It feels great to be good at something. Combine the one-two punch of personal satisfaction and the external validation of others, and it’s easy to see why we tend to stick to the things we do best, especially if that’s also how the mortgage gets paid. So what’s the point of branching out and learning something new?

It turns out there are many.

Art therapist Annie sums it up: “For some, mastering something new brings meaning and joy by increasing confidence and a sense of pride. For others, engaging in something that emphasizes process over product can give a sense of release.” In other words, by avoiding the unfamiliar, we’re missing out on opportunities we might never know we had.

Expand your Mind

Alongside the obvious benefits, like exercising new mental and physical skills or earning the satisfaction of accomplishing something for the first time, trying something new is one of the fastest ways to expand your world.

“When I take a class to learn a new skill, it gives me an opportunity to meet people whose day-to-day lives are very different from my own,” says Kate, a university program director. “The thing I like most about that is that it gives me a greater appreciation for the processes and work that go into things that I may have previously taken for granted.”

No matter how accomplished we feel, there’s always space for additional appreciation of the worlds and works of others, and for finding a little more gratitude and joy in our lives.

Be Happy, Not Just Sane

Life is full of stress: jobs, bills, families, and all the other obligations that keep us up at night. While taking a bath or doing your usual exercise routine can help blow off steam, learning a new skill can provide an even greater release.

Writer and editor Margarett clears her head and creates a sense of liberation by making time to do something totally different from her day job. “I went back to taking ceramics classes at an amazing community college program near my house after a long hiatus. It feels so good to use a non-linguistic part of my brain in the studio. After a few hours, I feel mentally re-set. Plus, I’ve never sold a ceramic piece, which means I still get to approach the work with the mindset of ‘What do I want?’ not ‘What do my clients want?'”

Doing that new thing makes your “me” time more than just what you can squeeze in to keep yourself sane; it’s time and space for something you enjoy, and that makes your life fuller and healthier.

Turn a “Can’t” Into a “Not Yet”

Too many of us carry a “can’t” somewhere in our narrative. “A lot of people are told they are not good at something when they are young, and then they never really try it again, even if it was something they enjoyed,” says Annie. Telling that inner critic to take a seat can carry benefits that reverberate well beyond the topic at hand.

“A friend convinced me to try a barre class,” says Marianne, the owner of a management consulting firm and mother to two grown daughters. “The first time I went I thought, ‘My body just doesn’t move that way.’ But I kept going, and now I’m a few classes in, and my body is learning to move that way. The more adventurous I become, the more I realize that age isn’t the barrier I thought it was.”

Trying something outside our comfort zones, especially something we once thought wasn’t  meant for us, cracks open the possible. Not only is that out-of-reach skill now something attainable, but you may just find that it opens the doors to a whole new world of possibilities.