I'm not going to claim that programming is easy, but I am going to say that it is not hard for the reasons people usually assume it is. Comparing programming to some physical tasks, programming does not require some innate talent or skill, like gymnastics or painting or singing. You don't have to be strong or coordinated or graceful or have perfect pitch.
Programming does , however, require care and craftsmanship, like carpentry or metalworking.
If you've ever taken a shop class, you may remember that some students seemed to be able to turn out beautiful projects effortlessly, while other students were all thumbs and made the exact mistakes that the teacher told them not to make. What distinguished the successful students was not that they were better or smarter, but just that they paid more attention to what was going on and were more careful and deliberate about what they were doing. In programming, the details matter. You have to dot your i's and cross your t's. If the language says you have to declare variables before using them, you have to.