The value in trying new things. The growth of a skill set.
You’re only as interesting as the depth of your own interests
I read some drama online a while ago, it started with a fan on social media asking a band they were going to see what time the set started.
Someone in the comments yelled at her. “Go support the opening bands. What are you afraid you might hear something you like?”
And that was it. No back and forth, no response.
Cool story, right?
But his point really stuck with me.
(I mean, Of course go support! OOh rah!)
Why You Should Start With Why
But getting into the brain asking WHY (Shooting looks at Patrick Farrell right now)
Why go later?
Busy, fine, we’re all trying to squeeze in as much as possible.
But otherwise…. Why not go when it starts?
“Are you afraid you might hear something you like?”
So we’re all trying to find ways to save TIME, it’s one of the things as a society we value most.
Our time, our family, our money, our convenience
Right, these are what entrepreneurs or anyone with an idea focuses on improving or saving. The value they’re offering the public.
BUT ideas are born in the moments alone with ourselves, where our brains are forced to search for things to think about. When we try new things, when we get uncomfortable, when we put our phones away and just experience whats going on around us. When we try new things.
Theres a fantastic documentary on Netflix that talks about these moments. It’s called Inn Sæi: The Power of Intuition.
“We have let our awareness drift, from the world around us, To the world that we have made. The world of strategy, the world of milestones and deadlines and end points. And we’ve forgotten how to be aware of the world around us, Of sensory data, of many other dimensions of life. Imagine our beautiful average three-pound brain. 98% of our brain does not use language or logic or belief or strategy. It creates those things for us, but it doesn't use them. The other two percent receives what the 98% creates and goes out into the world and takes an action, goes to the grocery store, goes to work, comes home, that sort of thing. That’s what neuroscientists call our ‘relational mind’, it’s making relationship between bits of data. The linear mind is the two percent left over. Two percent of three pounds is .96 ounces, which is barely two tablespoons of brain tissue.
YOU are awake in a scant two tablespoons of your brain.”
That is NUTS to think about.
So we have to get back to that fresh curiosity we had as children. Before stress and objectives and pressure and focus molded the left side of our brains to be the more dominant side. No wonder everyone’s all stressed out and miserable. (Society generally speaking)
“What, are you afraid you might find something you like?”
I always think of that.
When we were kids my dad had a rule. “You have to try it 3 times before you decide you don’t like it.” He meant mushrooms- just trying to get us to eat our vegetables. Then later he meant skiing, learning to ride bikes, and later driving a manual car.
But consciously now, I try to apply his “three times” rule to nearly every new experience.
It is too easy to decide we don’t like something before we’ve tried it. It’s easy even after we’ve tried it. But when you start to actually dedicate some time to a new venture, and do it for the sake of actually exploring it — past placating the initial ‘doing-something-because-you-have-to’
You learn to enjoy it.
I hated running my whole life. High fived others that also hated running, made solid declarations of “I’m never doing that shit.” Talked about how it was bad for your knees, your joints, whatever else fit the agenda of NOPE. It was easy to find people who related. Who agreed, and who never questioned or challenged it. (Now I search for those relationships that challenge me)
After my first triathlon in summer of 2017, which ended with an exhilarating 6.2 miles (10k ) I still hated running. I looked at my time and said, “MAN I fucking suck at this.” I couldn’t have that, I’m getting older and no longer interested in finding excuses.
The best things in life take work. They’re HARD and uncomfortable, and take more time than we we’re initially willing to dedicate. We’re not bad at things in life, we’ve talked ourselves out of it before we’ve tried. We haven’t given it a fair go yet.
So I asked myself, “What does my brain need to work at something I hate?” Obviously JUST DO IT.
I signed up for a half marathon that fall. I had the goal, financial commitment, motivation. I mean I HAD to train for it. I HAD to tolerate it, I HAD to welcome it, I HAD to learn to love it.
And I did. I found a new sense of peace, I explored the park by my house, I got out in nature, and I found a new high. Discipline works in steps!
The coolest thing I’ve found is once you learn that perspective, IT STAYS WITH YOU. Once you put the work into loving it, its easy to go back and enjoy it. FOREVER.
I found this video a few months ago online, a copywriter named Mike Palmer talks about the “Emotional Rollercoaster” The Emotional learning curve which can be applied to ANY new skill set. And being able to see it projected and as a whole, gives us a better logical understanding of our emotions, from the outside.
I like Mike’s adaptation of this chart. There are plenty just like it on the internet and everyone wants to talk about the emotional aspects of learning, but he really emphasizes that the SKILL SET continues for as long as you stick with it.
- Uninformed Optimism- Being excited about the new thing
- Informed Pessimism- when you start thinking, “Hey this is harder than I thought”
- The Crisis of Meaning AKA the CRASH AND BURN. Usually where people give up because they’re so heavily influenced by their OWN PESSIMISM. They let that win.
And if you push through all of that frustration, you get to
4. Informed Optimism. “Okay, NOW I get how this all works and this is really exciting again.”
I find interesting that the shape of this chart, is exactly inverse of the chart for the Law of Diffusion of Innovation. Simon Sinek has a great talk about that one.
This shows the percentage of the general public willing to TRY the new product. The market tips at about “15% market penetration.” More people buy the product after that percentage of people have tried it already. Those “Early Adopters” are driven by what what they believe about the world or have bought into the loyalty of the brand, and are excited to be the first to try the new product.
Though the specific tipping points are different for each chart, they’re driven by the same things. The ability to continue. To adapt… either to the market, or to our brain’s natural dissuasion to the uncomfortable.
We have to keep going to move ahead.
We have to stay optimistic
We have to adapt and change what isn’t working
And we need to taste new experiences to learn the creative ways to adapt, and keep us going!
“What, are you afraid you might find something you like?”
