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Two minds

Learn to be an expert and a beginner at the same time

Tim Cigelske
The Creative Journey
3 min readDec 31, 2021

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The season of new beginning needs layers of experience. Photo by Joey Kyber on Unsplash

For my 40th birthday, I decided to get a tattoo.

I chose a Zen Buddhist phrase that has resonated for years with me:

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.

I’ve long taught in creativity classes to college students that thinking like a kid is a superpower. It takes effort to cultivate fresh eyes, so a tattoo where I’d see it throughout the day would serve as a reminder to myself.

After researching fonts for weeks, I consulted with my tattoo artist about where to put the design on my body. The inside or outside of my arm? Maybe part of both arms?

He told me if I tried to fit the entire phrase together the font would be too small and would blur together over time. He recommended I split into two segments, mock it up on my arm and see how I liked it before settling on permanent ink.

As soon as I saw the design on the outside and inside of my left arm, I knew I found the perspective I needed.

This way, it all depended on how I looked at the situation, as an insider or an outsider.

Outside: In the beginner’s mind

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