The right key turns without forcing. If you have to jam it, maybe it’s the wrong door.

Effort and fit are different things, and the two get confused constantly. When something is right you still have to work, and that work has a different texture from the grinding, bargaining strain of making yourself suit something that does not want you. Force is useful information. It usually means the mechanism was built for somebody else.

Think about where you are currently jamming, a subject, a role, a group, and ask whether the difficulty is learning or mismatch. If it is mismatch, look sideways before you push harder. Spend an hour this week trying one door next to it.