Making Progress That You Can’t See

 There is a skill that is inherent in anything that creates something worthwhile and that is the ability to pursue an endeavour when you can’t yet see the outcome. In an era when instant gratification is all the rage, this notion flies in the face of it.

 It’s not an easy sell. It sounds something like this; how about you show up everyday, do the work and do this over and over again. Along the way, you won’t see much of anything. No progress that’s visible, zero tangible results. Sound good?

 It sounds a terrible idea, but the magic is in the consistency. In the showing up and doing the next thing that’s in front of you to do. Keeping the faith when you can’t see the outcome. This is one of the best skills to cultivate. Delaying gratification in order to increase your skill set, create work with depth, quality over quantity. Something that is in total antithesis to the fast culture we reside in.

 So it takes stamina and a resilience within to stand the course. To be in it for the long game. The first time I decided to turn my art into a business, I had no business experience and I was a self taught artist. Not the best credentials to begin a business in art. I had no contacts in the art world and no logical thinking would have led me to the conclusion that this is where I should invest my time and money. But I did.

 I began with an idea of what I wanted to create and a lot of faith in the unseen. Then I got to work. I created art, I shared art, I sent pitches and I did this over and over again. There was pretty much a case of tumbleweed and deafening silence to anything created and sent out into the world. There was zero evidence that what I was doing was working. I made no profit for the first two years. That was two years of showing up to work with no result showing itself until it did.

 What was required in those two years was a faith in my art and my work and that this is what I wanted more than anything. That my only goal was to make this work, no matter what it took. And it took quite a lot. You have to be pretty strong in the face of people around you asking you how the business is going? Knowing inside that it can work but not being able to show yourself or anyone else in the real world any outcome. In the spaces of silence when you are creating every day and it can feel like everything you put out there is being swallowed up by a void. That takes a skill that is not spoken about as much as the outcomes are. Yet, this is the path to creating fruition.

 You could begin something and it take off and it will feel lucky, but you will not cultivate that all so silent and all so powerful skill of staying the course when everything points to you quitting. So if you are creating anything in this world that matters to you and that you aren’t seeing the results you want as fast as you want, remember, that you are building a power within yourself that will insure an outcome and an ability that will be useful to you in all areas of your life for the long run.