On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In her recent release, Secrets of Adulthood, bestselling author Gretchen Rubin shares witty and thought-provoking reflections. Here’s one of my favorites:

It’s easy to assume that accomplishing a difficult task would be easier at a different moment: “Before I had kids.” “Next summer.” “Ten years ago.”

In 1512, after competing the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo wrote to his father:

“I have finished the chapel I was painting: the pope is very happy with it, but other things haven’t turned out as well as I hoped. I blame the times which are so unfavorable to our art.”

Michelangelo was then living in the middle of the High Renaissance, a period that’s considered a pinnacle in the history of Western art.

When we’re doing something hard, it feels like the times are hard.

Source: Secrets of Adulthood, p. 88