Something new is always happening, whether we like it or not. When we like it, we sort of feel we should do something about it. When we do not like it, we tend to ignore it. Here are two ways to approach this.
New things are rapidly arising. This needs an awareness and enough of an open mind to minimally find out about them. And then, once we’ve done our look-see, we need to go about adopting what we think would help us going forward. When we’ve rejected the change, we should put it 90% out of our minds; not 100% because our initial assessment might not have been right. Because of that we still need to keep a 10% open mind in case something occurs that makes us want to relook at it. I see no danger here, other than the first opinion being wrong, but a mechanism has been set up to relook at it.
A serious mistake occurs when we like the new thing, and then do nothing about it. I don’t have a name for this — it could be procrastination, apathy, being too busy with other things, waiting for the right time to do something about it or to get it started. We are all busy and we all have overbearing deadlines along with the burden of waiting on staff to finish what they are working on for us. The law of inertia keeps us working on what we are doing and keeps us from wandering into new territory.
You are always busy or should be, but should never be too busy to find out what is new, and then to implement what will work for you. And that requires a dedication to seeking out and then trying and adopting new things. You need to move forward and that can be accelerated by accepting new processes, procedures, systems, software or whatever comes to your attention. That attention needs to be focused by you toward innovations and new developments, and that needs active effort.
A simple illustration is that many people were late to get a smartphone because it was “new” (even after a dozen years) and had a fear of getting involved with it. However, one day, they bit the bullet and got one, and within a month were using it for everything they could. It became their inseparable first place to get an address, make a reservation, contact a long “lost” friend, get a recipe or find an article on a complicated tax issue, watch a how-to video, or do Facetime with their parents or grandchildren. They “found” uses they previously could not imagine. And they started because they made the time to get started — which turned out to be much less effort than they dreaded.
New things are popping up and the longer it takes to jump on them, the farther behind you’ll get, or the more you will miss out on greater comfort, opportunities, pleasure or time-saving shortcut activities.
Here’s a short story about how I started using a personal Palm Treo PDA (personal digital assistant). I knew people using them, but to me they were computer geeks, and I felt it was beyond my expertise, I did not want to commit any time to learn how to use one. One day I was with a friend who had a small practice who was having trouble with QuickBooks. We told him it was OK for him to come to our office when he had problems, and we would help him; and he stopped by a lot, not seeming to grasp it as he should have.
Around that time, I was with him and needed a phone number of someone I knew he knew and asked him if he could get me the number. He said, “I’ll give it to you now,” whipped out his Treo and in a few seconds gave me the number. I immediately went to a local computer store and purchased my first Treo. I only stopped using it when the iPhone came on the market. I felt foolish having to play catchup to him with this. From then on, I tried every new thing, regardless of my hesitancy or insecurity about trying new things. I no longer had trouble making the time. Not everything worked out or was for me, but enough were to make a big difference for me.
A takeaway is that just as there is never the right time to do something new, “now” is always the right time to try something new, because later might be too late with too many missed opportunities.
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