I've always thought it's important to learn something significant in each decade of life. In my 20s I started teaching and doing long-distance bicycling trips. In my 30s I moved from NYC to Alaska, and started doing mountain rescue work. In my 40s I started writing and learned to drive a boat on the ocean. That was intimidating in a fishing town, where it feels like everyone else has known how to drive a boat since they were three years old.

In my 50s I hope to learn a musical instrument, although that's a couple years away so who knows what's in store then.

Learning something new keeps us young and humble, and engaged. It also connects us with people outside our current bubble. People talk about our minds becoming less elastic as we age, but that's offset by practice at learning new things. I do think it's good to learn things with some element of risk from time to time; it's part of what keeps us sharp, and forces us to evaluate our own competency level.

What are you interested in learning?