why we try new things... sort of

So I've been thinking about what makes us (as human beings) try new things; or more importantly, what makes us like new things. One example that comes to mind is food. It’s fairly innocuous, but maybe there is some insight into deeper motives that drive trying and liking something new. We all probably fall somewhere on a continuum ranging from “I always eat food I know I like” on one end, to “I always try new foods.” What makes us willing or unwilling (or somewhere in between) to try new things? I think trying new things, like food, is a function of habit—a result of a basic part of how we define ourselves.
The way we see ourselves has been defined as our self-concept. Our insight into why we have the self-concept that we do is called self-awareness. The way we feel about what we are (self-concept) and why we are (self-awareness), is called self-esteem. The three together make up what we call, predictably, the Self. So these terms are just a way of simplifying complicated concepts that already exist, like naming some new spider in the rainforest that we didn’t know was out there; we didn’t make it, just named it. This is important because this is just one way of trying to understand the Self, and ultimately, improve ourselves.
Anyway, getting back to how this might relate to our willingness or unwillingness to try new things… it seems like people tend to look for balance within the Self. In other words, we like to maintain a balance between each what we are, why we are, and how we feel about it. This seems to me to be fairly universal. If I see myself as a person who does not like to try new foods, and I know that I order the same things in restaurants because I like predictability, and I feel good about that, I probably won’t change. Similarly, if I see myself as a person who likes to try new things, and I know that it is because I am willing to take the chance not liking my meal in order to find something I like a lot, then I likely feel positively toward myself, and won’t change. A person who sees themselves as spontaneous—and likes it, is not likely to want to change that equilibrium; so being spontaneous makes us predictable, just as being predictable makes us… predictable.
Predictably, change cannot occur unless we shift our focus from maintaining equilibrium in the Self, to making a change in one of the Self’s three parts. This scares us because, like dominos, a shift in one causes a shift in the others. This is where thoughts, actions, and feelings come in. We think incremental change can be made by adjusting either our thoughts or our actions; feelings seem to be more of an involuntary response to these two. Lets continue to use ‘trying new food’ as our example. Say I don’t like to try new foods, but I want to change that; I can do one of a two things: 1) change my actions (behavior), or 2) change my thoughts (cognition), and the way I feel about the change will be automatic.
I’m going to have to finish this later, but I’ll get to using associations with the familiar in order to make small jumps, slight adjustments and low-risk shifts in the Self that maintain maximum equilibrium—I think this is how we all work. Watch for new posts.