One of time’s few consolations is the clarity of aging. You know what you like and can pursue that. Self-knowledge narrows the list of authors to read, clothes to wear and cities to visit. Listen to the new Bill Callahan album (he’s looking good at 59!) and it’s the sound of man who knows exactly what needs, and it’s less than you think.

This newsletter makes the case for returning to places that matter to you. But I’m trying to balance those traditions with new ones. Too much self-assurance goes hand in hand with a sense of rigidity, something I’m susceptible to. You draw a line so many times you forget that you might want to step over it. Sometimes you wisely avoid what doesn’t suit you, but does that come at the expense of cutting yourself off from a worthwhile new experience?

This was on my mind because I was just on a 10-day fast in Spain at the Buchinger Wilhelmi clinic. The first time I did this, just over a year ago, was with a healthy amount of skepticism (and to write a story for Esquire). It turned out so well I returned on my own. The fast was the main event, naturally, but while I was there, I tried to engage more. I came out of tennis retirement, I even, gasp, took my first pilates lesson (and then a second).

It’s safe to say there was a healthy amount of idiocy involved. The forehand is a little erratic and let’s stay my Pilates form is….sub-optimal. But I plowed through. The environment at Buchinger, isolated in a good sense, encourages open-mindedness. I was aware how much harder it is to be this way in New York. A new environment makes it easier, at least for me, to start at the bottom.

This is part of a pattern. I’ve been making an effort to embrace new traditions: attending SEC football games and the horse races with my friends at Tom Beckbe, going to the ballet, salmon fishing in Canada. It can take an effort to add something new to the calendar, then you can’t imagine how you lived without it.

There’s an incredible Sheila Heti piece in Granta about her experience with psychedelic-assisted therapy set against her approaching fiftieth birthday. She’s such a brilliant, open writer, and she addresses trying something that’s feels unsafe and is against her nature. There’s a lot to connect to in her story, whether you’re doing LSD or not.

Now don’t worry, this sense of openness does not mean I’m going to embrace athleisure, reality television or selfie culture. We still have to honor our foundational principles here. A little inventory ushers in the new and maybe ushers out some habits it’s time to graduate from. Maybe it’s fewer martinis, a year away from Pitti or less time breathlessly following a sport (you’d be surprised how much time appears when you take a season away from your team).

These things don’t happen in a straight line—what does? But I am trying to loosen the grip on my own conventional wisdom. It’s a chance to reassess what’s worth keeping in heavy rotation. I suspect that’s true for other people as well. With an open mind you might find that you can still surprise yourself.