One of the things that slowed down the growth of my Career Wayfinder Coaching business was the belief that it would be smooth and fairly easy.

This wasn’t my first rodeo. It was my third business, for goodness’ sake. I knew how to build something successful—I had the experience, the strategies, the operational know-how. And yet… it didn’t help as much as I thought it would.

Because while this business had similarities to what I’d done before, it wasn’t the same.

Kind of like your job search—or the tough boss, or that messy project. On the surface, it might look familiar. You might think, “I’ve done this before. I know how this goes.” But that assumption can actually hold you back.

That was my thought error: assuming it would be easy. That expectation created resistance when things got hard. And that resistance made everything harder.

The shift came when I stopped resisting and simply allowed it to be hard. I stopped trying to reshape the path and let it shape me.

We want our job search, our relationships at work, and the projects we’re involved in to feel good all the time. But if they did, we’d miss the opportunity to:

• Build resilience and flexibility
• Expand our capacity to be with discomfort
• Grow our ability to solve real problems
• Become the person who can rise to meet challenge with confidence

The paradox?

When you allow things to be hard, you become the version of yourself that creates the ease you’re searching for.

Hard isn’t wrong. It just is. And it becomes heavier when we fight it—when we believe it shouldn’t be happening or that something’s gone wrong.

Instead, when you decide to lean into the hard, to meet it with presence and curiosity, you unlock your own power. Suddenly, you’re not waiting for it to get easier. You’re creating the energy and mindset that allows you to move through it with steadiness.

Whether you’re applying for jobs, navigating a tense conversation with your boss, or managing a project that’s going sideways … the version of you that allows the hard is the one who transforms it.

Ease isn’t the absence of challenge. Allowing the hard is what creates the ease.