You have to persevere, that's the trick

You have to persevere, there's no fancy tricks, there's no hack, there's no shortcut.

There's going to be challenges on the way, quite obviously so otherwise it wouldn't be hard, we wouldn't be talking about it, it'd be like breathing, nobody talks about breathing like it's a big deal or something exciting. But for big achievements, you have to go out of your comfort zone, do things you would think to maybe not do right off the bat, meet new people, explore new techniques, experience frustration, confusion, desperation, hopelessness. But you've gotta maintain hope, and confidence, in the process, and in yourself. That's the key to learning everything. The belief in yourself, as cliched as it may sound, is what will take you far away, that you can learn whatever you're trying to, and it's worth staying in, as hard and not-great as it may be.

That is true for writing a novel, learning to golf, mountaineering, kayaking, and what have you. There's no way around learning new skills or hobbies, or doing interesting exciting things, skills or tasks, moving to a new place etcetera. Even making friends, one could consider that to be a skill, and it's hard, really challenging as an adult and as I've said, you gotta be confident, believe that you'll be liked and are deserving of good kind exciting community that'll support you at every point. Build your life brick by brick, build your skills one small step at a time.

They will tell you, the instagrams and the internets and ticktok, that you can cheat, that there's ways to hack around the fundamentals. It's all lies! If it were possible, nobody else would do it any other way, people aren't struggling in their lives because they don't want to do it the easy way, they're not having a great time because the hard way is long, frustrating, confusing, disheartening and generally awful. But it's worth doing. It really really is. You. Have. To. Persevere. That is the trick.

Always, and forever.