Beginner's mind

One tool I always carry when doing house inspections is a moisture meter. A typical scenario when using it is being at the very end of a tight crawl space — and the batteries run out. Of course.

I told my brother about this annoyingly common situation after he’d just joined the company I work for. He’d been there for two weeks and replied:

“I always carry a spare battery in my pocket.”

When I told my old colleagues — some of whom had been doing this work for over 20 years — they laughed in astonishment. No one had ever thought of that!

That’s the thing with routines. Once they’re established, we stop questioning them. Even the most obvious and helpful improvements pass us by. Repetitive patterns can slowly limit our potential.

Maybe we need to embrace the approach of a beginner’s mind, to borrow a Zen term. A childlike way of seeing the world and our place in it. A world where curiosity and knowledge walk side by side.

Maybe true growth lies in staying just a little bit childish.