Life...

As human beings, why do we feel the need to challenge ourselves? While some people can be happy with not being challenged, I think the vast majority of people seek some sort of challenge in life. The degree to which we do so varies, but the goal does not. Wouldn't life be much easier if we could just complacently go through the motions of living, breathing, eating, sleeping and functioning?

Now I am sure, there are all kinds of studies out there telling us why we do such things. But on a personal level, I wonder why I feel the need to achieve the levels I set out for myself. I always create lofty goals, perhaps far loftier than others around me... I have friends that always look at what I'm doing, and suggest in hushed tones that I may be crazy. These people just don't understand, that in order to be satisfied, I have to be accomplishing things that a relatively small number of people have done before. I feel the need to be different, to chart uncharted territory. I feel the need to be under stress, to accomplish the unaccomplishable. Every hurdle I climb over, no matter how slow and arduous the process, adds to my character. I firmly believe, whatever doesn't kill me will make me stronger. Every experience, bad or good, is part of life. Life is what it is, nothing more and nothing less. If we wish away the bad experiences, than life has been invalidated.