Don't stop doing new things

Even if you might be really bad at them

After social media spread the habit of comparing and pushed the myth of extreme perfection, we’ve been encouraged to see anything less than excellence as failure. But in trying to avoid the feeling of failure, we may end up depriving ourselves of new experiences.

The psychologists note that the culture of perfection has caused an “epidemic of self-hate,” fueled by the weight of self-criticism and the pursuit of high performance in all areas of life.

As a result, we stop enjoying new experiences.

When we start a new activity, whether it’s a hobby or learning a new skill, we’ll likely start out bad at it. But that shouldn’t stop us from continuing. Being bad at something can actually be freeing.

Think of children, who are always trying new things. For them, the most important part is to engage with the activity and enjoy the learning process, without worrying about being good or bad at it.

Yet, we tend to lose this feeling in adulthood.

It’s truly amazing and liberating! It teaches you so much, like falling in love with the process instead of only feeling satisfied with performance or reaching a goal. There are a lot of people who start learning a new musical instrument, practicing a martial art, dancing, all at the age of 50, 60, or even later, and it really fills them up inside.

It doesn’t matter to be good or not, the important thing is to have fun and that sensation of fulfillment!

Beyond the joy of discovery, trying new activities also helps us practice kindness toward ourselves and others. After all, it’s harder to judge others when we’ve allowed ourselves the humility to fail.

The problem is that the way we think about skills can impact our performance: believing it’s impossible to learn something new can make us feel stuck and block our progress. What new activity or knowledge have you avoided just because you thought it was impossible to learn?

In a culture focused on performance, where only success is praised and rewarded, it’s important to make a conscious effort to make mistakes and be bad at something. After all, the fear of making mistakes shouldn’t keep us from new experiences.

The new itself is the reward!