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There's a moment that happens in almost every serious pursuit, regardless of whether you're in professional sports, a student, an executive, or even at home. It's when the path becomes seemingly too difficult to bear. It's when you realize you underestimated how hard the journey would actually be. I once spoke with a professional athlete who was in the middle of this exact part of his path. He said things had gotten tough, and he wondered how much longer he was willing to keep going. I would have done him a disservice by trying to help him make the path easier. Instead, I asked a simpler and more direct question: "Are you going to quit?" He said no. His answer set the tone for the rest of the conversation. During hard times, once quitting is off the table, complaining stops being useful. It's understandable to be frustrated, but to channel your effort productively, ask yourself: what am I going to do about it? The Manure Principle An analogy I like to use during these times is around cow manure. Not a glamorous image, but a useful one. The richer and more nutrient-dense it is, the better crops grow. They thrive because of manure, not in spite of it. The same logic applies to anything worth building in yourself. Growth as someone pursuing their dreams often runs directly through the stuff that stinks: setbacks, boring repetition, criticism, failure, seasons that don't go your way. That's not a detour from the process. It's the needed, critical part of the process. The struggle you're in right now may turn out to be the very thing that makes you capable of what comes next. Why the Hard Part Is the Point If the path were easy, everyone would walk it. The difficulty you're facing isn't a flaw in the system; it's what separates the people who genuinely want something from the people who only like the idea of wanting it. The hardship you're going through functions as a filter. It reveals whether you're truly committed or just hoping for an easier path to getting what you want. So if you're in a difficult stretch right now, the instruction isn't to escape it or find a shortcut. It's to grow through it. Let the struggle do its work. The takeaway: When things get hard, the question worth asking isn't "why is this so difficult?" It's "what am I going to do about it?" Everything else is just noise.