Choose Difficult

June 20, 2025

There’s a quiet truth that lives behind every committed artist’s journey: this life is hard—but it’s chosen. Not stumbled into, not granted by chance, but deliberately carved out through effort, persistence, and a steady willingness to lean into the uncomfortable. To live artfully, to dedicate yourself to a creative path, means constantly brushing up against challenge. It means waking up most days and choosing the more difficult road.

It’s easy to want the effortless path. Who doesn’t crave flow and inspiration, recognition without the grind? But anyone who’s been at this for more than a moment knows: the easy path rarely leads anywhere worth going. Choosing difficult—day after day—is what builds the resilience that a long-term artistic life demands. And it does demand a lot.

This path isn’t only challenging because of the intense competition or the shifting nature of the creative world. What makes it truly hard is what it asks of your mind. The constant internal battles: self-doubt, fear of failure, the nagging voice that whispers you’re not enough, or worse, that your work doesn’t matter. The setbacks aren’t just practical—they’re personal. And the only way to keep going is to cultivate a mind tough enough to meet those challenges with clarity and strength.

That toughness doesn’t come from talent. It comes from doing the difficult thing, over and over again. From setting ambitious goals that scare you a little, then chasing them anyway. From pushing past your comfort zone until your comfort zone starts to expand. And from outworking the fear—not because you’re fearless, but because the work matters more.

Over time, you start to notice a shift. The things that once paralyzed you now feel like familiar hurdles. The voice of doubt still visits, but it no longer controls the room. The rejections sting less. The silence between wins feels less like a threat and more like a pause. You begin to understand that choosing difficult wasn’t about making life harder—it was about making yourself stronger.

There’s power in that. Because when you deliberately choose the harder route—when you train your mind to seek challenge instead of avoid it—you give yourself more control over your future. You’re no longer waiting for the right mood, or the right opportunity, or for someone to tell you you’re ready. You become someone who creates momentum regardless of the circumstances.

That kind of discipline is everything in a creative career. It allows you to direct yourself, to stay aligned with your vision even when the world isn’t watching. And it gives you the endurance to keep going when things get quiet, when the outcome is uncertain, or when the next step feels steep. Because you’ve already proven that you can do difficult things. You've done them before, and you’ll do them again.

The truth is, the hard things don’t get easier—they just stop feeling so impossible. You grow into them. You adapt. And somewhere along the way, you realize you’re not just surviving the difficulty—you’re thriving because of it.

So choose difficult. Not for the struggle itself, but for who it allows you to become. Choose it now, and you'll meet the future not with fear, but with strength, clarity, and a deep, grounded belief in your ability to create—and to endure.