It Is Never Too Late To Try New Things: An Inspirational Post

Many people do not realize until their later years that there were things that they really wished that they had done in their lives. It takes time to really recognize your desires and to understand the reasons that you have not acted on those desires. Unfortunately, by the time that they realize what it is that they want to do they think to themselves, "but now I'm too old" and then they dismiss the thought. This is a terrible thing to do. If you know what you want to do with your life - whether for a career or just for fun - then you should go for it with all of your heart no matter what age you are when you figure it out. The fact of the matter is that it is never too late to try new things.

There is a creativity course called The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron which helps people to uncover what it is that they want to do creatively and then further helps them to move through whatever blockages they feel so that they can allow themselves to do those things. In the beginning chapters of this book, the author says that she often encounters people who say things like, "but do you know how old I will be before I get any good at that?!" and she says that her response is always, "yes, the same age that you will be if you don't". I think that is the lesson that we all need to keep in mind when we find ourselves interested in trying new things but afraid that our time to do them has passed.

To be able to do new things (such as to play the saxophone for the first time or to start taking modern dance lessons when we've never danced before), we have to be willing to allow ourselves to not be perfect at them. One of the problems with adults is that we have gotten good at a few things in our lives (our work, our relationships, whatever it is) and so we find it much more comfortable to just keep doing those things than we do to go ahead and embrace the opportunity to try something new. It is hard to start something new and admit that we aren't good at it yet and that we don't even ever know if we are going to be good at it.

If we can overcome that challenge of being afraid that we can't do something and just accept that we aren't going to be terrific at it when we first start then we can give ourselves permission to go ahead and just have fun with it. The key here is to ask yourself, "what is the worst thing that can happen?" Try to envision the worst thing that would happen if you tried to play the saxophone and were terrible at it or you took the dance class and didn't like it. Then ask yourself, "is that worse than never knowing what might have happened if it had gone well?" If you are curious enough about trying something new that you are willing to risk whatever that "worst thing that could happen" might be then you are going to open yourself up to some great opportunities in life. Playing saxophone might be just the beginning of that!