Improvement doesn’t happen overnight. Growth doesn’t take root in the soft soil of convenience. Real, lasting, transformative change comes from one thing: perseverance.
It’s not flashy advice, it’s not a life hack - to be honest, it’s not even particularly motivating, but it is the truth. If you want to become more than the sum of your parts, then you have to push yourself - mentally, physically, emotionally - whatever it takes to get where you want to be.
Getting Started Sucks
The first step is always the ugliest - it makes you feel awkward and out of place. It makes you question why you’re standing in the rain outside your gym at 5:00am when you just want to go back to bed.
No matter your preparations, you will still probably look like Bambi learning to walk. That’s your brain trying to keep you comfortable, because it feels safe - that’s normal.
But, we don’t want comfort, we want growth - we want the ability to feel comfortable in the discomfort. We want to feel confident taking action before you’re ready, fumbling through the first attempts, and most importantly, allowing ourselves to suck at something new.
Improvement doesn’t require perfection. It requires action, no matter how clumsy, uncoordinated, or hesitant we may be.
Staying Motivated Is Hard
Initial motivation is fleeting. Anyone can be excited for a few days, make a New Year’s resolution, or a Monday morning promise to themselves. What happens when that feeling fades? What happens when the results don’t come fast enough? What happens when it’s boring, repetitive, or lonely?
That’s where most people step away - not because they’re weak, but because they expected progress to feel good. Unfortunately, it often doesn’t. Progress is painful, it’s frustrating, it’s slow. You’ll have weeks where it feels like you’ve plateaued like never before.
Motivation isn’t the key - discipline is. Discipline to accept that improvement is a long-term investment, and instant returns are not the focus.
You won’t always feel like doing the difficult thing, but discipline helps you do it anyway.
Learning Is Challenging
Being comfortable admitting you don’t understand something is a skill lots of people are uncomfortable with. Having the willingness to feel like the dumbest person in the room, then deciding to stay in that room anyway is a great boon to your learning journey.
Learning a new skill, starting a new job, changing a deeply ingrained habit - these things challenge your identity. It takes humility, patience and courage to ask the questions, to fail publicly, and to be seen trying.
Every time you push through that discomfort, you’re becoming more capable, more resilient, more dangerous - in the best way possible.
Why It Matters
Doing the hard thing makes everything else easier.
When you train yourself to show up even when it’s difficult, you start to build trust with yourself. You stop negotiating with your laziness. You stop waiting to “feel like it.” You start becoming the kind of person who follows through.
From there, everything changes. Your confidence grows, your capacity increases, your goals stop being abstract dreams and start becoming plans.
And the ripple effect? Immense. You become someone people can rely on - you become a better leader, a better partner, a better version of yourself - not because life got easier, but because you got stronger.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve been reading this post and thinking of the thing you’ve been putting off - you know where to start.
Improvement doesn’t happen overnight, but one day you’ll look back and be shocked how far you’ve come.
It’s time - do the hard thing.