The importance of sucking at stuff. ⛸⛸

Last weekend I had my first “official” ice skating lesson with a skating coach that had me crying tears of joy. 

My joy was not for the things that I'd learned and locked in over the last 5 weeks of practicing on my own, but rather, for the new skills she gave me that had me completely and utterly stumped.

I tried them, and I sucked!

I was elated! 

This is precisely why I came to skating in the first place: to suck at something!

More specifically, I chose something I knew would be fun yet challenging for me, to help practice my Beginner's Mindset. 

If it’s not obvious, the Beginner’s Mindset is a lens through which we can choose to experience life...

... The lens of curiosity, humility, and wonder, versus expectation, judgement and criticism. 

Beginner’s Mindset calls us to suspend what we believe we know for a moment, release our attachment to the outcome, and laser focus on the process, the journey of learning and discovery. 

Beginner’s mindset can be applied to anything: whether that be something new, like learning a new sport, or something we’ve been working on for years, like attracting lasting love! 

Beginner’s Mindset is particularly important to practice for those of us who identify as perfectionists, or who have excelled at everything we’ve set out to achieve in life. 

Women like us don’t have the greatest relationship with failure, especially when it comes to the tender subject of our love life. 

And, after failing at love for a while, we begin to take things personally, we make up stories about our worthiness, and shy away from trying again. 

This is simply because we expect that we should just “get it”, that there’s something wrong, or we’re doing something wrong, when our efforts don’t  reap the results we desire. 

The practice of Beginner’s Mindset in LOVE grants us the space to be HUMAN:  to not know everything, and to allow for growth. 

When we practice Beginner’s Mindset, we release ourselves from the grips of perfection, expectation and judgement, and flex the compassion we might bestow to a toddler learning her first steps… or a 42-year old learning how to ice skate! 

So consider how you might adopt a Beginner’s Mindset to your love life. 

🤔 Maybe you challenge a limiting belief, like ‘it’s so much work to attract love’. 

🤔 Or check your ‘eye roll’ reaction energy, and consider ways to be open and receptive. 

🤔 It might simply be an acknowledgement that you don’t know what you don’t know, and recognize how cool it is to learn new things about yourself. 

Now I’d love to hear from you! 

Leave me a comment and tell me how you will practice Beginner’s Mindset, both in and beyond your love life!