Most people come to meditation hoping it will fix something — anxiety, sleep, anger, the rush in the chest before a meeting. That is a perfectly good reason to start. It is not, in the end, why people keep going.
What meditation actually does, over time, is much quieter than that. It teaches you to notice your own mind. Not control it. Not silence it. Notice it. And then, eventually, to be less interested in every thought it produces.
What it is not
It is not making your mind blank. Minds do not go blank. Anyone who says otherwise has not sat for very long.
It is not feeling peaceful for twenty minutes. Some sits are restless, dull, even unpleasant. Those still count. They often count more.
It is not a productivity tool, though it sometimes makes you more useful. It is not a cure, though it sometimes loosens what hurt.
Why most beginners stop
Because nothing dramatic happens. Because their knees hurt. Because they sat down expecting calm and instead found their own loud, anxious, judging mind, fully audible for the first time, and decided that meant they were bad at it.
You are not bad at it. You are simply meeting your mind without the usual noise covering it. That is not the failure. That is the beginning.