New Experiences
The older you get the more it seems as though your days merge into one long day. Over the years, you have developed a series of dislikes and likes, you think you have a good handle on what makes you happy, you can still experience childlike wonder when you experience something new that you feel passionate about.
But it gets more difficult to experience new things. Here’s the thing, when you learn everything you can and aim to constantly broaden your horizons, you will learn much more about yourself. Learning helps you move beyond fear, it helps you improve self-awareness, it helps you improve yourself. It’s an investment in yourself.
You have likely heard influential people encourage you to do just that, to broaden your horizons. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a family member, or your favorite celebrity stopping by to sit on a late-night talk show couch.
It’s something you have heard over and over and for a long time, you probably rolled your eyes… what does that even mean? The older we get the more it seems to fall into place as an important lesson you have long overlooked.
If you want a definition for the term to broaden your horizons, then it is simple. All it means is experiencing or learning about things you never have. It means opening your mind to other’s opinions and new ideas. There are probably millions of ways for you to broaden your horizons, though some are easier and more common.
The most common, of course, is through travel. What better way to broaden your horizons than to step out of your comfort zone and zip code? As great as travel is for broadening your horizons, it’s not affordable for everyone and that shouldn’t hold you back from expanding your horizons. You can travel your state if you have a small budget, but you have other options.
You can use travel as a metaphor and broaden your horizons by visiting the experiences and ideas that we pick up from traveling. For example, taking a French cooking class, trying cuisine from different countries whether it’s using new recipes or ordering from the nearest restaurant. Perhaps you can travel to the wider area where you live. Or learn a new language. Read up about a country you have always wanted to visit, learn about their history, culture, and customs. Take a creative writing class that allows you to build your own worlds! You can travel without leaving the comfort of your own home.
No matter what way you choose to broaden your horizons, there is likely a need for courage. It takes courage to dive out of an airplane. Unless you have food issues, trying a new restaurant with a friend doesn’t require all that much courage.
But it can be scary if it’s something you have never experienced. When you join a new class, you could try sitting next to new people every week, you are constantly broadening your horizons within the context of broadening your horizons.
There are just some tasks that are easier than others, that’s the way of life. However, if you do the smallest of these on a daily basis, you are constantly pushing yourself. You can make time for the big ones as often as possible.
Ultimately, no matter how big or small the task you choose is, you are required to leave your comfort zone in order to achieve it. And as we all know, sometimes leaving our comfort zone is the hardest thing to do.
It might seem intimidating, it might seem scary, especially when we spend so much time trying to conform to everyone else. Start small. To gear up and get ready for it, I want you to remember how it felt the last time you enjoyed something new and it went really well and felt thrilling. Remember how nervous you felt beforehand, but how incredible you felt after.
Life moves so quickly and the word won’t stop turning and in a place of chaos where time seems to move quicker than before you have to accelerate your personal growth. The only way to do that is to invest in yourself, learn everything you can, and broaden your horizons. Let’s take a look at how!
16 Ways To Learn And Broaden Your Horizons
1| Tourist Time
If you don’t have the time or money to explore the world, you can start your tourist journey much closer to home. Start with your own city but view it as a tourist would. Think of the art galleries, museums, and amusement parks closest to you.
The places you would go in your youth but haven’t bothered to revisit because you’ve done it before. It’s time to revisit those hotspots and embrace your city through new eyes. When was the last time you went? Probably when someone visited from out of town.
As a teenager, we entertained a lot of guests from abroad and every visit resulted in getting dragged around every tourist hotspot across the area (and there were a lot of them). I stopped visiting those places as an adult. When I revisited one of them recently, I was bowled over by what I saw. I was retracing old steps, but looking at everything through new eyes, and in doing so I was broadening my horizons.
Plan your weekends to visit some of the most popular places around town. When you finish everything in your city, move onto the next city or another part of the state or a neighboring state. There’s nothing wrong with traveling abroad or dreaming of doing so, but we often forget about all of the experiences on our doorstep. This is your opportunity to explore your own culture and get to know the history and sights of your environment.
2| Explore A New Genre
What type of music do you generally listen to? There are so many different artists to explore, but if you have been locked in on country for decades it’s time to explore outside of that. You will probably find there are a lot of genres you enjoy, you just haven’t taken the chance to listen because you like what you like and you’ve stuck to it. If you use an app like Spotify, it will sum up your listening habits for the year.
