Embrace the uncomfortable
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Since my early twenties, I've looked at my older peers and tried to figure out why some stagnate and how others stay vibrant.

The answer is comfort.

Comfort breeds technical fossilization.

We find a system that works for us, and we stick with it.

But, technology advances, and those that stay in their comfort zone never realize the gains from these advances.

Practice becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Here's a list of things that might make you uncomfortable at first:

-    Switch to Dvorak.
-    Switch from emacs to vim or vice versa.
-    Stop using a mouse.
-    Use a different window manager.
-    Switch from cream and sugar to black coffee or straight tea.
-    Try out that "popular new piece of crap" for the full month.
-    Turn your cellphone off for one day a week.
-    Learn a one-handed input device.
-    Try a different OS.
-    Abstain from the internet for one day a week.
-    Try a dietary restriction: go vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free, etc.
-    Eat a food you don't like every day.
-    Put your dominant arm in a sling.
-    Learn to write with your non-dominant hand.
-    Start a blog.
-    Sign up for public speaking.
-    Listen to a kind of music you don't like for a month.
-    Volunteer at a hospital or retirement home.
-    Fast once a week.
-    Travel to a country with a different language and/or culture.
-    Read an acclaimed novel from a genre that you don't like.
-    Watch an acclaimed movie/show from a genre that you don't like.
-    Learn to drive stick.
-    Argue against something you believe.

After a month of doing something different, decide whether you want to keep doing things differently or whether there are ways to blend the best of the new and the old.

For instance, when I switched to vim after ten years of emacs, I set up the emacs-style key-bindings for insertion mode but kept vim.

Update: Reader Shae Erisson wrote to relay the "rule of 3" for embracing the uncomfortable: when a third person recommends you try something, you must try it.

He also provide a "15 minute rule": give something (such as a movie or TV show) the benefit of the doubt for 15 minutes. If you don't want to continue after 15 minutes, drop it.

I like both of these rules.