For many of us, being comfortable is one of our paramount goals. We like our routines, we like the known and we—more often than not—eschew truly new experiences. The phrase “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t” shows that, even with pain and bad circumstances, we’d prefer an expected quantity to one that we can’t foresee. Why? Fear. We fear that which we do not know. On some level, we fear leaving the safety of the known for the possible consequence of that we’ve never done, whether it’s pain, failure, discomfort, difficulty or what have you.
But it’s good for us to break out of that fear, to beat it back and overcome it. While trying something new and unknown is inherently risky, the rewards can be great! Variety is the spice of life, right? And a little spice can be nice. I would argue that breaking up our own monotonies and investing time in something other than the same old, same old has the potential to truly broaden not only our worldview but our happiness.
And a safe, comfortable life, I think, is not truly the highest achievement for which we should aim. As one of my favorite quotations puts it, “Ships in harbor are safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”
So maybe I’ve convinced you it’s good to try new things. That doesn’t have to mean you commit to writing a full-length fantasy novel by next week. New doesn’t necessarily translate into extreme. But push the boundaries of your comfort. Take up something you’ve always had an interested in but were afraid to try. Maybe write a little poetry or a short story from a perspective you’ve never explored. Even changing something small within something else you like will get you started. Read a different genre of book, work in a space that’s outside the norm for you, make a word-count or vocabulary challenge for yourself. Go crazy with it. Or don’t. Just do something a little different. Either way, I think you’ll find it interesting at the very least.
And when someone asks you if you want to do something you’ve never done, don’t give a knee-jerk “no,” but think about just doing it. Don’t expect it to change your life. Just don’t expect it to ruin it either. Go for it, and have some fun! And afterward, maybe you decide to never do it again. Maybe you hated it. But you’ll know, and you’ll have the experience. And, you’ll have proven to yourself that you are not stuck in that safety bubble of yours. You can pop out of it from time to time, and hey, maybe you’ll even find something that brings you more joy than you’d imagined.
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