It will tell you how many new artists you have listened to, how many different artists you heard, and the number of genres you explored, too. It makes for fascinating data and it’s a great way for you to see how far you pushed yourself out of your comfort zone. There is also the bonus of easily browsing a variety of genres and compilation playlists to get a taste of many related artists.
My daily playlist jumps from country to bubblegum pop to EDM to rap, hardcore punk, rock, indie, and even classical. I listened to almost 200 new artists in 2020, over 200 genres, and explored over 100 new genres.
The more you explore the more you find to enjoy. My top performing genres? Pop, country, rock, classical, and punk. I love music so I love exploring new artists, genres, and I think it’s one of the greatest ways to broaden your horizons. Don’t stop at English-speaking artists either, branch out even further. If you happen to be learning a new language, start with musicians who sing in it.
So, look out for live events in your area and explore new music as often as you can.
3| Health And Happiness
Your mind will thrive when you engage it. If you want to find health and happiness, then you need to seek out new, exciting activities. This is hugely beneficial to you as a whole, but especially as you mature and improve. If you live an incredibly busy, professional life, then you need a hobby completely unconnected to your professional side.
Some people cannot cope with being ‘idle’ and if that describes you, you need an activity that provides you with relaxation and action. Think of activities that stimulate your mind, like art appreciation.
If you want something to benefit your mind and your body, then consider a physical activity like a sport. If it’s something entirely new to you and you’re afraid of looking foolish, be sure to choose a physical activity where you are surrounded by people at the same level. You don’t have to be perfect, it’s about having fun and enjoying the activity just because.
4| Learn A Language
Have you ever wished you were bilingual? Or, even trilingual? Me too. There are plenty of free apps out there you can use to learn a new language and there are a lot of languages to choose from! If you want to ensure you take it seriously, enlist an accountability partner to join you on your journey.
Someone that will encourage you to do your daily lesson and someone you can speak to and chat with in that language to practice and bolster your skills.
Listen to music in that language, watch television programs and movies in that language using the subtitles to enforce it. Learn more about the country, explore the culture, and push yourself to learn something new in the language every day.
5| Explore Hobbies
Could you make a list of your hobbies and easily identify when you last engaged in them? We have this nasty little habit of listing off hobbies and activities we enjoy and then realizing it’s been years since we last actually practiced any of them.
Time tends to get away from us when life gets in the way. Think about a sport, artistic bent, or other activity you have always wanted to explore, but you never got the chance to as a child (or an adult). That might be exactly where to start, whether it’s a beginner’s jazz tap class, a bowling league, or even
If it’s something that takes a bit of talent, you can start with an online course to learn the basics before you branch out to join a proper class. If it’s fun, then it’s not a waste of your time. The entire point of hobbies and activities is that you enjoy them. The things you do with your spare time should bring you joy.
6| Redecorate
There has been a lot of conversation over the years about the link between psychology and interior design, specifically when it comes to colors. All over the world, police officers are often found in navy blue. The most intimidating soccer teams wear red. Hospitals are white, fast food outlets use reds, oranges, and yellows.
Have you ever done a bit of research into the colors you have used throughout your home? Have you tried to use colors to influence your mood and mindset? You don’t have to be an interior designer to explore the meaning behind different color choices.
Broaden your horizons by exploring the psychology behind colors and using it in your own interior design to give your mood a boost! There’s something powerful about redecorating, especially when it’s been a while.
7| Make Positive Change
There are all types of positive changes you can make in your life, but in this case, what I’m talking about is your diet. The food you eat fuels your body and mind. It influences your health. It can change your sleep pattern. It impacts the way you feel. So, I’m not talking about going on a diet. What I’m talking about is reassessing your dietary choices and making some tweaks to ensure you have a healthy lifestyle.
Pay attention to the foods you choose to eat daily. What impact do those foods have on your mind and body? What could you choose instead? Could you survive without eating those unhealthy options?
Take a look at the nutritional value of the food you buy and eat. Think about how much water you drink versus how much you should drink.
Make it your business to know what you’re putting in your body because the more you learn everything you can about it the better placed you will be to make better decisions. You don’t have to push your limits to eat better because this isn’t about following a restrictive diet, it’s about making wiser decisions.
Since you’re learning everything you can, you might as well take this opportunity to expand your horizons and try new fruits and vegetables when you see them appear in your local supermarket. There’s always something random making an appearance, don’t just stare at it making a face. Buy it and try it!
8| Take It In-Depth
How you choose to approach this learning project is entirely up to you. However, why not start with a topic of discussion that interests you, but you don’t have an in-depth knowledge of it? Use the internet to research it. Make it your business to know everything you can possibly know. Just be sure to use reliable sources to gain that learning or you could end up achieving the opposite of your intention.
