How to get over the fear/feeling bad about terminating an employee

Hello reddit, small business owner here. How do you get over the fear/feeling bad about terminating an employee? Im a fairly new business owner (8 months) and still learning lots about running a business.

For context, we have had a troublesome employee who we've given a lot of grace and kindness. Misses work on average once every two weeks, refuses to perform given tasks they are more than qualified to perform, constantly complain to me and other employees about being busy, gives other employees attitude and snarky and rude comments, leaving work early without permission and etc.

It's been a long time coming and my only mistake is we should have let her go a long time ago. With all that being said, I still care about this employee and the thought of letting her go makes me feel terrible.

Does it get easier over time? Any input and thoughts would be appreciated!