We continuously optimize our lives for comfort, but should we? Growth is uncomfortable. It hurts.
Excellence, or greatness, in any endeavor is born from pain and suffering. So too is life.
Arete (Greek: ἀρετή), in its basic sense, means “excellence of any kind”.[1] The term may also mean “moral virtue”.[1] In its earliest appearance in Greek, this notion of excellence was ultimately bound up with the notion of the fulfillment of purpose or function: the act of living up to one’s full potential.
An undeniable truth of existence is that once one ceases to grow, one is dying.
Do you wish to strive for greatness and life? Or do you wish to strive for comfort?
You cannot have both.
Aaron Fulkerson 