The Pain Paradox states that the short-term easy leads to the long-term difficult, while the short-term difficult leads to the long-term easy. The great paradox is that what we thought was the easy, what looks like the easy, what seems like the easy way very often leads us to creating a life that couldn’t be more opposite of easy. And inversely the things that we thought were most difficult, the challenges that appear to be the toughest, and the requirements that seem most rigorous are the very activities that lead us to the life of easy that we all want.
— Rory Vaden from Take the Stairs