Trying Something New is a Badass Thing to Do

“Don’t act like you are walking around with a Tshirt that says "I give Up!" on the front and on the back saying "I never started trying!"
~ Timothy Padayachee

I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t very good at trying new things.

Being a bit of a perfectionist (okay, okay - - more than a bit), I knew I probably wouldn’t be perfect the first time I tried something new, so I just didn’t do it. I thought I’d rather get better at what I’m already good at. That was just an excuse to stay small.

Food. If I hadn’t already tried it, I wasn’t interested. My reasoning was this: “If it tasted good, my mom would have already served it to me growing up. She didn’t, so it must not taste that good.” So, I was in my 20s before I tried avocados, artichokes, or Japanese food. And it took about a million ‘no’s’ before I finally said ‘yes.’ I missed out on some good food, right? Another excuse to stay small.

Sometimes trying something new doesn’t work out so well.

The first time I tried to snow ski (I was in my 30s) at Lake Tahoe, I fell every single time I got off the chair lift. Talk about embarrassing! ‘Lean forward’ the guy said and I really thought I was leaning forward but I was falling backwards, so that didn’t make sense. Then I heard these magic words: “Try to stand on your tip toes when you get off the chair lift.” That did the trick. Something I could understand. From then on, no more falling backwards. And I was off snowplowing down the hill.

And sometimes trying something new works out just fine. ​

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