Try Something New

Try Something New

That’s it, that’s your generic self-help blurb for the week, you can go home now.

It really does sound like some oft quoted line to make you feel optimistic without giving you anything of substance. Like, “be honest” or “always look on the bright side.” The empty calories of philosophy. It feels good but it lacks depth.

Or does it?

I don’t know that there is such a thing as empty calories when it comes to philosophy. There are, however, empty people who throw you these scraps of wisdom and just leave you to figure it out yourself. It’s like saying “eat healthy” and expecting you to just figure out what that means for you.

So what am I saying?

Perspective.

I am old, I’ll be 1.3 billion years old in 2175, which may feel a long way off for you but for me that’s basically Wednesday. When you grow older it’s easier to become sedentary, to not just feel like there is nothing new or interesting to do but worse that there is nothing new or interesting you can do.

That second feeling is the death of the soul.

Now this isn’t a call to foolishness. You shouldn’t try brain surgery tomorrow on a whim. Somethings do need a thousand hours of preparation before they are attempted. However, most things do not. Most things just require the willingness to step out of your comfort zone and recognize when you are putting artificial barriers in your own way.

For me one of those barriers is “I’m too old for this.”

And I am old, but maybe not for “this”. I tried something new the other day. Not entirely out of my wheelhouse but something I was certain I would be absolutely horrible at. To my great surprise I wasn’t horrible at it, I might be rather good at it, and to think I might have gone another five or six centuries without attempting it all because of my self imposed assumption that I would be bad at it.

What’s more; what’s wrong with being bad at it? I’m bad at a lot of things, I rarely let that stop me from a good time. This, however, related to my ego and I let my sense of self importance tie my hands.

Thankfully I gave it a shot anyway. I gave it a shot, did a good job and had fun. What more could I ask for?

Perfection? Ask for perfection and you ask for tragedy. That’ll be a blog post one of these days.

So, give it a shot, try something new. It doesn’t have to be something grand, or wholly outside the norm for you. It might be as simple as using a different medium when you paint, taking a different rout when you drive home or attempting a recipe from an ethnicity different than your own. You have no idea how great you can be, what fun may be had. So, go and find out.

Thank you my dear readers and God bless;

~ S. Wallace