Predictability breeds boredom.
If you take the same route to work every day, buy the same groceries every week and order the same food every meal out, it’s time to change up your old routines. These little daily habits accumulate to create a stuck-in-the rut lifestyle. But you can rock your world, one habit at a time.
While one of the upsides of maturity is being able to choose exactly what you want to do whenever you want, the downside is that you start self-limiting choices, becoming rigid and shrinking the scope of your world. Do you really want to go the rest of your life without the thrill of new discovery?
Small Steps
Start with little daily habits and move on to bigger things. Get out of your comfort zone and into a new exercise class, hobby club, place of worship, social group or vocation can be intimidating at first but ultimately rewarding.
“One of the challenges of aging is rigidity. Change is increasingly difficult unless we face that,” says clinical psychologist Mary Malek of Healing Space LLC in Twinsburg.
Research points to the fact that neuroplasticity — growth potential in the brain — is not just a part of childhood development but can continue into maturity if we exercise our brains with intentionality, Dr. Malek says.
Taking the path of least resistance leaves us slip-sliding into premature aging. “It is so beneficial as we enter into the later decades of our lives — when we feel out of control and at the mercy of decline — we can move upstream with simpler, fun, exciting things that keep us in the flow of life,” Dr. Malek says. “Then when true challenges come, we can meet them head-on.”
Dr. Malek recommends the following little life hacks that will spice up your day and stretch your mind, building new pathways and fresh growth in your brain.
- Change the route you take to work, the store or a friend’s house. Or change your standard method of transport. If it’s a short jaunt, try walking, bicycling or taking public transportation for a change of pace.
- Go old-school if you typically communicate digitally, by phone or social media. It takes time and effort to rustle up a pen and stationery to handwrite a note. When was the last time you licked a stamp and sent out snail mail? Or used a fold-out paper map instead of your turn-by-turn digital map?
- Integrate new movement into a routine chore. Use your imagination and lighten your spirit as you reach to a high shelf as if you were a dancer or a basketball player. Have fun getting your tasks done.
- Switch it up. If you hang your purse over your right shoulder, switch to the left. If you carry your wallet in your back pocket, switch to the front. If the staff at your favorite restaurant know your order before you place it, it’s time to try new cuisine at that place you’ve been meaning to visit.
“These are deceptively simple change-ups but they will light up different parts of your brain. It’s a muscle. If you don’t use it, you lose it. Wherever these neurons fire, you wire new, stronger pathways in the brain. The more lanes and tributaries you open up will keep your brain young and allow you to flow with change fluidly, without disruption.”
What’s Next?
Once you take yourself through basic change-ups like these, you can challenge yourself to bigger challenges, like joining a new organization, traveling to a new destination, participating in a new contest, interviewing for a new position or finally organizing that spare room stuffed with clutter.
On the other hand, you can float down the lazy river of habit and convenience, only to find yourself stuck in the eddy of complacency and rigidity. This could lead to boredom, isolation and addiction, Dr. Malek says.
Think about those who seem able to breeze through life’s changes and take on new discoveries, compared to those who got frozen somewhere in time, unable to move forward or away from home base. Which describes you better? How easy is it for you to do something spontaneous? Can you do something new without using alcohol as a crutch? Are you a control freak who limits choices in order to avoid vulnerability?
“Resiliency is our best friend,” Dr. Malek says. ”Why should life be easy and comfortable and within our control? That doesn’t build much muscle or flexibility. Where do you really want to go? Shoot for it.”
Dr. Malek says to tackle the first roadblock that keeps you from taking the first step. If it’s clutter, clear it. If it’s your internal scold, listen to an encouraging voice instead. She advises following the approach described in this portion of a David Whyte* poem:
Start Close In
Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.
Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way of starting
the conversation.
This is your world. You can rock it, one life hack at a time.
*(Read David Whyte’s full poem here: pathwriter.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/start-close-in-david-whyte/ )
