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"This is too difficult."
We've all said it. I know I have...
But lately, something changed in the way I think about that phrase.
Because honestly? Most of the time, when something feels difficult, what it really is, is new. Just new.
The first time you encounter something, your brain has nothing to hold onto. Of course it feels impossible.
But the second time, there's already a tiny thread of recognition. And then slowly, without you even noticing, something that once felt out of reach just... becomes normal.
I think about this a lot with languages.
When I was learning English, certain things felt genuinely beyond me. Like my brain simply wasn't built for them.
And yet, I kept showing up, kept seeing those same things again and again, and at some point they stopped being hard. They became obvious. Almost boring.
I'm in that same process with Japanese right now. And knowing that doesn't make it easier exactly, but it does make it feel less scary. Because I've been here before. I know how the story ends.
So when I hear myself thinking "this is too difficult," I've started asking: or is it just too new?
Because those are very different problems.
"Too difficult" sounds like a wall. "Too new" sounds like the beginning of something.
You don't have to understand everything right away. You just have to keep coming back, until familiar replaces foreign, and recognition replaces resistance.
Nothing is really "too difficult." It's just not yours yet (but trust the process).
See you soon,
Oriane
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