Charls felt that he was getting in a rut. His job seemed the same. His after hours routine was the same.
In fact, to be honest, he was bored. No new challenges which really engaged him.
Then out of the blue an old friend came into town and challenged Charles to go sky diving with him. That was truly different from anything Charles had ever done, and at first he said, “no.” Yet with encouragement, he said oh, why not? Let’s go for it.
That was all that Charles needed to find new energy. Growing your mindset isn’t easy and takes time and work. One of the best things you can do to jumpstart the process is to try new things. The human brain loves novelty; novel (new) stimuli push it to grow and change. The challenge of trying something new jolts it out of old patterns and presents the opportunity for change.
This means that trying something new regularly is one of the best ways to improve your mindset. Give your brain new experiences regularly and it has to grow to accommodate and process them. It has no choice.
What kind of new experiences have this effect? You certainly don’t have to go sky diving in order to grow. All new challenges help to varying degrees.
You don’t have to do something large. Go shopping at a new store once a month. Try a new restaurant every week. If you really don’t like change, order a new entrée at your favorite restaurant each time you eat there. These experiences, as small as they are, are enough to catalyze the process of change and growth.
Of course, the greater the difference between the new stimuli and your everyday life, the bigger the response from your brain will be. Learning a new skill is near the top of the list of new experiences that will change your mindset. You don’t have to go back to school to learn something, pick something you’re interested in, from gardening to a foreign language, and start working on it in your free time. Your local library and the Internet are bound to have beginner’s instruction manuals.
The next step you can take is to make a list of things you want to try but never have and start marking them off. Put down everything you can think of -from the painting class to bungee jumping -and start doing it.
Travel is probably the best “new” experience for mindset and personal growth. When you travel, everything changes. All the stimuli are new.
The farther you go from home and the longer your trip, the truer this is. A weekend trip out of a town and a week in a foreign country will both dramatically increase your mindset growth, but the latter has more effect. If you can travel, do it!
You only have one life to live. Trying new things will improve your mindset and help your personal growth, but beyond that, it will help you live the best life possible.
It’s worth the effort. Start today!
