That’s pretty much the process. However, there are a few pitfalls you might face as you go on this journey, and so are worth mentioning:
This is a trial and error thing, and you are bound to fail at times. Don’t let your failures discourage you, because you can quickly become discouraged. Keep in mind some advice you’ve probably heard before: if you never try and fail, you’ll never learn. Instead, if and when you fail, drop the activity, not the pursuit of new ones.
Along the same lines, manage your expectations. Overly optimistic expectations put you at risk of being disappointed, which is also demotivating. Try to be patient and remember that things can take time to develop, and you won’t be as good at something that’s new to you today as you will be a year from now. But a year from now you’ll be pretty good at it.
Stay motivated — it’s all too easy to get lazy when there’s no mandatory schedules to follow, no time constraints, no deadlines, nobody demanding something from you. But just as laziness can beget laziness, a forward momentum also tends to feed on itself
Finally, never stop searching and experimenting. After you put together your first list, you may think you’re home, but those who stay on a hunt for new activities feel better about themselves. In fact, what’s more important than your specific activities is your motivation to continually look for new experiences — they can make you feel younger, rejuvenated, and productive. And as you do so, keep an open mind. That prevents you from being locked into old patterns and gives you an opportunity to discover interests you didn’t know you had. You just never know what you might find, and find out about yourself. The truth is we old dogs have no choice but to learn new tricks if we’re going to prosper.
