Can trying something new really help with perseverance, resilience, perfectionism and creativity?

I recently posted on social media several things that I did for the first time (or in a different way for the first time) with the theme running through the posts "Try new things." Once I completed several of these I asked myself "Why is it important to try new things, and why it this a big deal for me?"

After thinking about it for a bit, I've come up with a few reasons why this is important.

Reason number one: facing perfectionism

Let's face it, we all have a little bit of perfectionism in us. We want to get things right. We want to look good in front of others. Where perfectionism gets us into trouble is when it keeps us from fully living our lives. When we are afraid to try something new because you may not be perfect at it right off the bat. I took a class on overcoming perfectionism with Brene Brown a few years ago and she had us use watercolor to do the assignments, because it is unforgiving. The thing with watercolor is that you have to just accept what happens after the paint hits the paper and work with it. You can sort of mop up some color, but you can never really erase. Perfectionism can only take over if you throw out your project or never really start. This house is what I painted during the class. It kinda looks like something I painted in 1st grade. (You'll notice words on the picture that represent the traits and behaviors that I allow in my home. This was the theme of this assignment.)

During our COVID confinement, I decided to try again. It was a good way to distract myself while stuck at home. After a few years of practice, there are still clearly imperfections and messes, but I think that just adds to the character of the piece. I embrace the imperfections of my paintings, because they are what make it uniquely me.

Nothing is ever perfect the first time you try it, but the only way to avoid mistakes is to not step up and try.

Reason number two: Consumer vs Creator

I love watching videos and TV shows where people create something. After watching enough home fix it shows, I thought for sure I could be a carpenter myself. Actually my carpentry skills are limited to assembling pre-fab furniture, and only if the instructions are clear.

There's this funny trick our brains can play on us. When we watch someone create something, we get a little bit of the same dopamine hit as though we had made it ourselves. We live in a world where too many of us get the pleasure from being a consumer (of content) rather than a creator. It's a lot easier and safer to just watch someone else create something on a screen. But we will never get real satisfaction until we step into the role of creator.

I really wanted to teach the girls that I went to camp with how to tie dye. So of course I watched lots of videos and read how to guides. It looks so easy. They make kits for kids to do this at the craft store. Why wouldn't it be easy? Here are my results.

I wish more yellow and green had come through. It didn't turn out how I pictured but it was a fun project.

Reason Number 3: conquer fear

Sometimes you just have to do the thing that scares you in order to get over it. The thing we did was to take a chance on letting the dog off the leash, and let her prove herself.

When we adopted Penny from the shelter, they told us not to take her to a dog park. She gets really excited when she sees other dogs. My theory is that she is like a kindergartener who sees friends in the park and can't wait to go play. The dog parks have been really good for her, and she behaves well enough. However we have never gotten around to formal dog training with her. We are pretty sure that if she got loose she would come when called, but we haven't taken chances.

We decided it was time to find out and see how she would do at the "off leash" dog park. This is a city park that is not completely fenced in like a typical dog park. It has a sidewalk and dirt running/walking path that goes for miles, with the Colorado river on one side and those trees you see behind us on the other side. Once we let her off the leash, she could, in theory, run for miles and we would not be able to catch up to her. She probably wouldn't get lost forever, but it makes me really nervous to have her that far out of our sight.

We got a good ways into the park before removing the leash. She ran to play, but made sure she could see us the whole time. Then I sat down on this log to tie my shoe and she ran back to me, jumped on the log and hung out for a little bit. I would say this was successful.

Reason number 4: perseverance and resilience

Trying something new, then sticking it out when it gets hard, results in some serious character building. Sometimes I wonder if stubborn persistence and perseverance are the same thing.

In my day job, working in anesthesia billing, there have been several times, when I caught myself crying out in frustration "why is this so hard?" The truth is, I chose to work at a difficult job. The real question is why was I complaining about the work being hard. I had a choice. To continue working the more advanced position I was in, that would be full of hard tasks and require some creativity and strategizing in order to succeed, or I could take a position that I knew I could do well, but I also know I would be bored in. I choose to stay in a position where new problems will come up on a regular basis and I will need to work hard to figure out what to do next to solve these problems. The more problems I solve, the easier the next problem becomes to face.

Here's where the story get's really interesting. I am able to do the truly hard things that I'm now doing to get this coaching business up and running because of the memory of the hard things I learned while working my day job. There are so many technical parts that I need to be able to do with this coaching business. There is the website, SEOs, Zoom, program development, legal & finance issues, email marketing campaigns, social media, and more. The list goes on and seems to grow. It gets pretty overwhelming pretty fast. Looking back at the other areas of my life that I have grown in has been the one thing that has been the most helpful in keeping me encouraged. When learning the technical details of my anesthesia billing job, I didn't know everything I needed to right from the start. It was hard, but when I chose to persevere, I learned the details I needed and figured out the rest to be able to succeed.

Now that I'm building this new business, with all of it's technical details, I know that I can learn each detail, one step at a time. I have learned to recognize my own resilience when I review all the hard things I have already overcome. What I've really learned is that the next time I'm tempted to cry out in frustration "Why is this so hard?" I can answer myself with "Because you are ready to grow. You can do hard things. Give it some time, thought & creativity and just don't give up."

I know there is a lot more that I need to learn and overcome. The next new things I want to do will involve being vulnerable and getting in front of a camera. Hopefully you will see the results of that soon.

I'm sure there are lots of other reasons why learning and trying new things is so important to our life's journey. Here are just a few that are important to me.

Send me a message and let me know what you are working on that's new and what you have learned from the process.