I’m doing something that’s been on my bucket list for literally years. I’m enrolled in a landscape painting class. Two classes in and I’m already hooked. More than ever it’s a good time to get stuck into something on your “close to home” bucket list.

Why is it so good for us to do something new?

 

Novelty is good for our brains

We’ve talked before about how to keep our brains healthy and youthful and you might recall that doing new things – or novelty – is one of the key factors in keeping us young in mind… and therefore helping with our longevity.

My brain is certainly having to be a bit taxed trying to learn a new way of seeing and a new way of doing. It’s fair to say I have a long way to go! I’ve tried a lot of creative things, but painting isn’t one of them, so it’s requiring plenty of concentration as new neural pathways are clunkily being formed. When we’re this deeply focused and engaged, we can lose ourselves in “flow” and that is one very healthy state of mind. Our cares and outside-world focuses fall by the wayside and we get to exist suspended in the moment. A real brain break.

Naturally life is easier when we take our usual well-trodden routes, including our ways of thinking and doing, but are our comfortable and familiar ways necessarily good for us? Well, like most things, it’s about moderation. A certain amount of habit, routine and predictability enables us to function to an extent on auto-pilot, conserving our mental energy (or headspace as some of us refer to it) for other more important things. Yet, too much predictability and routine can sometimes end up lulling us into a rut of our own making and certainly doesn’t help keep us sharp. That’s why it’s important to build some novelty into our life, to keep our brains working to their capacity.

 

Use different strengths

As you know by now, I am a passionate advocate of a strengths-based approach to life, work, in fact pretty much everything. Doing what comes naturally and engages us helps us to perform at the top of our game and to really thrive and enjoy life. It’s also very satisfying to build up our competency and to do things well. BUT… it can be really cool as well to challenge ourselves to do things that are outside of this particular comfort zone. There’s nothing wrong (and in fact there’s a lot right) with “being a beginner” and enjoying seeing other people share their strengths and be an expert. In fact, I think it’s essential to do things that keep us humble and appreciative of other peoples’ areas of talent.

The other thing is that I’m getting to draw on some of my own lesser used strengths. I love being relatively free form and spontaneous, often working in a very organic and intuitive way, so it’s good for me to be learning some new systems and structure. I liken it to cooking. It’s only once you’ve learned some of the underlying principles of cooking that you can push your knowledge and start experimenting with any degree of flair or success. Firstly you have to learn that you can’t eat raw potatoes and that cinnamon won’t work very well with basil!

 

Meet different people

One of the reasons it’s important to do new and different things is to hopefully expose us to some new (and potentially interesting) people. Over the years I’ve had many clients complain about not having enough friends or people to do things with or mention that they’d like to expand their network of relationships. How about going to meet some new people around a shared interest? It could spark new relationships, or at least you’ll learn some new perspectives. I’m personally really enjoying being around people I wouldn’t ordinarily come across in my everyday life and hearing their different perspectives and priorities is refreshing.