The Compound Difficulty of Doing Hard Things on Purpose
What Writing 50 Posts Taught Me About the Psychology of Building Wealth
Today marks my 50th post. When I started this journey, I set a simple goal: write 50 posts about financial independence. Mission accomplished.
But here's what I didn't expect: this would become one of the harder things I've ever done on purpose.
Not because writing is technically difficult. Not because I lack ideas about money. But because of something I call compound difficulty: the way challenging pursuits become exponentially harder as you progress, not easier.
This phenomenon doesn't just apply to writing. It's the hidden force that derails most people's journey to financial independence, and understanding it might be the difference between reaching your goals and giving up when things get tough.
What Makes Difficulty Compound
Compound difficulty isn't just things getting harder over time. It's when each successive challenge requires exponentially more mental, emotional, or physical resources than the previous one. Unlike simple difficulty that remains constant, compound difficulty means the 40th post demands far more creativity and willpower than the 4th post, even though both involve the same basic task: writing.
Why Hard Things Get Harder
The first few posts were exciting. New project, fresh ideas, the thrill of starting something meaningful. I had dozens of topics mapped out and energy to burn.
But by post 20, the novelty had worn off. By post 35, I'd covered the obvious topics and had to dig deeper for material. By post 45, I was questioning whether anyone cared about my thoughts on emergency funds.
This is compound difficulty in action: each subsequent post required more mental energy, more creativity, more willpower than the last. The challenge compounds over time.
Your financial independence journey follows the same pattern:
Year 1: Exciting! You discover the 4% rule, optimize your spending, start investing. Everything feels possible.
Year 3: The novelty has faded. Your friends are buying houses and taking expensive vacations while you're eating leftovers and driving your paid-off car.
Year 5: You're questioning everything. Your net worth feels insignificant. The finish line seems impossibly far away.
This isn't failure. This is the natural progression of doing hard things.
The Science of Getting Stronger Through Struggle
Here's what makes this worth it: doing hard things on purpose actually rewires your brain for resilience.
According to scientists in Nature, “research on stress inoculation in primates shows that coping with mild early life stress makes subsequent coping efforts more effective and increases ventromedial prefrontal cortical volumes – essentially expanding the brain region that controls arousal regulation and resilience.”
Translation: When you deliberately choose difficulty, you're literally building mental muscle that makes you stronger for future challenges.
Every time you choose to cook dinner instead of ordering takeout, you're training your brain's resistance to convenience culture. Every time you invest your bonus instead of spending it, you're strengthening your ability to delay gratification. Every time you stick with your boring index funds during market volatility, you're building psychological resilience.
This isn't motivational fluff. This is measurable neuroplasticity that serves you for life.
The brain science explains why some people push through difficulty while others quit at the first sign of resistance. But our culture makes this choice even harder by constantly promising there's an easier way.
Challenging the "Easier Way" Myth
Our culture has programmed us to believe there's always an easier way. Life hacks. Shortcuts. "Work smarter, not harder."
But here's the uncomfortable truth: the most meaningful accomplishments in your life required sustained difficulty.
Think about it. What are you most proud of? Your degree? Your marriage? Your kids? Your career achievements?
None of these were easy. All required years of choosing the harder path when easier options existed. The pride you feel isn't despite the difficulty. It's because of it.
Financial independence is no different. It requires choosing the harder path for years: saving instead of spending, investing instead of consuming, patience instead of instant gratification.
My 2020 Test of Faith
I experienced this firsthand during the pandemic. While I was methodically investing in index funds and paying down my mortgage, it seemed like everyone else had discovered a faster path to wealth.
Crypto was exploding. People were making millions on meme stocks. NFTs were selling for absurd amounts. Laid off workers were using margin loans to buy highly leveraged ETFs.
I was tempted. Really tempted. The "easier way" was right there, promising faster results with less grinding.
