Doing New Stuff
How long since you’ve done something totally new? Something totally unfamiliar? Something totally un-you? When was the last time you stepped away from your normal routine? Your default setting? Your predictable, safe, comfortable but-not-very-fulfilling pattern of typical behaviours, habits and outcomes? Do you ever feel like your life (or part thereof) is in something of a perpetual holding pattern? And does that suck?
Just asking.
Welcome to the club.
There’s much to be said for doing new things. Consciously choosing to have new experiences. Perhaps in new places with new people. When we do new things significant internal shift is often the result. When we do new things we unlock emotional doors, break down psychological barriers, confront fears and tap into our previously unexplored potential.
Physical Therapy
A few years ago, I coached a woman who struggled with depression, poor self-esteem and a total lack of confidence. Before we met, she had done the rounds of various experts in the hope of somehow changing the way she saw herself and felt about herself. After our first meeting, it was my opinion that she had done enough talking, so we decided to create a plan based around doing.
Four months after we met, she ran her first half marathon.
She was never the same. For her, positive transformation lived in the doing. The moving of her limbs. The exploring of her potential in a practical way. The facing of fears in a physical context. The new experience. The unfamiliar experience. In the process of completing something that was ‘totally not her’ she smashed many of her self-imposed limitations and dispensed with numerous fears. In the space of two hours and twenty-one (and a bit) kilometres, her life changed. Forever. Her thinking changed. Her standards changed. Her beliefs (about her potential and possibilities) changed.
And for the first time, she was genuinely excited about her future rather than fearful of it.
Is it time for you to have a new experience?
