This is one thing you cannot avoid, is "doing the work".
Many inspirational stories, given various constraints, can only really illustrate the time and effort involved in achieving the "thing".
And you get an idea. But like anything related to "experience", you really have to live the experience yourself to truly know the weight, size, scale of the effort involved in doing this work.
You may be inspired and make your best estimation of what this effort may cost you, what price you may have to pay to achieve such feats. But you will never really know until you attempt it.
To achieve the thing, you do the work.
You do the work, you (have a much better chance to) achieve the thing.
The bit before the work- deciding what you're going to do, and even the bit about the work- how you go about doing the work- are negotiable, debatable, configurable- the only bit where no quarter is given, is that there will always be "the work" to be done, and there is no getting around it.
So you might as well do it.
"Chop wood, carry water".