Why we need variety
For the last few years, I've been rethinking my career. When I shared this with someone much older and wiser, they asked me "how many years have you been working?" I replied, "About 10." They said, "That sounds about right."
Apparently, I was not special. I guess 10 years is about the time people usually start to feel restless, have doubts about their trajectory, or when they feel the need for some sort of change.
Why are we this way? It makes me think of this idea of habituation.
Habituation is "our brain’s tendency to respond less and less to things that are constant…[for example,] you enter a bakery and after about 20 minutes you can’t smell the scent of warm pastry anymore." We simply stop responding to things that stay the same. When we are in the same job, doing the same things, spending time with the same people for a long time, we habituate.
Habituation is a human experience we all share and can make life feel boring. We don't want to habituate. Yet, this also doesn't mean we need to change jobs every 10 years. Instead, it's a reminder that we can do our best to prevent habituation, especially when something is going well and we want to keep enjoying it. This process is called dishabituation.
We can dishabituate by adding variety into our routine experiences when possible. Variety can resensitize us to what we've gotten used to, to help reinvigorate how we feel. Maybe it could be environmental like changing the color of our music stands, or having a different dress code for a special concert. Tali Sharot calls this "resparkling our environment." (I love this term!)
Variety can also put us in a state of learning. We could find opportunities to dishabituate from the way we do things, such as trying different ideas for audience engagement or adding an encore piece to an orchestra program.
The nice thing about trying on variety is that the changes are not there to stay. The point is that it keeps changing. It's a great frame of mind for trying new things without the pressure of official commitment. We gain the opportunity to learn from test-driving ideas - both to learn whether it is possible and how we'd actually feel about it.
How might we be experiencing signs of habituation? How could you find ways to dishabituate so you can continue to enjoy your life to the max?
(More on habituation: read Brain science explains how to find joy hidden in your old habits or watch Talks at Google with Tali Sharot)
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