An open secret to success you ignore

How success happens?

Slowly. Gradually.

And then in a smash. Suddenly.

But we remain unaware of the slow changes that unfolded bit by bit beneath the surface, and feel no major activity took place.

Behind the scenes work is hidden, because after all, it’s behind the scenes. It’s solitary, boring, hard work.

Work that makes you fall and sucks your energy. Work that forces you to pass through dreary deserts and long droughts.

Despite your massive efforts, you feel no progress is taking place, and this feeling could remain in your heart for months or even for years. Your belief in yourself begins to waver, and you feel like calling it quits.

Let’s say that you’re trying to become a writer. You read different books, research the market, decide your target audience, and then assimilate all the information that you gathered to change it into a book.

During all this unattractive time, you fall and fail several times.

Friends and reviewers tell you that your arguments are going in the wrong direction. Sometimes you delete huge portions and rewrite it all from a different angle.

But once the book hit the stands, it takes the country with storm, and you’re at the top.

Dreary deserts are over and you enter luxuriant lands. Voila!

However, one unfamiliar with the actions you have put forth during the course presumes that it became a super hit just in a matter of short time.

Take the example of a bamboo tree. A lot of activity takes place beneath the surface around the rootage, but from the outside it seems that everything is dull.

Then one day, a shoot pops up, and begins to grow with an astounding pace. From several inches to a foot a day.

Before you cross 10 days, you see a whole bamboo grown up to unbelievable heights, stout and sturdy.

Success doesn’t come overnight. But we look at the final picture, choosing to ignore the little steps that went into making it a comprehensive whole.

This deceptive feeling makes us feel impatient. Because we work and work hoping that the final outcome would come soon, but even after massive efforts and long periods, the goal seems far off in the distance.

It’s discouraging. We think of the person who became the bestseller overnight, and the story that our progress is slow plays in our mind.

We hope to get results quickly, but all good, meaningful works take time and effort.

We see the success, not the failures that came down the course as he strove, keeping forth one little action after the other.

This translates to?

When you hear a voice in your head which says that no progress is taking place, know that it’s a demon, and keep at your work.

The underground work could have got over. You could just be going to shoot up the surface.