Your problems get harder as you get better. That’s not bad luck; that’s the game respecting your level.

Difficulty scaling up is usually a sign of movement rather than misfortune. Beginner problems get solved and are replaced by problems only someone at your level would ever run into. It rarely feels like promotion from the inside, because the strain is real and the old ease is gone. Still, the shape of what is hard now tells you where you have arrived.

Ask whether the task changed or your standard did the next time something feels harder than it used to. Set the current problem next to the one you had a year ago. Let that comparison be the encouragement, since nothing else is going to announce it.