New Things
By Kari Wilhelm
I’ve always really enjoyed trying out new things, and these past few weeks I’ve taken up a few new things both at work and outside of work. It reminded me of how one interest can spark general creativity and motivation, which leads to curiosity to learn about even more things. This feels like a power we can all tap into when we need it! But how does that work?
As I was thinking about all this recently, someone I’ve known for a long time mentioned that I’ve got this “eclectic mix” of things I do or have done. Now, this comment made me take a step back and consider how that even came to be and it felt really related to what I was thinking about already.
How did I end up with all kinds of seemingly random interests? Well the simple answer was that I just like to try stuff out. I think that’s the key to all this - just try things! Sure, sometimes there might be some risk involved, so it can help to weigh the risk, what you value, and what you want out of it. However, you won’t know how it’ll be unless you try.
Sometimes the new thing becomes a serious interest or new set of skills, sometimes it’s more fleeting but can lead to something else that suits you better.
Tap into the power of new things!
Why try new things?
It can be helpful to think about it in terms of what your goal is, and frame your approach around that. For example, if your goal is to win the world trampoline championships, and you’ve never had one lesson, your path will probably be long and challenging and require dedication and commitment over years. However, if your goal is to find some enjoyment and be curious and enjoy the process while growing your skills, you aren’t defining success by high achievement. It becomes more exploratory and less stressful. Both approaches are legitimate, the right one depends entirely on what you want out of picking up a new interest.
Spark inspiration
Are you looking to find inspiration, but you don’t know what you even want to do? Often when this is the case, you can get stuck because how do you pick if you don’t know what you want? Often, starting somewhere is better than starting nowhere. Just to try the best thing you can come up with, even if it isn’t perfect, you’ll learn something about how you feel about it. What didn’t you like, what did you like? Use what you learned to choose the next thing and keep trying until you find your spark.
Learn skills
Maybe you have a spark already to learn a specific new thing. It could be something concrete, such as how to play a new instrument, or how to build a robot, or become an expert pasta chef. Approach whatever it is with the mindset that you can learn it over time, and enjoy the process. If your goal is skill mastery, enjoying the process is so important because skill mastery is a journey.
Overcome fear
Maybe there is something you know you would really like to do, but you are afraid of it. It might not be about being really good at it, but you just want to be able to do it. Maybe you’re afraid you’ll do a terrible job of it, or embarrass yourself. Sometimes having a fear of trying a new thing is actually blocking you from other new things. This is where being OK with it not being perfect helps a lot. No one is an expert instantly at anything, we all mess stuff up and stumble along the way. It’s fine to try something and have it just be what it is. In fact, it can be very freeing.
Find enjoyment
You can try new things just for the sake of it, just because you want to. Looking at it this way can help if you’re feeling like you have an interest, but you aren’t sure how seriously you are committing yourself to it. It’s possible to get stuck in a perfectionist mindset that if you pick up a new interest, you need to be dedicated to it and invest your all. That is just not true, you can try things out just to enjoy it for what it is. The beauty of this reason is that there’s no such thing as failing at it; you just learn what you learn, see how it goes. Maybe you move on after a while, maybe it becomes your serious interest, or just stays something for pure enjoyment forever.
A couple of my new things
Drawing with a new tool
Every so often I like to try to make some artwork - an example of something I’m not an expert at for sure and I would never say I am skilled at drawing. I’m learning how to use Procreate. I am enjoying figuring out how to use it, and seeing what comes out of it. This is my second bit of artwork and I’ve figured out a lot more of the features, with quite a lot left to go.
I drew this sitting in a cafe, looking at skeleton decor. Happy Halloween!
This website
This website is something I am experimenting with; I’m not sure what it’ll become, and I’m very much OK with that. I created this because I thought it might be a fun way to share, and tinker with some things. To set this up I used hugo and the Ananke theme to start. I did consdier making a theme, but I am happy for now to make use of this one, it’s pretty good. Will see going forward what it turns into!