I am one of those people who can be a bit of a hermit. I know what I like, don’t like and what I’m comfortable doing.

It is always a challenge when I first push myself outside my comfort zone, but it is usually always so rewarding.

And the three areas I’m going to talk about today are social, work and athletic.

Let’s start with the easy one — athletically.

I’ve never considered myself an athletic person really. I was like the only one in my family that really did sports growing up, and I wasn’t ever really on varsity.

But being an adult and having more control over what you do is a great thing. And I’ve been able to discover different things that I love.

You’re probably aware that I didn’t really get into running until just last summer. Michael challenged me to run a marathon, and I thought what the heck, why not. So, I trained for a ran a marathon.

Through that I also discovered trail running. I’ve always enjoyed going on hikes and walks, but trail running is so much fun. Plus, I think I prefer it over just regular running.

Also last summer I decided to give a sprint triathlon a try, even though I hadn’t been training for one (outside my marathon training), but I wanted a new challenge, was bored with just running, and felt in decent shape.

The challenge for my with doing triathlons is that I’m not the most efficient swimmer. Like I’m not going to drown, but I feel so slow.

But at a certain point you just realize, what’s the worse that’s going to happen? I’m going to have to get pulled out of the water? Or maybe backstroke?

Who cares?

I did my second sprint triathlon around a month ago, and I have not been running or training for anything currently, so I’m not in as good of shape as last summer.

But I know what my body is capable of, and I was pretty sure that I could push myself through it.

Once again I was nervous about the swim, and like 30 seconds into starting the race I thought, shit, I might have to get pulled out of the water.

But I kept pushing myself, let go of feeling embarrassed and did the back stroke, and made it through the swim.

There’s something I like about deciding to do a random tri without training. But maybe one of these days I will train for one.

Work is another area that I find myself challenged in, but that’s a huge positive for me. I think I would get bored if I didn’t keep stretching myself, and pushing further and further.

It was outside my comfort to start a YouTube channel, but look where that got me.

It was outside my comfort zone to create a website, courses, to coach women about how to chart their menstrual cycles. But I wouldn’t be where I am without that.

I was outside my comfort zone to do my first sponsored video, to talk to others about “what I did for work”.

But looking back those steps seem so easy.

And I try to remind myself of that when I’m facing my next challenge, whatever area of my life that is in.

What’s something outside your comfort zone you’ve challenged yourself to, and how did you go about it?