uphill battle

I really struggled with week 7 of Couch to 5K. Couldn't figure out why I was huffing and puffing so much doing my slow jog through the 25 minutes. About halfway through the second run of the week, I noticed that the incline on the treadmill had been set to 4. I usually run at about a 1.5 incline; apparently someone in my family who had used the treadmill had cranked it up and I had run uphill several miles without noticing, even though that "4" was just staring me in the face as I leaned over the handrails, gasping and sweating.

It made me think: what else am I making more difficult for myself because I just plow on ahead without paying attention?