Do Something New

BY: T. Franklin Murphy | March 2013

An empty freeway with a start sign. A Flourishing Life Society article on doing something new.

Adobe Stock Photos

We must fight stagnation by reaching beyond comfort zone and doing something new.

A challenge free life creates emptiness and flabby muscles. We discover richness reaching beyond comfort by pushing past ordinary boundaries and exploring the dark unknowns. The luring mirage of safety lulls us into stagnation, running from challenges, we sit and decay.

New Endeavors Sometimes Lead to Failure

Newness invites the possibility of failure, demanding focus and additional resources, more than we comfortably can give. When we venture beyond the ease of security, we have no guarantee of success; we must development new skills, while facing unpredictable challenges.

Many frantically avoid failure by dodging opportunities that require expansion. Their life of limitations avoids anxiety, creating stagnation and decay. Initially avoidance provides security; but the security is a mirage. Missed experiences accumulate, narrowing skills, and expanding vulnerabilities.

See Fear of Failure for more on this topic

"The list of things we can do differently is endless. When you start to change the way of doing things, you expand your mindset and make room for opportunities."
Laura Capell-Abra | No More Ifs or Buts

New Experiences Builds Skills

Exposure from brave ventures—whether we failed or succeeded—builds life skills. Failing to develop job skills limits income, failing to develop social skills limits relationships, and failing to understand emotions leads to misdirected reactions. The skills from expanded expertise become resources to succeed. True security is competence in our strength, creativity, and courage—not from avoiding failure. Sometimes skills surmount a challenge; other times skills aide in recovery after failure.

Surviving Failure

We will occasionally fail when reaching beyond comfortable patterns. Failure is difficult. It hurts; but failure is part of learning. Pain from past failures resurface, sparking new fears, reminding that we may fail again. We must struggle through the inevitable learning-curve to gain new proficiencies—new expanded comfort zones.

When we learn a new professional skill, secondary characteristics also develop, such as determination, humility, creativity, and courage. Even if we fail at the original goal, the secondary characteristics were still developed.

Exchanging relief in the present for long-term growth is simple; but by allowing failure, without viewing it as a catastrophe, we discover exhilarating challenges that demand full attention.

See Flow State for more on this topic

We find security not in predictable success but in our capacity to conquer. Our lives flourish when we engage in tasks and hobbies that challenge skills and intellect.

Feel the exhilaration by engaging in something new, activity that pushes your abilities. The thrill of growth, the sense of meaning, and lifelong growth will follow.

Do something new, I double dog dare you!

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T. Franklin Murphy

Wellness. Writer. Researcher.
T. Franklin Murphy has a degree in psychology. He is dedicated to the science of wellness. In 2010, he began publishing his findings.