One of my favorite questions is “when was the last time you did something for the first time?”
For folks who are early in their career, the answer is often “this afternoon.” Life is full of first-time experiences when you’re starting out. But those of us who have been around a bit longer might find “first-time” experiences a bit harder to come by. It’s just math – but it’s also inertia and a tendency to stay in our comfort zones.
Last weekend, at the age of 51, I learned how to use a jackhammer for the first time as part of a Habitat for Humanity work session. That day was full of firsts, and was a nice reminder to myself of the importance of doing new things. Being a beginner does interesting things to our brains – we have to pay attention in a new way, we have to adopt an open posture as we try to figure out how to do this new thing. When I first squeezed the jackhammer handle I had no real idea how it would feel or how it would work. I really enjoyed being a rookie for a day.
Plenty of people stop trying new things, but nobody lives long enough to run out of new things to try. The world is full of opportunities to explore, experiment, try something new. The key is to look for them, to create them, and to accept them.
So… what is something new you might try?