Celebrate How Far You’ve Come
September always gives me a sense of time passing. The kids start school a year older than they started school the year before. I compare these pictures, and in the changing heights and the hint of color on the vines, feel the weight of hours come and gone.
Perhaps that sounds dreary. But September can also be a time to celebrate how much has changed. Incremental progress is hard to see in the moment, but it adds up over time.
That thought has been on my mind since I read my friend?Dorie Clark’s new book, The Long Game: How to be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World?(on sale later this month — and definitely worth a pre-order!). Dorie writes that “To gain notice in your field, it often takes two to three years of effort before you see any results. At that point, you’ll often start to see ‘raindrops’ — small, intermittent signs of progress.” That said, “to truly become a recognized expert, it often takes at least five years of consistent effort.” By then, some little bets placed earlier start to pay off, exponentially. “It’s a huge leap of faith — so much time invested for a very uncertain outcome. It’s easy to see why others wouldn’t bother or would quickly give up,” Dorie writes. But if you don’t give up or get distracted, strategic patience “becomes your competitive advantage.”?
I moved to New York City on September 2, 2002 with the general hope of becoming a writer. As I turn around edits on my 8th book, it seems that of course that’s what I would spend my life doing. But it was not inevitable. I tried a lot of things that didn’t work. I tried things that worked for a while and then stopped working. I try things now that get rejected by gatekeepers or land in public with a thud. In the midst of disappointment you have to just keep trying, hunting for small wins, and trusting that no one is an overnight success. I remember listening to an interview with a pop star years ago. The interviewer asked her what it was like to come out of no where to a number one song. She was gracious about the question, but mentioned that she had been playing in clubs and other venues to bigger and bigger crowds for years. Her “overnight success” took a decade.?
So it goes. We aren’t all going to have number one songs. But as we play to those bigger venues, we can note the first time the seats are full. The first time there’s a line out the door. The first time people are singing along.?
As September begins, think about the things that seem normal now that would have been big wins years ago. Maybe it’s a stable home life if that’s not what you grew up with. Maybe it’s a growing net worth when you once juggled rent and utility bills. And maybe you are doing creative, exciting work that was in no way guaranteed to happen. You simply kept taking small steps, choosing to spend your hours in ways that might move you forward.?
These are all things to celebrate. Life seldom hands out the Champagne. But you can notice, September to September, how things change. I’m grateful that there are more people reading this newsletter now than there were when I sent the first missive in early fall 2010. It’s just a few new people signing up each day. But over time, that adds up.?
What’s been adding up for you?
This article originally appeared in an email to my newsletter subscribers. You can sign up at https://lauravanderkam.com/contact/.