The Real Takeaways: Why have them regularly, have them often, and have as much as you like

An older blog entry which is as true today as it was back then.

I am pretty sure that after reading the headline, you might think I‘m crazy. “Agne”, you‘ll say, “I hate to break it to you, but takeaways can’t possibly be good for you! All of this fast food is clogging your arteries and is making you fat!”. And you know what I would tell you? That you‘re God Damn Right.
Having takeaways is the worst thing you can do to yourself, because even if we skip the health reasons, if you‘re not having a good food experience, you just waste your precious time on ordering, waiting, and hating the food, wishing you cooked at home in the first place. But then you might ask me – why such a headline? And to that, my friends, there is a very simple answer. I am not talking about food takeaways; stay as far away from that as possible, kids. I’m talking about different kinds of takeaways. The best kind of Takeaways. Experience Takeaways.

Now, experience takeaways might not be the most technically correct term or the most popular way to describe it, but it’s the way I prefer to see it. Whenever you go somewhere, whether it is a place or a seminar, or whenever you engage in any of the new or old activities, you are left with things you take away - memories, feelings, thoughts, skills, experiences, and ideas.

Some of them might be of low value (e.g. if you are taking the same route to work for the 1000th of time and you‘re in zombie mode, scrolling or mindless activities), but some events leave you with a bag full of exciting stuff which you will recap in your head over and over again. The memories that you will cherish forever. The thoughts that will make you reconsider your life choices. Experiences that will make you start new projects and improve existing ones. Experience takeaways will for sure improve your quality of life and make you grow as a person. And that is the pure reason why I love them and recommend you have them as often as possible.

Now If you‘re into self-development, you‘re probably sick of seeing Albert Einstein‘s quote everywhere, stating that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. You probably just glance at it, and after nodding your head and mumbling “yeah yeah, I know..” go back to your routine scrolling. However, whether we want to admit it or not, he is absolutely right. We all do have our routines, and sometimes we have so much mundane everyday stuff to do that it’s very possible to go days without anything new and exciting happening in our lives. And it not only makes us bored, but it also makes us stagnant and makes us enjoy life just a little bit less. Which means that you‘re not learning as much as you could, and by default, without learning, you don’t know what you’re missing out on – quicker, simpler solutions, or just your new favorite things.

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Therefore, I have a little challenge for you. Now don’t worry, I‘m not going to make you go to the Grand Canyon and do a bungee jump over there (although it would be a hell of an experience). I want you to start with something simple, especially if you don’t have much time on your hands. Just try to change everyday actions to shake your routine a little bit, do things a little bit more differently.

For example, take a walk instead of getting a bus. Try new dishes you‘ve never tried before. Instead of watching another series, work on these things you always dreamed of. Even cleaning your teeth with a different hand would make your brain wonder what’s happening. Anything that would wake you up out of auto mode and make you think again. And if you have more spare time (if you don‘t, make it, it‘s a must), go for something bigger. Go meet new people. Try new sports or activities that you thought you would never try. Go to a seminar to expand your knowledge on a specific subject or problem. Go to Peru or Japan instead of going to the beach again. The list of things to do is endless.

And I‘m not suggesting doing all these things just for fun (although it will still be lots of fun). There are more beneficial and selfish reasons here. You see, when you do something new, you create new neural connections in your brain, which makes your brain network grow wider and faster. So you learn quicker, you think of solutions faster, and you get more things done. And who doesn‘t want to be more efficient and have more time on their hands? I certainly do!

As for the selfish reasons… I just like seeing people happy. So if more people smile because they‘ve just tried piano lessons for the first time, or they just felt happier even for a minute, it fills up my happiness tank, which means I can radiate more positive energy. Totally selfish, I know.

So do us both a favor. Don‘t just go for what you‘re used to, or choose the same leisure activities. Try to bring new winds to your life. Go ahead, you‘re perfectly fine to have that Experience takeaway and devour it with no shame. I won’t judge. Just rewire that brain of yours. Who knows, you might be the next genius of the century!

I’m curious to know, what experience takeaway are you going to have next?