Work in silence

PROGRESS IS NOT ALWAYS VISIBLE

A seed buried beneath the darkness of the earth, does not sprout overnight. It stretches its roots silently downward before the first green shoot breaks through the soil. Sometimes, an artist sketches a hundred failed drafts before he emerges with a masterpiece. An athlete would have gone through months and probably years of intense training, physical and mental conditioning before exhibiting his abilities on platforms that would announce him to the world.

It is natural to wrestle with confusion, that is what comes before clarity arrives like dawn. Growth is often quiet, sometimes messy, and mostly invisible. The work you are putting into what you do now, the small efforts, the daily discipline, the setbacks you endure, may not yet be obvious, but that does not mean nothing is happening. Nevertheless, you still have to trust the process. The invisible work is still work, and one day, without fanfare, the world will see what was growing all along.

We expect growth to announce itself, we want to see clear signs of progress, we want to be able to measure our gains, we want to recieve applause, and accolades for the progress we are making, and the breakthroughs we are having, but real progress is often silent, hidden in the quiet spaces between effort and outcome.

Society always celebrates the visible, the finished product, the before-and-after, while undervaluing the slow but steady movement, the necessary work that happens in the dark shadows of the night. Just because you cannot see the shift does not mean it is not happening. Every small step; every dogged, determined effort; every lesson learned in failure is a thread in the fabric of your growth. Transformation does not always come with a spotlight. Trust the unseen. Keep going. The most powerful progress often happens when no one is watching, not even you.

To a better you, Kamikun John.