You are far and away

There is something about being in the midst of an experience that makes it seem less insurmountable. If you're in the thick of it, usually it doesn't seem as bad as if you were looking in from elsewhere. An example would be driving in a snow storm. When it's just the snow, and the car and you in the car; even on my worse driving nights out to my previous house in the country, down unplowed and overblown roads, when I got home and I'd look at the storm from inside, I would realize how truly dangerous it had been to be driving in it. At the wheel, it was just lots of snow flying at my window, and my shoulders hunched up around my ears.
I think it's once we take a moment to reflect and ponder what we've been through that things go south and we feel like it's something we could never do again, but usually do nevertheless.