The Courage to Be a Beginner Again

Children are beginners all the time. They fall off bicycles, mispronounce words, draw horses that look like dogs, and nobody thinks less of them. Being bad at things is simply what childhood looks like.

Somewhere along the way, most of us stop. We find the things we’re good at and stay close to them. We avoid the dance floor, the drawing class, the language app, the swimming pool. Not because we don’t want to learn, but because we don’t want to be seen not knowing.

Becoming a beginner again, as an adult, takes a particular kind of courage.

Why it’s harder as an adult

For a child, learning is expected. For an adult, competence becomes part of who we are. We have job titles, reputations and opinions people take seriously. Standing at the back of a beginners’ class, holding a guitar the wrong way, quietly threatens all of that.

This is the ego at work: the part of us that wants to protect a certain picture of ourselves. It’s not a villain. It helped us build a life. But it can also keep that life small.

Adults also tend to judge their progress harshly. We know what “good” looks like, so we notice exactly how far away we are. A child plays the same three notes happily for an hour. An adult hears how clumsy they sound and puts the instrument back in its case.

The beginner’s mind

Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki, who helped bring Zen practice to the United States, opened his well-known book with a line that has been quoted ever since: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”

Shoshin, the beginner’s mind, is an attitude of openness, eagerness and lack of preconceptions, even when studying something we already know. It’s the opposite of “I already understand this.”

What’s striking is that Suzuki didn’t treat it as a phase to get through. He treated it as something to keep, for life.

What beginning again gives us

Learning something new as an adult can bring unexpected gifts.

• Humility. Being bad at something reminds us how much effort others put into the skills we take for granted.
• Play. There’s freedom in doing something where nothing is at stake: no career, no reputation, just curiosity.
• A fresh sense of time. Learning makes days more memorable. Weeks of routine blur together; weeks of learning stand out.
• A more flexible identity. “I’m not a creative person” or “I’m not sporty” are stories that can change.

How to begin, gently

• Choose something small and specific. Not “learn music” but “learn three chords on the guitar”.
• Expect awkwardness. Decide in advance that the first month will feel clumsy. That’s not a sign you’re doing it wrong. It’s what beginning feels like.
• Find other beginners. A beginners’ class or group takes away much of the embarrassment. Everyone is in the same boat.
• Measure effort, not talent. Count practice sessions, not results. “I practised four times this week” is a win.
• Laugh at yourself, kindly. Humour is one of the best answers to the ego’s fear of looking foolish.

A question of identity

Perhaps the deepest reason to keep beginning is that it keeps us from hardening. Adulthood can quietly turn us into people who only do what we already know. Every new beginning, however small, is a way of saying: I’m still growing. I’m not finished yet.

Some questions to sit with

• What did you love doing as a child that you stopped because you weren’t “good” at it?
• What would you try if nobody would ever see you do it badly?
• Where in your life could a beginner’s mind help, even in something you already know well?

Frequently asked questions

Am I too old to learn something new?

Adults keep the ability to learn new skills throughout life. Progress may look different at different ages, but people take up instruments, languages and sports in their sixties, seventies and beyond.

What if I give up after a few weeks?

That’s very common, and it doesn’t mean you failed. Notice what made it hard, adjust (a different class, a smaller goal, a friend to practise with) and try again. Beginning again is part of being a beginner.

A small step for today

Write down one thing you’d like to learn, and one tiny first step: watch one beginner’s video, sign up for one class, or spend ten minutes trying. Then take it, and let yourself be gloriously, ordinarily bad at it.

Sources and further reading

• Suzuki, S. (1970). Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. Weatherhill.
• Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Random House.