Can an old dog learn new tricks? If you believe the cliché, old dogs can’t learn new tricks. But, as I approach my older dog years, I think, How on earth is this cliché serving me?

I can state with a solid degree of certainty one specific circumstance when an old dog absolutely can’t learn a new trick, and that’s when the dog is scared to learn a new trick. But I’d like to argue that if an old dog wants to learn a new trick, and wants to learn that new trick bad enough, that dog is absolutely capable of working through that fear to learn any new trick they want to learn.

An easy place to get caught up in this cliché is with the word “new.” “New trick” means something is going to change, and change is scary. But is change always scary, Team? It’s really not. But if I constantly tell myself I don’t like change, I’m going to fight it every time. And my life is going to stay very small, and possibly very boring.

Many years ago, I was introduced to the mindset that I could choose to have faith in everything that came my way. Ok, this sounds lovely, but how does someone who has been taught to fear change in almost every form, morph into someone who invites change? Trust. The way I went from a person of fear to a person of faith was by realizing that I didn’t have to like change to trust it.

Team, if I want to enrich my life, it might mean learning a new trick. Now, I can welcome change more easily because I trust that while it might be uncomfortable in the beginning, it’s going to enhance my life in the long run.

Listen, I get that starting something new isn’t always fun. And I understand that some changes can feel terrifying, and others completely overwhelming. But I can start really, really slowly. I can give myself a ton of compassion. I can remember that every trick I’ve learned has taken time, but it feels so, so good once I’ve learned it. And I don’t know about you, but it impresses the crap out of me to witness older people learning new tricks. As a matter of fact, the older the woman or man, the more impressed I am that they’re still open to living. That’s the kind of dog I want to be.

And hey Team, if you don’t have faith in you, please know that I have faith in you. Let’s support one another in learning new tricks. Please share in the comment section of my website, below the text from this post, what new trick you’re learning or hoping to learn. We’d love to be inspired by you!

Next week, we’re going to be chatting about making mistakes. Is it easy to make mistakes around you? More on that later, but until then—thanks for listening!