A question worth sitting with

From Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Thomas Fuller M.D., 1732 · Entry No. 560 — collected wisdom already in circulation when he wrote it down

"All things are difficult before they are easy."

— Thomas Fuller · Gnomologia (1732)

Thomas Fuller collected this saying in 1732 as part of Gnomologia — more than six thousand proverbs gathered from a lifetime of reading. He did not coin it; it was already old when he wrote it down. A line becomes a proverb precisely because enough people found it true and passed it on. This one has been traveling for centuries because what it says does not change: the difficulty is not permanent. It is a phase. The only exit from the phase is the same in every case — you do the thing. Badly at first, then less badly, until one day it simply isn't difficult anymore. Every skill you now perform without thinking was once the thing you weren't sure you could learn.

What hard thing are you in the middle of right now — and can you remind yourself that this is the difficult part, not the permanent part?

Read the question once. Let it reframe whatever you're carrying today. The difficulty is the phase. The easy is ahead.

Before easy, there is always this.