Lately, I’ve been trying to push myself and my husband outside of our comfort zones. I’m guilty of going to a restaurant and ordering the same thing, or same few things, every time. Not to mention, we usually go to the same ten restaurants when we do go out to eat—which admittedly isn’t all that often.

Last week was my anniversary. Hubby and I always treat ourselves to a nice dinner on our anniversary. And again, we have like three nice restaurants we save for this occasion. But it’s always the same three. Well, this year I decided we were going to do something different. 

At first he wasn’t so sure. Their prices are a little on the higher side. And what if we don’t like it? But I always start putting money back so we can have our anniversary dinner without having to worry about blowing our budget, so the money factor wasn’t a good excuse. As for the other thing, I knew there was a chance we wouldn’t like it, but it was a place we’ve been saying for years we should try and I was tired of the whole “one day” thing. That day was now!

So after some convincing, I finally talked him into giving it a shot. And guess what?

We both wish we would have gone a lot sooner. It wasn’t a cheap dinner, but we both felt we got our monies worth. Especially, once you take into account that we ended up bringing over half of it home. The portions were big enough we were able to get three meals out of what we ordered. And that’s without adding anything else to the leftovers and we were both full after each one. Hubby is already talking about going back in a few months. We’ll probably be more strategic with our ordering the next time though. That way we won’t have to bring so much food home with us.

We’re also trying new recipes at home instead of eating the same things over and over. 

But it’s not just with food that I’m trying new things.

I’ve also been trying to find new-to-me authors or reading in genres and sub-genres I don’t normally read in. I’m taking new online classes for things I think I might like. I’m listening to new podcasts and I’m planning to start doing yoga at least three days a week. As soon as I can find an app or video series I like because going to a studio or gym is out of the question. Not only because I don’t want to pay for things like that when I can do it at home for free, but also because I am horrible with schedules. I always try to make a schedule and then stick to it, but I never do. Then I end up feeling like I somehow failed because I can’t stick to a schedule. Well, it’s taken me several years, but I’ve finally embraced the fact that I’m just not wired that way. I can do routines, but not if they’re too structured. Too much structure makes me feel like I’m suffocating. 

This is also the reason I don’t have a daily word count goal to hit.

We have to stretch, in order to grow. We have to try new things to find what works best for us… to learn more about ourselves. I know not everything new we try will be a big hit. I know that we will try things that we don’t like or that one of us doesn’t like. But even when that happens I don’t think either of us will regret having tried.

What new things have you tried lately? What things would you like to try?