Trusting the Process When You’re Not Seeing Results
Photo by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash.
It's goal time! Your target is clear. A new level of revenue, an exciting launch, a new product, a creative dream. You’re bright eyed and bushy tailed, full of motivation. You hustle. You invest money, time, attention, energy. You expect equivalent results, and you expect them SOON. And then … it takes so. much. longer than you expected. Success doesn’t feel linear. It feels messy. It even feels like you’re going backwards.
You start to question whether you can really achieve what you want. Are you cut out for this? Can you make it? Should you just keep plugging away, or is it time to throw in the towel?
Making slow (or seemingly circular) progress can be enormously frustrating. And it can be especially so for high-achieving, driven, creative entrepreneurs who want to make a true impact.
So how do we trust the process … and not lose our minds?
These four practices can help keep your sanity:
(1) Play the long game.
I read this week that most things worth creating in life — a family, a business, a healthy romantic partnership, a better relationship with our bodies or work — take about five years.
Five years.
But most of us expect results within six months (ok, maybe within 30 days).
So, get honest with yourself. What are your expectations (explicit and implicit) for results within a certain timeframe?
And — critically — what are you making it mean about yourself if you’re not seeing these yet?
We wrap our ego into our results all the time, without realising that this is exactly what gets in the way of playing the long game.
If you were taking action today with a five-year time horizon, how would you approach this challenge differently?
(2) Beware the lie of linear progress
When we’re in the thick of our messy middle, it’s natural to look at others’ stories and compare our own to them.
“How come they’re succeeding so quickly?”
“It looks so easy for her.”
“It’s not fair he had an overnight success!”
“What am I doing wrong?!”
The thing is, other people’s stories look linear because that’s how storytelling works. And it’s not manipulative.
After all, we can only make sense of our lives, and the world, by looking backwards. When we’re moving forwards, all we see is the chaos of (not-yet-connected) dots.
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
— SOREN KIERKEGAARD
All those people you admire? It really wasn’t linear for them at the time, and it still isn’t.
They explored avenues that ended up being dead-ends, too. They were also ghosted by potential clients. They also had days they woke up and wondered whether it was worth continuing. They also scrolled through LinkedIn and compared themselves to their peers. (They still do.)
Remember: you’re still in the middle of your story, not the end.
And that means….
(3) This is your video montage
My husband said something brilliant to me recently. I’d been feeling demoralised at the lag between action and results in an area of my business.
He said to me: “Megan, this is your video montage.”
In other words: this is the part of the movie where the Director splices together all different shots of you busily reading, writing, doing, talking … and then knits them together over an upbeat three-minute song, so it feels fun and energizing.
The montage = the struggle. It’s an essential part of the story arc.
And it always takes longer than the movies show. In fact, that’s the whole point … if they showed how long it really took, none of us would stick around until the end of the movie.
4. Keep doing your reps.
Don’t quit on yourself.
Think creatively about what you might do differently, if you need. Don’t keep banging your head against the wall.
But keep showing up. Be consistent in whatever you’re trying to achieve. If you want to develop thought leadership, write a new blog post and publish it, even if you think it’s not your best work. If you want to build your strength, go out for that run today even if it’s raining. If you want to build a better relationship, ask your partner how they are, and really listen.
If you’re not getting results yet, focus on the next micro-step in front of you. Keep taking tiny actions. And don’t get distracted by your longer-term goal.
After all: anyone can have a goal. What differentiates people who succeed is their commitment to the process in front of them.
The process can be messy and humbling, and it can be hugely lonely.
But it’s part of anything worth doing well. The process is the way, even when it’s hard.
Something to chew on: What actions would you take now if you knew you didn’t need to produce results in the next six months?
This post was written in 12 minutes, followed by a few simple edits for grammar and clarity. It’s an active practice to transcend perfectionism and paralysis when it comes to my creative work.