I keep coming back to this concept, so I'll write about it again, because find it really powerful, and also something that I'll need to keep reminding myself of day-in and day-out.
It's most evident to me in the form of exercise. If you want to improve your fitness and muscle mass, the only way you can do that is to lift or exercise more than you currently do every day. You have to push past your limits, tear the microfibers of your muscles and push your lungs to a new capacity, in order to create change. It's the only way. If you do what is comfortable, your body will stay the same as it always has been. It's going to hurt, it's going to be difficult — only then do you know you're making progress.
It's the same for just about everything else, too, mental status, career, you name it. If you retreat to what it comfortable and easy, you'll get the same results (or worse) that you've always gotten. Instead, if you chase your dreams, if you forge your path and embrace uncertainty and difficulty, you'll start to make change and grow. It's so simple, yet so hard. The human brain seems to be very averse to discomfort, yet, it's discomfort that actually leads to real happiness.
I have this feeling that if I can continually test myself, if I can make a bold step in the direction of my dreams every day, that I'd actually be happier, too. Because it's the sitting around wondering "what if" that makes me feel the most empty and unfulfilled. Even if I don't perfectly get to where I am going, it's the pursuit and engagement in action that always brings out the best in me.