On a hike, the part where your lungs burn hardest tends to be the last switchback before the view.

Difficulty often peaks right before a thing resolves, which is a genuinely cruel piece of design. The final stretch demands the most exactly when you have the least left, and there is rarely a sign telling you how close you are. That is why people stop just short, not from weakness but from having no way to see the distance remaining.

When you are deep in something hard, treat the urge to quit as information about your fatigue rather than about the odds. Set a small unit and finish only that: one more page, one more week, one more attempt. Then decide.