"When you're young, you don't know what you don't know, so it's easier to get into that magical thing"

Youth often carries a kind of protective ignorance. Without a catalog of failures, cautionary tales, and rigid frameworks, the young move with an ease that invites serendipity. Not knowing what’s impossible loosens the grip of self-consciousness and reduces the drag of overthinking. That innocence makes it easier to slip into the “magical” state where effort feels light, time compresses, and bold attempts seem natural rather than reckless.

Experience, for all its benefits, can calcify. Knowledge multiplies the imagined obstacles. The inner critic grows articulate. Competence begets standards, and standards create pressure. In high-performance arenas like professional sport, added layers, rankings, injuries, narratives, technique tweaks, can crowd out instinct. Youth, by contrast, is often present-focused: see the ball, swing freely, chase the point. That directness fosters flow.

Yet the point isn’t to glorify naivete or dismiss craft. Mastery matters. The trick is preserving a beginner’s mind as knowledge accumulates. Curiosity over certainty. Experiments without verdicts. Small, safe-to-fail trials that keep risk alive while minimizing damage. A language shift helps: treat fear as information rather than a verdict; rename nerves as readiness. Build routines that anchor the body while freeing the mind, breath, simple cues, one actionable focus.

Mentorship can be the bridge. Wise coaches protect the daring that fuels breakthroughs, but channel it just enough to avoid needless detours. Environments matter too: places that normalize attempts, not just outcomes, keep the door open to that spark.

There’s also a societal undertone. Breakthroughs in art, science, and entrepreneurship often arrive from people unaware of the “rules” they’re breaking. Later, those rules can become scaffolding rather than shackles, if we choose. The sweet spot is paradoxical: know enough to refine, forget enough to dare. Keep the edges of wonder intact while letting experience sharpen the blade. That’s how the magical thing stays reachable, even as the training miles pile up.