President's Message: A Beginner's Mind

We learn best when we practice learning with a “beginner’s mind.” This practice, from the Japanese martial arts, is called Shoshin and teaches how to have the attitude of eagerness, openness, and coming in to learning opportunities without preconceived notions.

In the martial arts even those who are considered the most advanced black belts know that when practicing Shoshin they will learn more if they look at their craft through the eyes of a beginner.

Remember when you first started in the landscaping business. You saw many possibilities because with your beginner’s mind, you had not yet learned what could not be done. There is wisdom in being uncertain and seeing challenges as opportunities. We don’t get stuck to nor do we cling to narrow, rigid views. When we’re approaching growth from a beginner’s mind, we’re full of excitement and wonder. It frees us from our set ways of thinking opening us to exponential growth and learning.

I share this to help reset all of us at The Grounds Guys to approach the possibilities of growth and learning with wonder and excitement. I saw Shoshin in strong practice last month when a group of franchisee owners (SPECIAL SHOUTOUT TO Jake Dixon, Ryan Deatherage, Stephanie and Ben Shcoot, James Londot, Jeff Baker, Daniel Milihram, and Gary Fouts.) came through Encore training to better their businesses. All of them are experts in their field but they approached the week with excitement and ready to learn more. Not once did I hear statements like; “I already know that and there is nothing new I can learn here.” Instead I heard this dedicated and seasoned group of The Grounds Guys franchise owners talk about how they learned new ways to improve their business. There was wonder and excitement and if you ask them, they’d likely tell you it was well worth their time. In fact, I encourage you to call any one of them to hear for yourself. I challenge each of you to consider coming back to Basic Training (we call it Encore Training) where as you practice Shoshin while attending you’ll leave with new ways to grow and improve your business.

If you need further reasons on why practicing the art of Shoshin matters, below is a short list of how it can help improve your life.

Better experiences – with no preconceived notions about how you know it will already be you will have fewer frustrations.

Less procrastination – with a beginner’s mind we stop worrying about how hard it will be or failure and just go do. Beginners are much more curious and jump into tasks as a way to learn.

Better relationships – when you see people with fresh eyes you begin to see their good intentions (even when they may not be your intentions) which changes the relationship.

Less fear – with a beginner’s mind there is less time thinking out what might go wrong and more time being curious about the possibilities and opportunities. 

Where may you be stuck right now that practicing Shoshin would help you drop your preconceived notions so you can approach learning with the wonder and excitement that will make a difference today? Let’s start there.

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