Be Less Boring

 Via Rob Walker's Newsletter.

Rob LaZebnik, a writer and co-executive producer of The Simpsons, wrote in The Wall Street Journal (gift link) about turning 60 and worrying that he was getting boring. I’m guessing he isn’t, but I admire his response to his fear: “I decided I would do 60 things I’d never done before.” 

When I recently turned 60, I realized with alarm that I was starting to see unmistakable signs from friends and colleagues that I was becoming—there’s no easy way to put this—boring. It was almost as if the same stories I had told a hundred times were no longer interesting to them. But what else was I supposed to talk about? It wasn’t like I had anything new and exciting to tell them.

That’s when it hit me: I didn’t have anything new and exciting to tell them. My life had gotten entrenched in routine. Calcified, if you will. I had stopped evolving, and I think we all know what happens then—like the dodo, you stop flying, get fat and Dutch sailors eat you on their voyage home.

I needed to figure out a way to turn this around. I vowed to take that big, upsetting number 60 and remake it into something positive: I decided I would do 60 things I’d never done before. Maybe that would force me to forge new neural pathways in the dog-eared map that was my brain.

Now maybe you don’t relate and are someone who’s constantly taking on new adventures. For the other 98% of us, read on for a primer in how to reclaim novelty and acquire some great stories along the way.

I began my journey with a set of rules. I vowed I would not do:

• Obvious midlife crisis things such as jumping out of a plane, driving a Ferrari on a racetrack or having a fling with a traveling saleswoman and/or Pete Davidson.

• Anything that would cause injury so that I couldn’t do the other 59 things on the list.