What I found really helpful with Zwift was to also have an alternate program to use. It is really easy to get into a habit of not quite pushing yourself with it, and just riding along. I use The Sufferfest myself as an alternate and go back and forth between the two. Some of the Suf videos are real killers.
I guess I'm old, but I've never been a gamer so all the game aspects of Zwift escape me. I see when I level up but I don't really pay attention to it. My kit is still pretty basic too. Maybe if I ran Zwift as a secondary program while I do Sufferfest I'd be a lot further along.
With the beautiful weather of the past week I put off the trainer again. Maybe today I'll go back on.