Recently, I started to learn how to play pickle ball. I figured that I could run around waving a paddle and looking like an idiot while making some friends. Turns out, I was right, especially about the looking like an idiot part.
The good thing is that I know about Beginner’s Mind. It’s one of those Zen kind of concepts that presumably are good for the soul, but that’s not my area of expertise. I find it to be super useful in my actual area of expertise, fitness. The short version is that when we start something new, we know we don’t have a clue. This allows us to be open to new ideas and experiences and techniques. It frees us from the expectation that we’re going to be good at whatever it is for a good long time. We can play around.
Play is serious. Just because we’re playing, we don’t throw out effort and rules and everything. We can try hard, but we have the understanding that what we are doing is intended to be fun. When it stops being fun, we can stop playing, or change the game so it becomes fun again.
When we exercise, we want to give our best shot and we want to pay attention to safety, but that’s pretty much the whole enchilada, right there. If running isn’t fun anymore, we can try biking or swimming or pickle ball. Go play.
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