Just a quick reminder that growth does not equal effort (or, at least, the feeling of strenuous effort). As The Secret famously said, grass doesn’t strain to grow. Most humans spend their lives eating, drinking, sleeping, and eliminating waste—not much effort at all, and they grow a lot. Even if you exercise heavily, the muscle growth occurs during your rest period afterwards, not during the exertion.
As such, you can always find things that you enjoy doing or make the things you do more enjoyable so they don’t feel like effort (even though they are). Turn your task into a competition; play a sport for exercise instead of running on a treadmill if you find the latter boring. Exerting effort and feeling like you are exerting effort can be very different experiences.
“Find something you love doing, and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
To reduce your feeling of effort in your growth, experiment with different ways to achieve your goals. If you find classroom learning boring, try going to a museum or watching a YouTube video and see if you learn more from different media. If you don’t like running on a treadmill, try finding a nearby running trail or consider taking up a sport. If you don’t like reading, try audiobooks. There are many ways to try to make growth a less painful, effortful process.
There are many ways to develop skills that don’t feel like effort. For example, you learn how to use a keyboard or controller to play video games. You learn a new language to impress that foreign love interest. You might walk 500 miles and walk 500 more for the right person, as The Proclaimers once sang over and over again in their famous chorus.
And that’s the ultimate way to take away the feeling of boredom, annoyance, or frustration: meaning. If the act has meaning to you, it will be worth whatever you need to do, and your brain will stop resisting the effort and lean into it. People paint pictures, write music, play sports, build things, and write computer programs for fun. If you can find work that you enjoy, it no longer feels like work. If you can’t find that, then look for something where the outcome pleases you, making the effort worth it.