It might be difficult to tell when your hard work is paying off. It will necessitate you asking some tough questions and doing some introspection.
To begin, what does “hard work” mean to you? Is it setting a deadline for completing a project and then working extra hard to meet that deadline? Is it committing to completing something every single day and then observing as your work improves over time?
Don’t set it in front of your computer or on your exercise bike now. Put it away instead. Write where you want to be when you look at it again on the back of it.
Set a goal for yourself, perhaps a month or two, depending on how long you want to work on it. Set a calendar alarm to remind you to check your snapshot when it’s time. Make a schedule for yourself, do something, make something, and create something.
Pull out the snapshot when the timer goes off and look back at where you were – has your hard work paid off? Are you in the place where you want to be? Are you still missing out? After that, get back to work.
But what about the benefits? Because this is crucial: life is about gains, progress, and growth, not all or nothing.
For example, for the past few years, I’ve been attempting to enhance my writing abilities. But, despite my best efforts to work for 30 minutes every day (which I sometimes do, sometimes I don’t), there are days when I believe my efforts will be in vain.
I write the date at the bottom of each page on each day that I wrote something so that when I go back, I can see the progress – figures are more proportionate, legs seem like legs, and so on. The effort is paying off, but it is taking longer than I anticipated and desired.
Were you under the impression that your hard work had already paid off?
Why do you think that is?
You’ll see that your hard work is paying off after you get over the idea of self-imposed time limitations and start putting in some legitimate photo reminders to show you how far you’ve gone.
Yes, YOU are making progress. Stay tuned for more! Keep fighting on!