Alternatively, take a subject that you do know a lot about it and do some research into how you can express your opinion differently, whether it’s using different vocabulary or coming at it from a different angle.
What’s the point of this? Well, have you ever been to a social event and heard yourself talking about a topic you love and realized how dull it makes you sound? The other person might not find it dull, but you realize you’ve been wittering on uninterrupted for so long that you suddenly want the ground to open up and swallow you.
You question your level of engagement and compare yourself to other guests who share witty stories, cover interesting topics, and you feel out of your depth. Whether it’s true or not, it can make you feel awkward.
By finding a different way to express your interest in a subject you do two things. Firstly, you indulge your passion for the topic and gain an even deeper knowledge of it. Secondly, you learn to think and see it differently and by addressing the way you discuss it and even how you think about it and interact with it.
You shouldn’t compare yourself to others, though, it’s pointless. Especially, when this is something that you can control and you can take it into your own hands.
Next up, think about a common topic of conversation that you aren’t particularly well-versed in. It should be a topic your nearest and dearest often broach and you sit back and clam up when it comes up.
Maybe it’s something you’re not interested in or you are interested, but you know everyone knows a lot about it and you’re afraid to look foolish by chipping in. Read up on it and make yourself comfortable with every angle of the conversation and with the arguments that you have heard your friends/family make.
Now, your final goal on the subject is to learn five new words a day. Ideally, those words will be related to the subject that you’re working on at the time. Make sure they stick by taking notes on what they mean, how they can be used in a sentence, the context of their use, and make it interesting by learning a bit about their etymology too.
9| Random Reading
Just like I encouraged you to get out of your comfort zone when it comes to your musical tastes, it’s also wise to broaden your reading horizons! If you only ever read autobiographies, branch out by reading a romance novel! If you only ever read crime thrillers, try to embrace a psychology book or two.
There are so many different genres of books out there and you would be surprised what you might enjoy. The trouble is it’s difficult to know where to start. I’m going to help you with that.
You have two options. If you use social media, then sign up for a Goodreads account and link it. You will start getting regular updates from Goodreads about what your friends are reading and you can explore some new reading material that way.
Or you can take a more direct route and simply ask the readers in your friends and family for recommendations. You could also just ask them to lend you one of their favorite reads and do the same for them in return.
Whatever you do, don’t make suggestions, don’t tell them what themes you prefer, or the genres you normally read, just trust them with the choice.
10| Random Viewing
Continuing with the same theme, we tend to watch the same type of content and rarely break out of it even when certain programs take the world by storm. I, for one, have never seen a single episode of Game of Thrones and I have no interest in the fantasy genre whatsoever. I have had friends tell me repeatedly that I would love it and I have never once been tempted to watch it. I simply don’t have the time to get tied up with such a backlog of content. I do, however, listen to other recommendations. I enjoy viewing things my friends enjoy and think, for whatever reason, that I would also get a kick out of. It’s also a good way to get out of my viewing comfort zone and explore a bit.
Ask some of your friends and family what favorite movies, shows, and documentaries are streaming, and make a list of those you would never normally watch. You might not learn a lot about a particular subject, but you might learn something about your friends.
It might not be an educational piece of media, but it can enlighten you about different types of content. Or perhaps it will simply spark your creativity and get those juices flowing.
Finally, why not try some foreign content? Choose the shows or movies that remain in their original language and offer subtitles. This is especially useful if you are learning a new language. There is content from all over the world on most streaming services so it’s more attainable than ever before.
You just need to change the language settings. If you’re learning Spanish, you can choose from Elite, Cable Girls, Money Heist, The House of Flowers. Dark is available if you’re learning German, The Rain if you’re into Danish, and Norway’s Home for the Holidays offers two seasons of holiday goodness.
11| A Page A Day
Whether you have encyclopedias around the house or you need to take it online, choose a random page to read daily. Choose science, literature, philosophy, religion, geography, history, or anything you would like to learn more about. It doesn’t take much time to read a page a day and you can read more if you like but aim for that first page and work on consistency.
If you have room in your book budget, there are plenty of ‘devotional’ style books that provide you a page of history (or other subjects) to read a day. They’re not dated, simply marked with a day of the week so you can start them at any point. David S. Kidder and Noah Oppenheim released a series of Intellectual Devotionals covering American History, Cultured Class, the World’s Greatest Personalities and Wellness.
