Running a marathon is difficult. There is of course the essential difficulty of running for twenty-six point two miles in a single session, which will have you exercising for several hours. It is demanding, mentally as well as physically.
As you progress from mile one to five, then ten, eventually seventeen, twenty, then mid-twenties until finally you finish up your run, you will probably encounter discomfort, maybe struggle. There is the strain of the experience of exercising and repetitive motion for several hours – even if you feel great at the beginning, you may well discover new pains or aches after twenty miles or so that were not there, when you started. Then, of course there are external factors that affect how that goes for you, such as the sun, heat or cold, rain or snow or ice and the conditions of the terrain, where you are running.
There are variables and the longer you engage in the activity, the more opportunities there are for you to encounter difficulties. Some things you can plan for, but of course there is always uncertainty, too. The challenge is also the appeal.
Aspects of this apply well outside of running or marathons in particular.
People building startups are doing something inherently difficult. Building something out of nothing, then making it succeed in a competitive environment is hard. Most startups fail.
A person working on advancing the state of the art in a given field or to grow personally in their understanding and abilities to level up and do more, better – they will probably have many, many difficulties and their paths littered with periods of being stuck and facing failure.
There are so many more examples. The bar to entry may be relatively low in many areas – college, marriage, careers, and so forth – but the bar to excellence is high. Success and accomplishment requires navigating challenges and solving problems.
Do not be surprised, when you come to face that the thing you are doing is difficult. What were you expecting? You are not really doing yourself any favors by assuming it were not so.
Often the essential difficulty of an endeavor is what makes it worth doing. Both in the sense that your struggle and personal investment is what makes it worthwhile to you, but also in that things that are valuable or impactful are not trivial. They take work and attention, over time. Often, lots of it.
Things being difficult, perhaps seemingly impossibly so, is not necessarily a sign that yours is the wrong challenge for you. It may just be the sign that you have found an important part of the challenge – sometimes, the problems are the path.
It is not an indication that it is necessarily time to quit, but rather to keep at it and figure it out. To practice endurance.
It is difficult.
What are you going to do?
Marathons are hard.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