DO NOT DISTURB!" It is so easy to check out and say "whatever" and so hard to care sometimes. It is so easy to push oneself to the brink of exhaustion and so hard to take a little bit of time each day for the things that nurture and fulfill.
The best part about beginner's mind is that we can start over again at any time. Fell down? Pick yourself off, dust yourself off, and find something - one small, seemly insignificant thing - to be grateful for or to be excited about.
For example, I may be ill but today I watched a great movie called Garden State that I've always wanted to see. All about not settling for where you are and yet not letting our own grandiosity and self-importance carry us away from the things we love. Hilarious, touching, moving. And full of beginner's mind! Zach Braff's first film - all about where he came from.
As Bob Dylan sang, "There is no success like failure, and failure is no success at all."
In order to succeed, we have to try and fail. And pick ourselves up. And start over as best as we can.
Practice beginner's mind!
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