So, I’d thought that the principle of “making the unfamiliar familiar and the familiar unfamiliar” would help change up your daily routine and add some excitement to your life. In particular, during this COVID period.
Do you remember the last time you tried something you were unfamiliar with? Maybe at age 5, 10, 12, or 20? or maybe not in a while?
And the reason could be? Fears of making a fool of yourself or of not being good enough? Or maybe fears of being laughed at?
Whatever your reason is, I would like to bring to your attention that in addition to “do what you hate to get what you want” that I learned from Marisa Peer, the principle of making the unfamiliar familiar and the familiar unfamiliar is another key success principle that very successful people use.
For me, it is also a happiness principle and I will explain to you below.
And, because of it, my life has become more interesting and definitely more exciting.
You see, the life within you is constantly seeking expansion and expression. To align with that need, a part of it is by doing something you are unfamiliar with.
We Started Our Lives With The Unfamiliar
The truth is that all of us started our lives by doing something we were not familiar with.
In fact, nothing was familiar to us when we first came into this world. Be it as taking your first spoonful of food, learning to walk that very first step, taking the bus, driving a car…
But somehow, we’ve made “the unfamiliar familiar.” And now, we do not even have to think about them; we perform all these activities on autopilot (see subconscious mind). These activities become habits for us. They include your mental habits (thinking patterns) and behavioral habits.
We, As Humans, Like The Familiar
The good thing is that our habits keep us safe and also make us feel comfortable.
However, they also keep us from trying new things. Especially, after our habits are established (about the age of 7), we become reluctant to try something that we are not familiar with.
Life gradually becomes a series of repeat activities.
This habitual lifestyle becomes even more so once we have our children.
Every day revolves around a series of recycled events. A life with no newness leads to a life of no adventure and a life of boredom.
Our Habits Could Become Our Prisons
With time, our habits (mental or behavioral) that were once comforting have created a prison for ourselves.
And no wonder, the sparks in our eyes started to diminish, and our laughter with abandon also faded away.
To illustrate this point, let’s look at a 5-year old.
At this age, every day is an adventure. They are so full of life, and it is hard to make them angry because their default is happiness. They find ways to have fun; they would try anything…They even dance in the rain…
But we were once a five-year old child that was full of life and exploring life. We also looked at the world with wonders
The Essence of Life Is In Doing The Unfamiliar
To live a full life, we would need to experiment by doing the unfamiliar.
Even if you decide not to try new things, your spirit will somehow nag you one way or the other. When that happens, you would know it.
As mentioned, most of the time, fears of all kinds try to keep us at where we are.
But, for some reason, maybe it is the play with words, when I think about “making something unfamiliar familiar and something familiar unfamiliar”, trying new thing sounds less scary to me.
It is undeniable that we are taking some risks when we try new things. But everything we do involves a certain level of risk, including the same thing we do every day.
Nevertheless, risks could also mean growth. And life is meant to grow. We should not restrict ourselves to a little corner when we can expand; everyone has that potential, YOU and I included.
Build Your Life Resume
Per Jesse Itzler (see his book in Happy Medicine for the soul. He is quite an interesting person. Many of you might know him through his wife Sara Blakley, the self-made billionaire and founder of Spanx), he lives to build his “life resume”, which means doing everything that he desires in his lifetime.
Since our time is limited, which is an essential point to grasp, it becomes urgent to try everything you would like to try in your lifetime.
If you have read the post on Jeff Bezos, one of his success principles comes from the 80-year-old rule. He lives his life to minimize regrets he would have when visualizing himself turning 80 years old.
Applying Making The Unfamiliar Familiar and Vice Versa
So let’s give this principle a try…whatever new event that comes into your life.
Here is the suggested way to do it:
Step 1: Tell yourself that it is OK that you do not know much about this new thing (skill/activity/even relationship)
Step 2: Say to yourself that you are not familiar with it right now, but you can become familiar with it, WITH REPETITION (remember when you first learned to ride a bike or walked that first step).
On the other hand, if there are any habits that you do not like or you think they do not bring benefits to your life. You can make the familiar unfamiliar as follows:
Step 1: say to yourself that these activities are your habits because you have repetitively performed them;
Step 2: Also, say to yourself that you can remove these habits by “making them unfamiliar” to you, WITH REPETITION. And anytime when you catch yourself doing them on autopilot, mentally discard them.
With this mindset, when you look at your life activities, they are either something you are familiar with doing or not familiar with doing. Isn’t it?
With that in mind, if you want to change any course of action in your life, all you have to do is making it either familiar or unfamiliar. And with repetition, you can DO or UNDO almost anything in your life.
