It's going to suck some of the time. A lot of the time. Most of the time? But the difference between those of you who persist and those of you who ditch is that the former can access something good about the moments in your project when it sucks and it's terrible and it never ends and who cares you're gonna die anyway.

I really resonate with Tasshin and Mary's model of the ideal service project. You have your own thresholds for how much fun, you-shapedness, benefit, feasibility, and ambition your projects need for you to see them through. Awareness of your bottlenecks is the first step toward changes that will help you persist. Perhaps this model doesn't resonate with you and if so that's great! What's incorrect about it? There's your clue.

Even after you've taken steps to help your project work suck less, it'll still suck at times. Here are some ways to access the good in the suck:

Camaraderie: Everyone who has ever done anything sufficiently effortful has felt the same suck you're feeling! You're simply humanity's current torchbearer for the suck. Enjoy your connection to this feeling shared by billions and billions across time and space.

Progress: Unless you're at the very very beginning, you've made some progress toward the outcome you want. Where you are right now is worth appreciating, even celebrating. Those same arduous increments that got you to where you are now will get you to where you want to go.

Curiosity: There's a gap between what you know right now and what you need to know to finish the project. You have some ideas about how to move forward, but you don't know whether they'll pan out. Lean into your own interest about what's going to happen next, because the unknown is so exciting.

When you accept and work with the inevitable moments of suck on the path to affecting some change you want to see in your life, in your circle, in your community, it begins to suck just a little bit less. That makes all of the difference.