12| Deeper Conversation
You don’t have to be sitting face to face to have a deep conversation with someone you love. You can use video chats, texts, emails, or even a phone call! So old-fashioned, right? Sometimes learning everything you can about a friend and what’s been going on in their life, is a way of broadening your horizons. We build empathy when we actively listen to others share their lives, problems, and joy. Don’t be afraid to continue building those relationships as a bid to expand your horizons.
You can also take things a step further by engaging with the children in your lives, whether they’re your own or nieces and nephews. There is nothing more illuminating than having a conversation with the younger generations.
They’re the most curious among us and because they are constantly learning, they have a lot to share whether we realize it or not. They also tend to ask an awful lot of questions, so you might just learn something about yourself under the interrogation of a mini adult.
13| Cultivate Your Curiosity
I just encouraged you to engage with children to enjoy their curiosity now it’s your turn. It’s time for you to cultivate your curiosity. In doing so, you learn everything you can and broaden your horizons.
Get curious about the way things work – what makes the water come on when you turn the tap, how do roller coasters move, what goes into the making of a smartphone, how does everything fit together to make a television work? Whatever it is, you should never be content with the things you already know, you should always look to learn more.
Another part of cultivating curiosity is constantly challenging your beliefs. What is one belief you hold that you know attracts debate? Go and read up on the debate. Don’t just choose opinions of people you dislike, it’s easier to dig in and dismiss those conversations.
Choose reliable sources, well-regarded voices, and even ask friends their opinions. It doesn’t mean you should change your belief at the end of it, but you should at least interrogate the why behind your steadfast belief. If you do change your beliefs, that’s great! It’s not a weakness, it’s a superpower.
Do you know what highly intelligent people do when they come across something they don’t know? They seek the answer.
Do you know people with less intelligence do when they come across something they don’t know? They often pretend they do know it because they are convinced their lack of knowledge is a shameful thing.
A lack of knowledge isn’t shameful unless you refuse to grow. It’s okay if you don’t know things. It’s not okay if you never bother to know things.
14| Strategize
Playing games might not seem like a learning opportunity or a way to broaden your horizons, but it certainly is if you choose the right games. For example, chess is great if you would like to improve your critical thinking.
Playing poker with company can help you improve your empathy because it’s all about watching the nonverbal cues of other players. Charades can help you improve your communication skills because it forces you to use body language over your verbal skills. Even a game like Sims had its benefits, it’s a great way to indulge your creative side whether it’s in creating a Sim or building a masterpiece of a home.
15| New Routines
Routines are nice, they are comfortable. They help us manage our time more efficiently because with our brain running on autopilot for so many tasks, it frees us its power to be used as you deem necessary.
But it’s important to change things up from time to time and create new routines too. Instead of rolling over to turn your alarm off and immediately open social media, why not get up and head for a shower immediately. Enjoy coffee and breakfast while you read something useful, listen to a podcast, or watch a documentary. Take a completely different route to work and explore your area instead of always sticking to the same parts of town. Eat lunch outside. Hey, have dessert before dinner! Mix things up a little and broaden your horizons.
16| Miscellaneous
Explore in the kitchen by trying out new foods and new recipes. It isn’t just getting a bit of culture and broadening your tastebud’s horizons. It’s also an opportunity for you to learn more about the food you put on your table.
Where did those tomatoes come from? How about your avocados? How far did these products travel to make it onto the local produce department you shopped? What type of processes do farmers use to harvest them? There’s plenty you can learn.
If you happen to realize that much of your produce travels from far and wide, perhaps it’s time to determine what you can start growing in your very own vegetable garden. Some things, such as fruit trees, take years to produce fruit, but herbs like cilantro, vegetables like peppers, and fruits like tomatoes are all fairly quick to produce the goods.
They also taste much better when you grow them at home. Even if you don’t want to build an edible garden, gardening is fun. So, perhaps you would prefer flowers and plants. There is little more satisfying than seeing a seed you planted grow. It’s great for relieving stress, it will boost your mood, and you are going to learn a lot about soil quality, how the weather influences certain plants, and so much more!
If you want to learn everything you can and broaden your horizons, then you have to start by trying. And there’s a good chance you will fail. The more you try, the more you will fail, but ultimately, that’s part of the human process.
That’s the beauty of life and though you may fail miserably and often, you live and you learn. With every failure you experience, you have a fresh opportunity to learn everything you can and certainly, with failure comes the chance to broaden your horizons.
Don’t underestimate your ability to learn, just start investing in yourself.
