Use intensity to strengthen the work, not dramatize the struggle.

Difficulty can be met with more work or with more narrative, and the narrative version is seductive because it feels like engagement. Talking about how hard it is, describing the toll, making the struggle visible. All of that consumes exactly the energy the work needed, and it also makes the difficulty feel larger each time you tell it.

Notice how much you have been describing the situation compared to acting on it. Try going a week without narrating the hardship to anyone. Put the intensity into the work itself and see how the difficulty looks by the end of it.