Why Your Work Looks Like Nothing Is Happening (Until Suddenly It Is)
I drive past a construction site on my way home every evening.
For two weeks, nothing. Just dirt and a foundation. I started thinking they'd abandoned the project.
Then one day—walls. The next week—a roof. Now it looks like a house.
But here's the thing: work was happening every single day. I just couldn't see it during my evening commute. The electricians came at 7am. The plumbers worked through lunch. The framing crew finished by 3pm.
I missed all of it because I only showed up after the visible work was done.
The Pattern I Keep Seeing
This same dynamic shows up everywhere.
A tree in my backyard grew six inches this summer. I never saw it happen. I'd look at it every morning with my coffee, and it looked exactly the same. Until suddenly, in August, I noticed it was taller than the fence.
The growth happened. I just wasn't watching at the right moments.
And I see it with people too.
That writer on Twitter just announced their second book deal. How? I've been working on my manuscript for a year and I'm still rewriting chapter three.
My friend's business seems to be everywhere suddenly. New clients. Speaking gigs. A waitlist. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to land my first paying customer.
The guy at the gym looks completely different than he did six months ago. I've been showing up three times a week and I look exactly the same.
What do they have that I don't?
Why This Pattern Matters
We judge our own work by the invisible hours. We know how much we're grinding during the day when nobody's looking.
We judge everyone else's work by the visible results. We see the book deal announcement. The full client roster. The transformation photo.
This makes us feel like we're behind. Like everyone else has some magic we don't have.
They don't.
That writer? I'm seeing their book deal. I'm not seeing the year they spent writing a terrible first draft at 5am. The twenty agent rejections. The second novel they abandoned completely.
My friend's business didn't explode overnight. I'm just noticing it now that there are visible results. I didn't see the six months they spent testing ideas that flopped. The failed launches. The nights they rebuilt everything because nothing was working.
The gym guy has been going at 6am for a year. I only started noticing when the results became obvious. I didn't see him grinding through the months where nothing seemed to change.
They're just at a different part of the build. I'm seeing their walls go up. I'm not seeing their 7am foundation pour.
What This Means for Your Work
If you're building something right now—a novel, a business, a new skill—and it feels like nothing is happening?
That's normal.
You're pouring the foundation at 7am. You're running electrical nobody will ever see. You're doing the work that doesn't show up in Instagram posts or casual conversations.
The house will appear. The tree will grow. The business will look like an overnight success.
But only if you keep showing up during the invisible hours.
Try this: Next time you see someone else's success and feel frustrated that you're not there yet, ask yourself: "Am I comparing my foundation to their walls?"
Both are necessary. But you can't skip to the visible part.
What are you building right now that nobody can see yet?