I spent some of last week trying to get back into a kayak after snorkelling.
Not gracefully. I was all arms, legs, and swearwords. I still have blisters on my hands from paddling and at one point I found myself apologising to my kayak. But not to my wife who was laughing from the front seat.
I also used the cool of the early mornings for trail running, which is a generous description of what my legs were doing on very uneven and hilly ground. And sailing, where the skipper immediately told me not to touch any of the ropes and just to sit still and be quiet. Nice fella.
These bits of my holidays were not relaxing in the traditional sense. But they did give me a much needed change of pace.
When I sat down at my desk on Monday, work felt unfamiliar. Not in a bad way; in the way a room looks different after you’ve tidied up and rearranged the furniture. I’ve been noticing things I’d stopped noticing. And I’m questioning decisions I’d left on autopilot.
I think that’s what the unusual holiday stuff did to me. Doing different stuff recalibrates your brain. Spending a week as a newbie makes expertise feel more elusive. And that’s always a good thing.
Experience is a blind spot. The cure, it seems, is falling into the sea.
What’s the most unfamiliar thing you’ve done recently that made the familiar feel new again?
