As you meander through life, people will often talk about the importance of placing yourself “outside your comfort zone”, lest you miss out on some experience that unexpectedly thrills you.

#113 Set Yourself a Satisfying Challenge

But I’m pleased to report that eventually you reach a magical, golden age where you understand yourself well enough to know before you set out out on an adventure that this is one “outside comfort zone” experience you’ll hate, and thus, you don’t have to bother.

So I will never need to go camping again because I know without a shadow of a doubt, that sleeping in a tent in a truly uncomfortable swag is horrible.

My philosophy on this can be summed up easily:

Similarly, when asking around for an exercise to do after my dodgy bones struck jogging/dancing/walking off the agenda last year, I knew swimming wasn’t the answer. Several failed attempts to pass my basic swim certificate at the freezing municipal baths in the coldest inland city in Australia in the ’60s, combined with a lingering memory of just how awful it is to be hugged by a tight, wet, cold bathing suit meant I didn’t even give swimming a second thought.

But stationary cycling? Now that seemed a possibility and so it has been. Even a meagre 5km cycle a day at home has added up to an impressive distance, equalling the entire span of New South Wales from the Victorian border to Queensland to date.

So I do appreciate that meeting and overcoming a challenge is important, whatever your age, and with that I’m mind, I decided to solve one of life’s greatest mysteries since it first appeared in toyshops in the early ’80s.

I give you:

Could this impenetrable puzzle be solved by a retirement-aged woman with too much time on her hands?

With the help of eight excellent tutorials known as EasiestSolve, and available for free on YouTube

I was able to go from a randomly scrambled cube, through to solving the top layer, then the second layer and finally—the ENTIRE CUBE.

My forty-three year-old dream has become a reality.

Like all worthwhile challenges, it did take quite some time making sure I’d mastered each lesson before moving on to the next, combined with hours of practice.

And I have no doubt that the rush I got when it finally came out the very first time was as good as conquering a snow-capped mountain.

Or being in bed.

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Header photograph: A snow-capped Mt Taranaki, North Island of NZ, taken January 2009.