There is an old Zen story, the first in the collection 101 Zen Stories, about a university professor who visits the master Nan-in to ask about Zen. Nan-in serves tea. He fills the visitor's cup and keeps pouring, tea running over the table, until the professor bursts out: it is full, nothing more will go in. Like this cup, Nan-in replies, you are full of your own opinions. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup? The story may be more parable than history, but the diagnosis holds. You will walk into every room today already full: of what the meeting will be, of who that person is, of how the day will go. Before one of those rooms, set the cup down and walk in empty.