Just because something is hard doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong.
I have to remind myself of that more than I’d like to admit. As an attorney, I live inside a system designed to be adversarial. Most days, I’m not just doing the work—I’m also fighting unnecessary battles with people who should know better (including clients), in systems that should function better, for outcomes that should already exist.
And we do it over and over again. Every day, every week. So when it gets hard (and it does get hard), I find myself wondering: is it me?
Because there are folks out here making their work look effortless. You‘ve seen them. In the author role they’re always upbeat, never ruffled, somehow juggling a podcast, a book deal, three conference keynotes, and a brand sponsorship. Their Instagram looks like a wellness retreat and mine looks like a garage sale.
In the legal world, they’re always polished, never arriving to court harried after transporting kids to school, always getting the best deals for clients, always having the court rule in their favor whereas you lose making the same arguments presented in the same fashion.
And if I’m not careful, I start to believe that ease is the metric of doing it right.
But that’s a lie - one our culture sells us and our algorithms reward.
Some of the most important work in the world is hard.
Healing is hard. Justice is hard. Telling the truth when it's unpopular is hard. Being principled in a profession that rewards compromise is hard. And showing up, again and again, to advocate for people the system would rather forget - even after having getting your teeth kicked in the last time? That’s supposed to be hard.
We’ve confused being unbothered with being successful.
We’ve mistaken being unaffected with being right. But if the work you’re doing demands courage, conviction, and clarity in the face of resistance, then the difficulty might be the proof that you’re on the right path rather than the opposite.
So if you’re tired, if it feels like you’re grinding uphill, if you’re wondering why everyone else seems to have it easier—take heart. The struggle isn’t always a sign that you’ve messed up. Sometimes it’s the sign that you’re doing the work. That you care about the fight. That you’re refusing to compromise.
And while the work might not get easier, you will get clearer. Stronger. Steadier.
Hard isn’t always bad.
Sometimes hard is holy.
Keep going.
Thank you