the.com/struggle
The toll you pay before anything worth having lets you through.
means To contend hard against something difficult — a task, an opponent, a circumstance — often with effort that outpaces the result.
from From Anglo-Norman 'estruggler,' of uncertain deeper origin — possibly related to Old Norse words for struggling or writhing, though etymologists aren't fully certain. It entered English around the 14th century, already carrying the sense of grappling and striving, and has spent the centuries since describing everything from physical wrestling to the quieter wars fought against debt, grief, or one's own stubborn self.
- original sense
- literally meant physical wrestling or writhing
- psychology term
- productive struggle now describes beneficial learning difficulty
- etymology cousin
- related to strive, same wrestling root
- common myth
- ease signals talent, struggle often builds it instead