How Your lack Of Progress Is A Sign Of Progression

This article will explain why your failures and lack of progress are the very things you need to reach the success you desire.

Have you ever struggled with the thought of how much work you will need to do to succeed at what you’re working towards? But if you were receiving continuous results for said work, I bet you wouldn’t feel as much friction.

The problem is, that most things worth pursuing usually come with the unfortunate reality of needing years of work with nothing in return.

The way I see it, people have two options.

Option 1 - Find something they are so good at that they almost instantaneously get the desired outcomes.

Option 2 - Find a way to keep going until said outcomes eventually come. 

Option one seems more attractive, however, hoping for such a thing is a waste of time and when these rare discoveries are found, they are often a subsequent result of a lot of work and many failed attempts.

Becoming Worthy

It’s fair to say then, that it may be worth turning yourself into the type of person that is capable of working for the necessary period without the constant need for validation. Yet, this leads to the next problem, how do you know the work you’re doing will not be a complete and utter waste of time and effort? 

The blunt answer is, you don’t, but it will never be a waste of time if you ask the correct question. Instead of asking yourself what you are getting from the work, ask yourself “Who am I becoming”. 

When it starts to get daunting, when you start getting tired of working with no outcomes, remind yourself of who it is you’d need to be to get them, it is then you will realize that to become the type of person that is capable of receiving results, you first need to be the person that is capable of working without them.

If you can’t work without rewards, you don’t deserve the reward, equally, if you don’t work without rewards, you’ll never get the reward. 

You’re not only becoming the type of person that will eventually succeed, you’re also going through a very necessary period. By currently failing at getting what you want, you’re increasing the likelihood of receiving what you want in the future because you're learning the necessary lessons that are needed to get results. Without the work you’re currently putting in, you’ll never get to the point of doing the work that gets the results.

Tony Robbins used the legendary Steph Curry as an example of this. Steph Curry has become the greatest 3-point shooter in history in the NBA by making 3,548 shots. You may think this is due to raw natural talent, now although you may be right, it also comes down to an immense amount of shots taken behind closed doors. Tony breaks it down like this:

He takes 500 practice shots a day, 3,500 shots a week, 14,000 a month, 168,000 a year, He has been doing this throughout the entirety of his adult career, which is 15 years. That’s 2,520,000 practice shots, to make 3,548 shots in the NBA and become the greatest in history.

Steph Curry was not rewarded for these practice shots, no one was applauding him for his efforts, but without the shots he took when no one was watching, he wouldn’t have been able to become the most successful shooter of all time. 

You Need to Fail More

It’s natural for us as human beings to lean towards a fail-less strategy, we have an incredible tendency to avoid discomfort, but what if I were to tell you failing is exactly what you need? 

Let's say he missed a third of the practice shots he took, this means for Steph Curry to make the 3,548 shots, he first had to miss 840,000 times. 

You do not need to want to become the best NBA shooter of all time to take a crucial lesson from this, the 840,000 missed shots are all of the failures you’re currently experiencing, look at them as a form of progress, not a form of regression. Seeing such instances in this way can act as a reminder that you’re going in the right direction.

“Failure is not a bad thing, and to increase your chances of success you need to increase your failure rate” - Steven Bartlett 

This comes from the person who worked with and advised some of the biggest companies in the world, including Apple, Nike, Amazon, Uber, TikTok, and Coca-Cola. He has seen first-hand that without constant experiments and the failures that came with them, these companies wouldn't be where they are today.

Once you start to see failures as a form of progress, they start to discourage you less, and when this happens, an incredible amount of progress starts to be evoked. I like to see it like this: failing once means you won't make that same mistake again, but it can also mean you avoid 10 other similar mistakes, meaning by failing once, you can learn multiple lessons and avoid future failures. It’s the fastest form of growth. 

So the next time you feel discouraged with your lack of progress or experience your next failure, remind yourself that you’re exactly where you need to be. Learn and keep going.