Time takes time. It’s one of those annoying truisms that leaves you saying, “Well, duh.” In this case, the first mention of “time” in the saying really means progress. So, we can translate that sentence to read, progress takes time…well, duh.

I joke, of course, but it’s really important to consider that if you aren’t making the progress you want to make in your life, maybe you aren’t using your time wisely. Maybe you aren’t exerting enough effort in the amount of time you have. Maybe you aren’t doing either, and are just hoping to win the lottery so progress can be bought.

I’ll tell you one thing: In all my years of seeing people progress, never once was it due solely to luck or chance…or the damn lottery. They worked hard. They worked regularly. They managed their time well, and it paid off for them.

In this blog, I want to explore this simple equation:

Time + Tenacity + Effort → Progress 

Let’s take a look.

Understanding Progress

What is progress exactly? Isn’t it moving forward and growing in the right direction until you achieve your wildest dreams? Could it also be failing so badly that you know what never to try doing again? I think so.

When people think of progress, they usually think of it in positive terms, in light of a positive outcome. Growth. Achievement. Success.

When I think of growth, I think uncomfortable and scary, yet good for me. I think of struggle, hard lessons learned, and a need to persevere.

When I see growth in my life, I see myself growing through things, growing because of things, and they often aren’t unequivocally happy or fun things. Growth is hard, but it’s a necessary facet of progress. They’re called growing pains for a reason, folks.

When I think of achievement, I think “struggle” again. If you just achieve and achieve without any struggle or growth, you’re staying at the same level. It may be a comfortable level to be at, but you’re not pushing yourself. That’s not progress.

You have to struggle to achieve great things. Work hard. Stay late. Come in early. Work more diligently than ever before. That’s how you achieve progress.

With all apologies to Norman Vincent Peale, the father of “power of positive thinking,” when I think of success, I think of failure. That’s because you can’t have one without the other. Imagine how many times the Wright Brothers failed before they succeeded. A lot. They nearly almost killed themselves, but it was worth it to them to fly. If you want to succeed, you have to be prepared to fail; and sometimes you have to fail a lot.

Reframing progress this way sounds like it’s full of struggle and failure, I know. But you know what? Progress, if you know the feeling, you know it’s worth it.

The Role of Time

Einstein loosely said that time is an illusion we all buy into. Still, it’s an illusion we need in order to live in today’s world. Time is the background against which the fabric of our lives takes shape. It’s the way we gauge our needs. Do we need something now? Or can it wait?

Time is also what we need in order to achieve progress. Without it, we have no time to fail, no time to succeed, and no time to try. I’ve heard it said that most people underestimate what they can get done in a month, and overestimate what they can get done in a year. I find it better to focus on what I can get done right now, but that’s just me.

When you are measuring your goals, and thinking about how you want to get there, you have to ask yourself if you have enough time. Is it feasible? If not, you might want to reevaluate your goal or your timeframe. Whether you reduce it in size or pivot from your original goal, you have to make sure that you estimate your time as wisely as you spend it.

If you find you struggle to use your time wisely, you might want to ask some opinions from others to help you gauge just how much time something might take you to succeed. Be honest with people and let them be honest with you. They just might save you from a stumble by helping you reevaluate your time usage correctly.

The Power of Tenacity

It pays to be tenacious. If you won’t take “No” for an answer, that means at some point, you’re more than likely going to hear “Yes.” Okay, unless you’re on America’s Got Talent. I would not try to ride that train all the way to the end. Let’s face it: In that scenario, your chances are slim, but I digress.

If you set your sights on getting a job done and you never waiver no matter how hard it gets, you WILL get there. It might take longer than you planned. It might be harder than you thought it would be, and you might need to take some detours along the way. But you’ll get there if you just stick with it.

The Impact of Effort

Do you know how I mentioned the lottery before? I’m not saying don’t play the lottery, folks. If you want to, that’s just fine.

What I am saying is, don’t make that your life plan. You have to—I can’t stress those words enough—HAVE TO put effort into whatever you want to accomplish. If you have a goal, unless it’s falling asleep early, you’re probably going to have to put some effort into it. For most of us, there’s just no getting around it.

How Time, Tenacity, and Effort Interact

Let’s see where we’re at. We’ve got our concept of time and time management down, and we understand that sticking with it is the only way to go. We also know there is going to be some effort involved. So what happens when you pool these three things together? You get progress.

Now, I want to reiterate: progress isn’t always pretty. If you looked at an early version of a plane that had crashed, would you be able to see it as progress toward the goal the Wright Brothers had? Well, if you can’t, you’d better find a way.

The plain truth is that when you add these three things together, it yields progress…in any direction. Even going backward can be progress. Heck, sometimes you have to slow down and reevaluate whether or not you’re going down the wrong path. If you have to slow down and back up, that’s progress too.

Overcoming Obstacles to Achieve Progress

I’d like you to know that while you will undoubtedly encounter obstacles on the way to progress, the most important ones to overcome are the obstacles in your mind. The doubt, denial, and fear—they’ll all get you if you let them. If you’re not paying close attention, fear will stop you before you even get started. That’s where tenacity comes in. You have to set your sights, and you don’t waiver, no…matter…WHAT. You just stay fixed on where you want to go, keep exerting effort, and manage your time wisely, and you will get there. It’s the law of progress.

I’ll see you at the top!

If you want to learn more about how to overcome fear when it comes to achieving your big goals, go here.