The 1 Thing I Was Missing at 50
When was the last time you were genuinely excited about being terrible at something? In this reflective episode, we explore a deceptively simple idea: that becoming a beginner again might be one of the best things we can do for ourselves as we age.
We trace the natural cycle we all lived as kids — trying, failing, experimenting without ego — and how that cycle quietly fades as we settle into predictable routines. By our fifties, those routines can feel like comfort, but they may also be quiet handcuffs on our creativity and curiosity. Drawing from a personal dive into content creation over the past two months — despite a lifelong belief of "I suck at technology" — this episode makes the case that the discomfort of not knowing is exactly what reignites energy.
Whether it's a harmonica, a fly rod, photography, a new language, or something entirely your own, the invitation is simple: pick one thing, give yourself a few weeks, and show up. The progress matters less than the renewed sense of aliveness you'll feel along the way.
Chapters:
- 00:00 — The Beginner's Cycle: Why we stopped trying new things (and why we should start again)
- 00:22 — The Trap of Routine: How predictable patterns limit us at 50+
- 01:06 — Learning Something New: A personal story of content creation and the thousand small problems worth solving
- 01:45 — Embracing the Discomfort: Why being bad at something is the whole point
- 02:32 — Your Turn to Begin: Pick one thing, give it a few weeks, and see what changes
And trust me when I say I know what it's like to make your own life difficult. Does your life feel like Groundhog Day on repeat? Welcome to the Eye of the Hurricane Podcast. When was the last time that you weren't very good at something, but actually you were super pumped up about? You know, we go back to when we were younger and there was this cycle that was constant as we learned and experimented with new things. But over time, we learned to stop doing that. So is it possible that making ourselves beginners again is one of the secrets to us feeling younger? So let's face it, when you're 50 plus, it's very easy to get caught up in this sedentary lifestyle when it comes to who we are, what we do, how we categorize ourselves. And what ends up happening is there's a predictable routine that oftentimes doesn't lend itself to us getting excited about too many things. So that predictable routine or pattern, it also creates handcuffs. And it creates handcuffs to our creativity and what we think we're capable of doing. And over time, it really limits us. So I started content creation about two months ago. It's been an uphill battle, but I've always told myself that I suck in technology, I suck in logistics because it's always been true and I've always hated those things. But what I've found through this creation process is I've had to solve a thousand small problems in the last 60 days. And every day I've woke up more excited than the day before about what I get to face and what I got to figure out because I'm learning something new. Now, if you thought I'd love to work on a particular skill, content creating may not even be on your radar, but maybe you want to learn to play the farmonica or learn how to cast a fly rod or explore photography, or we've always thought about learning that one language. You know, there's a million variations, but expanding what we know and what we're capable of can be an enormous shock environment from an energy perspective. The hardest part though, it's not usually learning the knee thing, it's getting uncomfortable and being bad at something again. You know, over time, most of us start avoiding anything we couldn't do well right away because we built those certain competencies over the course of the last 50 years. And it feels strange to give that up. So what's interesting is that in the early stage of kind of fumbling around and asking basic questions, that's what creates that new curiosity and energy. You know, it's like every small win adds up and it puts horror gas in your tank because you're seeing progress. So I certainly never dreamed I'd enjoy learning audio and video settings or knowing how to edit, but it's giving me something to look forward to on the weekends that my normal routine didn't provide. So here's what I'd ask: just think about if there was one thing that you've been curious about attacking for a while, but never made time to what would it be? It doesn't need to be big, it doesn't need to be connected to your career, and you definitely don't need to plan for where it's gonna go. Just pick something, just give yourself permission and commit a few leaks and show up and give it a hundred percent and see at the end of that time how you're feeling. Not exactly what your progress is, but see whether or not attacking something new and expanding all of a sudden gives you a renewed sense of energy. I can tell you it's done a lot for me. Hopefully, it's something that will help you as well. Go get it.