Try Something

But really try it. Since I’ve wandered off into the world of new possibilities I’ve been much more willing to try new activities, both physical and psychological. In the past I thought these would interfere with the status quo, and as someone seeking an artificial homeostasis, I shied away from them. In the past few months and years I’ve been spending more time outside, training and otherwise, exploring new ways to move outside using my feet, hands, and man made tools. I’ve focused and actually trained my ability to swim, to cycle, to take better photographs consistently and, as you read this, write. It had been such a long time since I actually did something new. Here’s where the need for some clarification lies. Doing new things in this context is not like trying new food; you don’t get to just eat it and see if it’s good or not. The first time you do something, you’re going to suck at it, big time. You’ll likely want to quit doing it after the first or second time since just doing the task makes you feel inept, a quality that you don’t want to experience with any frequency. But being inept and failing are not the same thing. If you persevere after a month or two or six, you may have an interaction where you say to yourself, I am getting better at this, or that was a good (interest activity result here). At this moment you can feel growth. It is an amazing feeling. You would not be afforded this if you had walked away after the first five bad sessions, as all of the first times you did something, you fell flat. The balance of falling and succeeding is just another balance needed in life, as too much of either is exactly that, too much.

This delayed feeling of growth is a great human feeling, likely linked to the delayed gratification of the dopamine reward pathway. Learning to harness it can make you a better swimmer or help you develop modern industry. It is one of the most powerful human mechanisms we possess and allows us to do remarkable things in the name of some future, intangible reward. This concept can be fleshed out in another thought stream as it is much beyond the scope of the growth I am dissecting here.

What I am dissecting, is the feeling of growth of getting better at something. In the same tune of my last post, find something, and commit to it long enough to feel some development into its qualities. Fee how this development is contagious in other aspects of your life, area where you may not have grown in some time. Let the growth spread there.

What am saying is try something, but really try it.