There are many days when we complain about the routine in our lives. Making dinner again comes quickly. Having to cut the grass seems to come too often. As does going for a haircut, shopping at the same grocery store, and watching the same TV channels and shows each week.
So how can I say that life is ever-changing? Because I believe deeply we shape our lives around the experiences and exposure we have to new things. Some are forced upon us while others we intentionally seek out. It’s the “newness” that enters our lives in various ways that create this feeling that life is “ever-changing”.
This leads to my strong belief that how we see the world plays a big part in determining the world we live in. It is exactly the breadth of experiences together with meeting new people while acquiring new information and knowledge that changes us in some way. Every time. We can’t help but think a bit differently than before. We first must change in order for the circumstances around us to change.
It is the rate of personal development that plays a key role in how fast or slow our world changes around us. As we age, we become happy or more readily accept who we are resulting in our world not changing as fast or as much as when we were young. We seek out fewer new things contributing to this perceived “sameness” that invades our life when we are much older.
When we are young, our lives are full of new experiences/information/knowledge. As working adults, this too occurs but in a less formal manner than when in school. Yes, we fall into things in our lives without intention. Where we first work, who we marry, and possibly where we live.
But there comes a time as working adults when we seek meaning and fulfillment. The only way that I know to grow and find these things is to actively search through many different channels. The pre-requisite for all of the following is that they must be different in some way from what you are used to doing in the past.
Meeting new people to network with and to learn from.
The more people we meet and talk to, the more we learn and change. Random encounters can lead to powerful new perspectives and relationships to grow from.
When in positions of responsibility, new problems/issues/situations challenge us to work through them. Giving us fertile ground to build new connections and skills that deepen our abilities to interact with the world around us.
Reading books, listening to podcasts, or watching YouTube videos, not for enjoyment but rather to learn new skills.
To travel, far and wide, to see the different expressions of life through experiencing foreign cultures.
Or to simply try something, you have not done before. Finding out that with practice or familiarity, what seemed impossible to accomplish now happens much more frequently with greater ease. Be it a recipe or length/intensity of exercise.
Other times, new things get thrust upon us. A diagnosis of illness, separation or divorce, losing your job, facing bankruptcy, and so on. These things change us as well. They too change how we see the world around us. Forcing us to adjust when experiencing significant changes in our lives. For here we have no choice.
While there is no fountain of youth, as all of us will eventually die, there is no better way to continue to live our youth as we age than by intentionally seeking out new things in order for our lives to continue to change and evolve. It’s a great way to maintain a “spring in your step” as well as a smile while going through our next day.
When we approach life this way, we continue to create “a life worth living and lacking in nothing”. (Paraphrased from Aristotle – one of my favorite quotes.) Using the power of creating new relationships with people, experiences, and knowledge to continue to mold our lives into what we dream them to be.