Your path looks boring? Explore the edges!

Everyone's research (or career) path looks like this at one point in time or another.
Whether looking ahead ...

... or in the rearview mirror....

... the path may look flat, predictable, and downright boring. When that happens, there are three choices: continue ahead and hope some exciting breakthrough is waiting around the corner (good luck with that!); change course to a more exciting destination (take the train if needed, to get there faster); or go off the beaten path and explore the edges of your own discipline, and in the process listen to the echoes coming from fields outside your own.  It is the latter that has the potential to bring the biggest breakthroughs.
Happy trails, and remember: it is the journey that counts.