Ever noticed that for so many things that you enjoy or are good for you, there's a bit of boring, monotonous labor built in? I call it the drudgery of doing or becoming, because great things rarely get done without parts like that.
The creator's idea was probably to filter out those who really want something, from those who just talk about it. You think you want it, but can you labor to get it done?
When problem solving at work, the exciting part for me is usually figuring out what the problem is and how to solve it. By the time I'm deep in the weeds implementing, that excitement usually dies out and I'm left with the boring work I still have to do anyways to finish up.
I think the hills and valleys metaphor holds true here. After the hills of extreme creativity and ideation, there's the valley of drudgery - all the little things you need to do to get that final result your mind's eye can already see.
Even with learning a new skill, after the highs of a new experience which has your neurons firing, there's still some grunt work needed to master the skill, or even have a firm grip of the basics.
This is a leveler in some ways - not many people can be the thinker upper who constantly finds great ideas, but we can all become better at our crafts or interests by slowly chipping at it, showing up even for the unsexy bits. That takes willpower.
It's easy to romanticize accomplishment without thinking about how much boring work comes with it. Although realizing it can be a rude shock, I'm learning to embrace the drudgery and push through it to the results I want.