Ever feel like you’re getting nowhere… even though you’re working so hard?
Don’t lose sight of how far you’ve come and above all, don't stand still.
Here’s the thing no one tells you:
If you only focus on what’s missing, you might give up, not because you’re failing, but because you think you are.
It’s dangerously easy to ignore your wins.
To obsess over what’s not working, what’s not done, what’s still not good enough and ultimately the money that is NOT coming in.
But if you don’t pause to see your progress, here’s what can happen:
You lose motivation when progress feels invisible.
Motivation thrives on feedback. If you can’t see what’s working, your brain registers effort without reward, which is demoralising and can lead to you wanting to quit.
You miss the “compound interest” of consistency.
Just like savings, small efforts build up. But if you ignore your daily actions, you undervalue your long-term growth, and may abandon a process right before the tipping point. (Think: James Clear’s concept of delayed results from Atomic Habits.)
You overlook your emotional wins.
Success isn’t just financial or measurable, it’s also emotional. Are you more confident? More resilient? Still showing up when it’s hard? making an impact on someone's life?
These “soft wins” often go unnoticed, but they are foundational to long-term success.
Progress often feels boring.
The daily grind, sending the email, showing up to the meeting, tweaking the offer — can feel like nothing’s moving. Like you’re on a treadmill, not a journey. But this quiet repetition is exactly what builds momentum. It’s the unglamorous consistency that creates breakthroughs later. The standstill isn’t a sign to stop — it’s part of the process working.
You forget that discomfort is the norm.
Most people interpret struggle as a red flag. But building something always feels awkward. If its something new, it's even more so! Mistaking this for failure is what stops people from pushing through.
You lose trust in your own judgement.
If you constantly doubt your progress, you start to over-correct, chase shiny objects, or shift direction too often. This creates instability and slows your momentum.
Think: All those ideas that you're having and need to be done NOW! No they don't. Add them to your maybe list and don't let them be an excuse for not focusing on the hard thing.
As An Wang's quote goes:
"Success is more of a function of consistent common sense that it is of genius."
Success is not an "event", it sneaks up on you happens while you are sweating away feeling like nothing is happening. It’s the daily grind, the steady build, the unglamorous persistence.
So take a breath. Look back. See how far you’ve come.
You’re not lost. You’re just on the path, the same one every successful person has walked, one step at a time.
Keep going.