Experience

The book Mavericks at Work really got me thinking about experience. I value and trust my experience, but I also realize that it can be a restraining factor. It is not so much about experience; it is really what you do with your experience that counts. I know that sometimes experience results in an approach that is too judgmental, it restrains me and does not allow me to keep an open mind. It is too easy to be trapped into being limited by your experience. Somewhere in Mavericks at Work an executive they were interviewing said that he to be successful and keep progressing he needed to start out each day stupid. Start each day with a clean slate, look at the familiar as unfamiliar, keep learning, stay open to new ideas, reevaluate old ones, there may be something there that you missed. Look forward without losing perspective on the past, but above all stay in the moment. Seek out differing and even opposing ideas. (I know this is hard for me, but it is something I need to work on.) Study them for their merit, not their faults. This is all part of the functional path approach. It is not a one way street, but a busy street with many intersections that pass through many diverse neighborhoods. Don’t get caught in the no turn lane, because if you do you might miss something by not being able to turn and discover something new and exciting.