Some seasons all the growth happens underground. It looks like nothing from above.

Some stretches produce nothing you can show anyone, and that is not the same as nothing happening. Roots go down before anything comes up, and a period of root growth looks identical to failure from outside and often from inside too. The evidence arrives late, which is the hard part about trusting any of it.

If you are in one of those stretches, measure inputs rather than results. Hours put in, reps done, pages read. Keep the count somewhere visible so that on bad days you have something other than your mood to consult.