What’s your comfort zone? Mine is cooking tried and true meals for my family, playing sports that I excel in, and not messing with my morning ritual.

I really like my comfort zone. With stressors like parenting, caring for aging parents and coming to terms with my own aging, the cuddly coziness of my comfort zone is enticing.

However, comfort zones can be like a siren song luring us to the perils of complacency.

When I hang out too long in my comfort zone, I tend to have tunnel vision and miss out on some life-sparking opportunities. So, with this knowledge always in my back pocket, when my dancer friend invited me to do an adult ballet/jazz class with her, I negated my ego (which said “Oh, hell no!”) and responded to her with, “Ok, that sounds fun.”

And it was.

Sure, I botched the jazz portion. Apparently, I am only a “good” dancer at weddings and reunions (i.e. after several cocktails). But, I am proud of the part of me that was able to laugh at myself and just go for it.

Female IQ would like to challenge you to explore your “not so compfy zone” some time this week with the hope that you learn or reaffirm something positive about yourself. You can share your experience on Female IQ’s Instagram or email.

—Becca Edwards, founder of Female IQ