When I started this blog, it was all about comfort zone challenges. I ate a whole lemon, went vegan for a week, and threw out three quarters of my wardrobe.
On one day, I tried only using my left hand. It was hard and mostly inefficient, but today, eight years later, I still turn my socks inside out with my non-dominant hand as a result. For the 100 activities that didn’t work as well as they usually do, this one actually worked better.
That’s one reason why, occasionally, silly little challenges make sense even when they don’t: You never know what you will find. Just like we can literally swap seats for a change in perspective, we can swap hands for a change in experience. It might not be the experience you were looking for, but it might be the one you need.
Since that time, I’ve done many comfort zone challenges, most of them less physically challenging but a lot more spiritually meaningful. That’s another reason why tiny dares matter: They give us the courage to dare bigger and bolder.
Brush your teeth with your weak hand. Take the passenger seat instead of the wheel. Say something you wouldn’t normally say, and watch what happens. Shake your snow globe before it falls off the shelf, and by the time a real storm hits, you’ll be slightly more prepared. Never seasoned, but always ready. Ready for the kind of challenge you’d never set out to do on your own accord — and those are the ones most important for us to pass.