How did 2025 start for you?
When on holiday, music is part of my disconnect – music takes me places! It is a big part of my own renewal habit when I camp and walk on the beach – my earphones are my best companion. The music just transports me to places that is difficult to describe.
Every year, a few songs manage to move deeper into my being and remind me of a meaningful moment.
A friend introduced me to the group Haevn a few years ago and December I stumbled onto the song ‘Beginners’. This song touched me on so many levels and is so applicable for me to enter the unknown of a new year. This chorus keeps ringing in my head:
We are just beginners
Have some faith in the unknown
With every step, we learn, we grow
We are just beginners
Take a leap and learn to fall
Before we learn to fly at all
This is such an important mindset in life and leadership. Part of living a soulful life is to have a stance where we realise that we are always just beginners. And that we need to learn to fall before we learn to fly. Life is unknown, but with the faith to leap into the unknown we learn to grow, don’t we? And falling is often part of this.
David Cooperrider talks about having “the mindset of the everlasting beginner”. He describes this mindset as “to always be open to what is starting in us and around us with awe, inspiration and wonder.” Can we still be open to what is emerging (starting) around us and not just what we have done, what we have finished, what we already know and what we can capture, nail down and coin?
This mindset is soulful and really helps me at the start of a new year. The song end with the reason “cause we’re beginners every day”. We are indeed beginners every day aren’t we?
Haevn sings about a relationship, but I do think this mindset is so important whether you are leading a team, managing life, entering into a relationship of try to practice your faith – life is unknown, have faith, take your step, learn and grow, because we often learn to fall before, we learn to fly.
Let’s learn to cultivate a beginner’s mindset, cause we’re beginners every day. And be open to what is emerging for you this year, in awe and wonder.
Take a few minutes and listen to this song and reflect on simple, but practical ways to cultivate this mindset and put something in your diary to remind you……
My you fly this year and learn along the way.
Go well
