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"Courage over comfort." Just a simple reminder that there's nothing comfortable about being courageous. Everyone wants to be brave, but no one wants to be vulnerable.

It is never easy to design an effective training program, whether for fighter pilots or surgeons or business managers. The navy did it mainly through trial and error,5 as you find when you read histories of the Top Gun program. There was a debate, for instance, over how realistic the combat had to be, with some wanting to dial it back and lessen the risk to the pilots and the planes, and others arguing that it was important to push the pilots as hard as they would be pushed in real combat. Fortunately, the latter viewpoint eventually prevailed. We know now from studies of deliberate practice that the pilots learned best when they were pushed out of their comfort zones.

This is a fundamental truth about any sort of practice: If you never push yourself beyond your comfort zone, you will never improve.

Purposeful practice requires getting out of one's comfort zone.

Do something daily that excites you, makes you happier and curious. Something that scares you a little. It is the process that is important and the direction you walk every day, not the notional outcome at the end of that journey.

"Don't let the weight of fear weigh down the joy of curiosity." Fear is really false evidence appearing real.