When Progress Feels Invisible

A few months back, I was trying to learn how to automate a simple workflow.

What started as curiosity led me down a rabbit hole — writing prompts, copying custom code to scrape websites, trying to build small tools with ChatGPT’s help.

Most of it was blind trial and error:
Paste the code → hit an error → copy the error → ask ChatGPT again → get new code → paste again. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

It was frustrating. I felt stupid. And at the end, I still didn’t get the final thing working.

But — I did end up knowing how an API call looks, what a webhook does, where code usually breaks. Tiny dots connected. It didn’t feel like success. But it did feel like something got done.

That became part of my done list.

This week, try flipping your focus:
Instead of making a to-do list — try keeping a done list.

Write down what you actually finished, even if it felt messy or incomplete.

• That conversation you finally had?
• That nap your body needed (and you allowed)?
• That video you didn’t post but edited anyway?

It counts. Even the unfinished teaches something.

We’ve been trained to measure progress in milestones: launches, raises, recognitions.

But real progress is often internal:

• When you don’t spiral over the same trigger
• When you try again, even after 5 failed prompts
• When you resist the urge to quit just because it looks like “nothing is working”

Not all growth looks impressive. Some of it looks like… you showing up one more time than you gave up.

“Where do I feel stuck — but may actually be learning invisible skills?”
“What have I quietly figured out that my older self would be surprised by?”

There’s progress in frustration. In repetition. In trying something you didn’t know how to do yesterday.

You don’t have to succeed at it. You just have to stay with it long enough to see what it’s making of you.