I was having a conversation with my husband the other day about how easy it can be to forget how not-easy a thing we know how to do really well actually is. For example, I’m a professional editor and have been for many years; for me, editing is easy. It’s what I love to do, I’ve been doing it forever, and I’m very good at it (good enough to have built a successful career around it).

But that doesn’t mean editing is objectively easy. I have always studied language, from the time I first understood what the written word was. I have been an independent reader since I was three years old and a writer of stories since at least the first grade. I took advanced literature courses all through school. I took Latin in college (which I highly recommend; it taught me more about English than any English class I ever took). I wrote, then edited, for the school newspaper. I built a portfolio. I got a Master’s degree in writing and publishing. I started off in marketing as a copywriter and learned how to wield words. I edited so much copy. I wrote for, then became various kinds of editor for, magazines. And here I am, nearly 38 years old, able to say that yes, editing is easy. Of course it is; look at all the work I’ve put in just to be able to say that!

I was going to turn this into a piece about how writing isn’t easy, and you should never think it is from either end (either as an author or as a consumer of the written word). But I think that point is made in the above, so I’ll make this far more important point instead: Never forget all the work you’ve put in to get where you are. Whether it’s in your career, in your personal life, reflected within yourself or in the life you’ve built around you, if it feels “easy” it’s because you’ve done the work. If it looks “easy” it’s because you have achieved mastery and your skillset is constantly thrumming in the background like a well-oiled machine. If it sounds “easy” it’s because you have the map in your head to get from A to Z on a path you’ve traveled before.

Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.

And don’t convince yourself that anything is merely “easy” for anyone else, either.

Everyone is putting in work. Some of it is obvious. Some of it isn’t. All of it is valid.

In fact, “easy” may be the most difficult thing of all.