But I stayed the course. I kept buying boring index funds. I kept living below my means. I kept doing the hard, unsexy work of building wealth slowly.
When the Easy Paths Collapsed
The crash data tells the story:
Bitcoin crashed from its November 2021 peak of $68,990 to below $16,000 by late 2022, a decline of over 75% (it has since recovered)
GameStop plummeted from its January 2021 peak of ~$81 to ~$10 by 2022, while AMC fell from ~$261 to under $3
NFT trading volumes collapsed 97% from $17 billion in January 2022 to just $466 million by September 2022
Justin Bieber's Bored Ape NFT dropped from $1.31 million to $59,090
Logan Paul's Azuki NFT purchased for $623,000 is now worth $10
By 2024, 96% of NFT collections are considered "dead" with 44.5% of holders facing losses
The "easier way" turned out to be the harder way for most people. Meanwhile, those boring index funds I kept buying? They recovered and reached new highs.
This isn't about being smarter or having special knowledge. It's about understanding that sustainable wealth requires sustainable difficulty.
The Compound Interest Reward
Here's the payoff that makes compound difficulty worth it: just like the posts got harder to write, the financial rewards accelerate dramatically toward the end.
In the early years of your FI journey, progress feels glacial. Your first $10,000 might take a full year of aggressive saving. But because of compound interest, your last $10,000 toward financial independence might accumulate in mere days.
Here's the math: Assume you need $1 million for FI and earn 7% annually. Your 15th year of investing might add more to your net worth than your first 10 years combined. While you're grinding through year 8 feeling like you're only 35% "done" by dollars saved, you're actually much closer to the finish line in terms of time remaining.
The middle phase – where compound difficulty peaks – is actually much closer to the end than the beginning when measured by years remaining rather than percentage of your target number reached.
The people who quit during the hardest part miss the exponential acceleration that makes all the earlier struggle worthwhile.
Embracing the Difficulty
So here's my challenge to you: stop looking for the easier way.
Stop searching for investment strategies that promise faster returns with less risk. Stop hoping for a windfall that will accelerate your timeline. Stop waiting for perfect market conditions to start investing.
Instead, embrace the compound difficulty. Choose the harder path because it's harder, not despite it.
Choose to cook at home when ordering out would be easier
Choose to invest your raise when lifestyle inflation would be more fun
Choose to drive your paid-off car when a car payment would give you a newer model
Choose to stay the course when market volatility makes you want to sell
Every time you choose the harder path, you're building the psychological resilience that will carry you through the entire journey to financial independence.
Your Assignment: Go Do Something Hard
Don't just read this and nod along. Go do something difficult right now.
Cancel a subscription you don't need. Cook dinner instead of ordering out. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Call someone you've been avoiding. Do 10 pushups. Walk outside even though it's cold.
It doesn't matter what it is. What matters is choosing the harder option on purpose, right now, simply because it's harder.
This isn't about the specific action. It's about training your brain to choose difficulty when easier options exist.
What 50 Posts Taught Me
Writing this series led me to explore something I suspected but couldn't prove: the people who reach financial independence aren't fundamentally different from those who don't. They don't have special knowledge, superior genetics, or perfect circumstances.
The major difference is their relationship with difficulty. They've learned to see compound difficulty as a feature, not a bug. They've trained themselves to lean into discomfort instead of avoiding it.
Most importantly, they understand that the hardest part of any worthwhile journey isn't the beginning or the end. It's the long middle where progress feels slow and quitting feels rational.
The Bottom Line
Stop making excuses and start embracing the process of getting stronger through struggle.
Your future financially independent self isn't waiting for you to find an easier way. They're waiting for you to become the type of person who can handle the difficulty required to get there.
Congratulations on making it this far. Now comes the hardest part and that's exactly why it's worth doing.
This is post #50 in my series on financial independence. Thanks for following along on this journey of doing hard things on purpose. Here's to the next 50 challenges that will make us all stronger.