I recently heard Fran Lebowitz say:
"Climbing a mountain is a fake challenge. You don't have to climb a mountain.
There are many things that people have to do and should do, that they don't do because they're scared to do or they're hard to do.
Those are challenges."
I knew exactly what she meant.
We're surrounded by manufactured difficulty.
Ice baths. Ultra-marathons. Productivity hacks. Waking up at 4am.
None of those things are inherently bad. Some people genuinely enjoy them. But they're optional.
The real challenges usually don't look impressive.
They're making the phone call you've been avoiding. Having the difficult conversation. Leaving the relationship. Starting over. Asking for help. Saying no.
Continuing when there's no guarantee any of it will work.
Most of the important things in life aren't physically difficult. They're emotionally difficult.
That's why they're so easy to postpone.
A mountain has a summit. Success is obvious.
Life rarely offers that certainty.
For the past few years I've spent most days alone in a studio making paintings.
There's no finish line. No medal. No assurance that the work is getting better or that anyone will care.
Every painting asks the same question: Do you trust yourself enough to continue?
That's the challenge. Not painting. Continuing despite uncertainty.
I suspect that's true of almost everything worthwhile.
The conversations that need to happen. The responsibilities that need to be accepted. The work that keeps asking something of us long after the excitement has disappeared.
Those are the real challenges.
Everything else is often just exercise.