Lifelong learning: Comfortable ruts and challenges

I teach classes at the college. In one class we talked about doing things out of the ordinary, or out of their comfort zone. I challenged my students to do something they wouldn’t normally do, like sitting on the other side of the cafeteria for lunch, or sitting in a different seat in class. I didn’t ask them to do anything earth-shattering, just something out of their normal routine and then report back as to how they felt.

We are all creatures of habit. Routine is comfortable and dependable. Many of us order the same thing most every time we go to a restaurant, even though we may look at the...