Men are strong so long as they represent a strong idea they become powerless when they oppose it.

Strength is often borrowed. When you carry an idea that people already half believe, your effort meets a current running your way, and modest ability starts to look like force. Set yourself against that current and identical ability produces almost nothing, which feels personal but is mostly arithmetic. Some of the power belonged to what you were carrying.

So it is worth knowing what you are aligned with, and whether you chose it. If your work has felt unusually heavy lately, ask whether you are pushing against something you privately agree with. And if you oppose a strong idea anyway, do it knowing the cost rather than mistaking the resistance for failure.