Mountains and Preseverence

It has been said that standing next to a mountain makes you feel small while standing on a mountain makes you feel big. For the past few months I have stood at the base of a mountain which I have been feeling rather small beside, and have been having trouble mustering the drive to climb. The mountains looming ahead are my Airline Transport exams; the climb the required studying. The excuses and distractions that I could potentially come up are quite plentiful, and I could probably even convince the skeptics that my excuses are valid. Unfortunately making excuses is much like trying a sip of your father's beer as a kid; finding that it tasted like something mom could have used as a substitute for the soap she used to clean your mouth, and nonetheless smiling like you are the greatest 5 year old in the history of five year olds. You may be able to convince those around you, but ultimately you know that your excuses are invalid, and that at five years old you thought beer tasted horrible.
I have never been much one for simply studying to pass an exam. For all of my training thus far, I have operated under the idea that one should study to understand the required subjects and in the process be able to pass the exam, as opposed to studying to pass an exam, and hopefully in the process gaining some understanding of what you are being tested on. Sometimes the disheartening thing about studying material though, is that it uncovers just how little you actually know and after two months of studying I am starting to find that I have more unanswered questions now then I did in the beginning. Confucius once said that "Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance" and if that is true, then perhaps it is only now that I am really learning. I suppose, just as with anything else, there are always multiple ways of looking at any given situation. I can look at my new found lists of questions to answer as a frustrating task or as an opportunity to learn. With each perspective, there is a corresponding, and fairly predictable outcome.
Do I clamber my way up the slope, grumbling but eager for the view held at the top, or do I realize that I am indeed lucky to be climbing this particular mountain and that the struggle to the top will be just as much the reward as reaching the summit?
More questions still, but maybe it will be in the continuing to ask questions that I will find the answers that I am looking for.

Here is one of the sources of my inspiration to continue to ask questions and seek their answers.