"willingness to learn"

"Once the amateur's naive approach and humble willingness to learn fades away, the creative spirit of good photography dies with it. Every professional should remain always in his heart an amateur."Alfred Eisenstaedt

I met a young photographer yesterday and let her use one of my SLRs for a couple of days. Her eyes lit up and I could see her visualizing the images that are possible with this new tool comparing to the old one. She has a lot to learn about the technical aspect of photography, but I envy her "humble willingness to learn" and her creative spirit. I envy her approach to the creative part of it. It makes me look at my own work differently, re-evaluate my goals and answer the question "why am I doing it?"

Of course, tools are important and being familiar with them is even more important. But often, that tinkering interferes with the creative work. The artistic goal appears not to be the what I think of my work not opinion of the reviewer, but the process itself.