I was in downward dog at a new (to me) yoga studio I found just down the street from me the other day, and the writing on the studio’s front window caught my attention.

The writing was upside down and backward (well, actually, I was upside down and reading it from behind). I should’ve been focusing on my Ujjayi Breathing, but instead,I was trying to decipher what the writing said.

When I finally decoded the letters, I got a little burning of tears out of the corner of my eye.

“Beginners Welcome,” it said.

The degree to which it moved me was surprising, but whenever my body gives me a sign (tears, sweating, leaning forward, a sudden, deeper inhale), I always listen.

The message I got might help you if you’re always feeling busy, stressed, or pressured around time and/or money.

Tell me if you’re anything like me:

Most of the pressure and stress I used to feel around time, achievement, and productivity was based on an idea of what “successful” meant that didn’t come from inside me.

This false compass I was navigating with was based on conditioning that I’d unconsciously downloaded from the culture.

(Culture is such a vast term that can mean so many things, but I think about it as a mix of the people I spend the most time with, the books I read, the shows and movies I watch, the courses I take, and the institutions I’m part of.)

Do you know what this idea of “success” depended on? Appearing as though I knew what I was doing.

In my twenties, I wanted to write a book called I Don’t Know What I’m Doing and You Probably Don’t Either.

Nearly two decades later, I stand by the premise.

Here’s the truth: we’re all winging it.

Sure, there are things I can do while half asleep that used to take a lot of focus because I’ve repeated them so many times that my body has the neural patterning to make them mostly unconscious and automatic (like a dead lift at the gym, a kick ball change in dance class, or scrambling eggs.)

But the stuff that really moves the needle, that brings me the most fulfillment (and, interestingly, the most revenue)?

I often feel like a beginner. (Like when I’m upgrading how I deliver a workshop, writing a book proposal, or being interviewed on a podcast that just a few years ago felt completely out of my league.)

That upside-down, backward sign pulled just the right heartstring to fill my eyes up with tears of truth because yet another layer of unhelpful conditioning around achievement unraveled as it sunk into my body.

“Beginners welcome.”

Physiologically speaking, here’s what happens:

When we operate as though we have to be experts in everything we do to be “successful”, our bodies are in a stress response (even if it’s low-grade).

That stress response makes it harder to tune out distractions, know what to prioritize, think creatively, and access our intuition (which is usually where our best work comes from anyway).

But telling ourselves that we get to be a beginner, no matter how old we are?

Well, that’s the best damn fertilizer I can think of.

Why? It immediately removes the pressure, which helps us move into a parasympathetic state where all the blood is flowing to the right places to tap into our best, most powerful, most unique, most creative work.

Let’s let ourselves tap into all the juicy vitality and resources of a beginner, shall we?

The physical, energetic reserves, the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed fresh eyes that’ll see things in a way we simply cannot when we bring our preconceived ideas, and the tremendous mental capacity for new and creative ways of thinking and doing: they’re pure magic.

Let’s let ourselves and each other know:

Beginners Welcome

Love,
Kate