You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

People love the adage “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” whenever an old(er) person cannot or will not change or learn something new. This belief that older people stop learning or changing is all powerful in American life. For this reason, advertising, and thus most media, stop targeting consumers after age 49, so if you’re 50+, I guess you’re irrelevant, stuck in your ways, and over the hill.

I beg to disagree! Sure, some older people don’t like change and do stop learning, but I know some younger people who aren’t too willing to learn or accept changes, either. I believe that open-minded people of all ages can learn new tricks and that the main issue is not whether to change, but how to change.

To clarify, I’m not just talking about major life changes here. Many of us know people who have reinvented themselves in a big way. Perhaps they moved to a new city or changed careers mid-life. Maybe someone you know decided to live abroad or adopt a child or go extremely minimal and live in a tiny house. These are huge changes and require a good amount of adjustment and dedication. However, I believe the smaller, daily lifestyle changes we wish to make can be even more challenging. Living a simpler life is all about the daily lifestyle habits we incorporate into our lives.

So how can we change, regardless of age? The book, Better Than Before, by Gretchen Rubin provides multiple strategies for doing just that: “One answer —by using habits. Habits are the invisible architecture of daily life. We repeat about 40 percent of our behavior almost daily, so habits shape our existence, and our future. If we change our habits, we change our lives.”

How is this book about habits different from all other books about habits? To begin with, it is well-researched and does not promise quick and easy changes (no “Change your life/job/body in 30 days or less!”). It also recognizes that there is no one way that motivates all people. It’s crucial to know thyself. Rubin categorizes how people respond to motivation into four main groups: Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, and Rebels. You are probably a little bit of all these types, but there is one dominant tendency.

How you go about forming your habits depends a great deal on the kind of person you are – there is no “one size fits all” method. Rubin discusses many strategies to help form habits, including suggestions about which strategies may work better for your tendency. Are you an Abstainer (all or nothing) or Moderator (moderation)? Do you respond well to Monitoring? Scheduling? Rewards? Some of these strategies may not be new to you, but perhaps you couldn’t quite put your finger on why one strategy worked for you in the past and another did not. This book will give you the tools to move forward.

I know I’m an Obliger, which is why monitoring works well for me. I want to be an Abstainer but deep down, I realize that I should just accept I’m a Moderator and get on with it. I’m a reluctant exerciser, but since I began pairing podcasts with my walks, I actually look forward to exercising. I use the same pairing if I’m decluttering or cleaning for longer periods.

Another informative book on change is Atomic Habits by James Clear. His book approaches habit-making in a different way from Rubin (though they overlap in content). Clear writes about the four “laws” to make a habit: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying. To break habits, you would do the reverse. He discusses each of these in more detail and gives plenty of examples. Every chapter wraps up with a bulleted summary, a big plus for reviewing in the future.

I’m a habit-former in progress, but at least I’m trying to learn some new tricks. And for the record, my senior dog Rosie was able to learn a few new tricks in her old age too.

RESOURCES

Babauta, Leo Essential Zen Habits: Mastering the Art of Change,The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life, The Little Book of Contentment

Zen Habits (blog)

Becker, JoshuaThe More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own Simplify

Becoming Minimalist (blog)

Clear, James Atomic Habits

Malik, Justin Optimal Living Daily, Optimal Finance Daily, Optimal Health Daily (podcasts)

Millburn, Joshua Fields and Ryan Nicodemus (aka The Minimalists): Essential: Essays by The Minimalists,

Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life

The Minimalists Podcast and their blog The Minimalists

No Sidebar

Oxenreider, Tsh Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living