The 8 Ways to Try Something New (and 1 Even Better Option)

In the spirit of the topic of this post, I’m going to try something new to kick it off—a poem:

When you’re feeling blue
Or your mind feels glued
What it’d behoove you to do
Is get off your caboose
And try something new!

(Eat your heart out, Dr. Seuss!)

Childish?

Absolutely.

That’s kind of the point. Kids are the best new-thing-try-ers, so maybe we ought to take a page from their coloring books.

If not, we risk becoming even staler, more close-minded, and more set-in-our-ways than the youngsters already think we are.

So to give you (and myself) a kick in the pants, here are:

• Eight ways to try something new
• My to-try list
• A potentially better option

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8 Ways to Try Something New

I’m glad I tried them, so maybe you will be, too.

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1. Quit something old.

The saying “Quitters never prosper” is bogus. As mindful minimalists love to remind us, we’re often better off removing unnecessary things from our lives than adding new ones.

Here are a few of the many things I’m glad I quit.

• Sleeping on beds. Try sleeping on the floor to test my philosophy that, You are what you sleep on.
• Eating breakfast. I stopped about five years ago. About a year later, I quit eating entirely, doing a multi-day fast. And these experiences changed my relationship with food for the better.
• Breathing through my mouth. Inspired by James Nestor’s book, Breath, I started taping my lips together at night and doing other exercises to train myself to stop mouth breathing and start nose breathing.

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2. Interact in new ways.

Take your conversations deeper with Arthur Aron’s 36 questions. Even though Kim and I were already in love when we went through them in Medellin, they brought us closer together.

Or host a “Priya Method” dinner party by being intentional about your get-together’s Why, Who, How, Where, and What. It takes more thought, but less fuss and frilly fanciness than a Martha-Stewart-esque dinner party. And if you can’t be bothered to host, seek out a social dining experience like Reverie Social Table in Cape Town.

You can also try interacting with yourself differently. Write a letter to your future self. I tried this for the first time since high school last year and am really looking forward to reading what I wrote.

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3. Consume something new.

Try eating with your hands for extra sensations, doing a blind taste test to challenge your palate preconceptions, training your palate, or challenging yourself to acquire a taste for a food you don’t think you enjoy—like I did with black licorice.

Or pick a random country from a map, then find a restaurant nearby that serves food from there. I find dining experiences at hole-in-the-wall foreign eateries are more memorable (and a lot cheaper) than trendy hipster hotspots.

Consuming new things isn’t limited to what you put in your mouth. Consider consuming new information, sites, and sounds, too.

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4. Make something new.

It could be a painting, sweater, poem, or porcelain pot. Or a business. Whatever. For me, it’s this blog and my YouTube channel. They may not be super financially rewarding, but they are spiritually satisfying.

And probably the most rewarding thing I ever made, though some say it’s bad for the environment, was my son, Zac.

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5. Move in new ways.

As the saying goes, If you don’t use it, you lose it and become a rickety old physiotherapist’s dream.

So move more like you did as a little tyke:

• Brush your body like you brush your teeth with a daily mobility routine.
• Ditch the sweat smells and douchebags in the gym to work out outside.
• Get rid of the casts you call shoes and put all those muscles and bones in your feet to use.
• Do head- or handstands.
• Sprint.
• Throw rocks around.
• Make up playful workouts like pant-athlons.

Or try a new sport. This coincides with the next thing to consider trying…

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6. Attempt new hobbies.

Spend time on activities that, as Oliver Burkeman puts it in his book Four Thousand Weeks, “the only thing we’re trying to get from them is the doing itself.”

When Kim and I moved to Cape Town, she came up with the idea to make the most of the beautiful scenery and soft sand beaches by trying our hands at beach volleyball. Four years later, it’s become our favorite pastime.

Prior to that, we got into photography. Part of it was to have less amateurish images for the travel posts on this blog. But it turned out to change the way we look at the world and help us better capture memorable moments.

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7. Go somewhere new.

Given that Explore is on the main menu of this blog, travel’s obviously a huge part of my life and one I strongly endorse.

And even better than traveling, in my experience, is moving to a new city—at least for a few months. As I shared in my post on why I stopped counting how many countries I’ve visited, it’s the difference between one-night stands and a long-term relationship.

Then whenever you start feeling too comfortable in whichever city you settle in, try being a tourist in your own town.

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8. Try starting a new habit.

My experiments with quitting podcasts, daily mobility, exchanging a different “grateful” with Kim every day, and lifelogging have gone on to have lasting impacts.

So while it may be a self-help cliché, taking on a 30-day challenge to do something like the above is fun and effective.

Here’s a list of crazy and creative monthly challenges for you to try. And if you want some company, maybe join me for an upcoming Month of Discomfort!

Better Than Trying Something New?

Today, you may be best served to try something new as a quick fix for your boredom, malaise, or close-mindedness.

But…

Continuously trying new things to spice up your stale life isn’t a long-term fix. Because if you overload your life with spice, it’s not going to be very palatable.

You need something substantial on your plate to sprinkle spices onto.

Pete Davis’ book, Dedicated, which I will soon add to my list of “sledgehammer” books that changed my thinking, woke me up to this.

So rather than try something new, consider giving extra time and attention to going deeper on something you’re already doing:

• Rather than making a new friend, forge a stronger bond with an existing one.
• Rather than taking on another new hobby, hone in on one you can make your craft.
• Rather than digital nomad around the world counting countries, get more involved in your local community.

It’s like slow cooking or aging. Patience and perseverance allow life’s tastiest and most unique flavors to emerge.

The greatest novelty comes from depth.

And this is something kids can’t experience, but we grown-ups can.