Every ring in a tree is a year it didn’t quit. Nobody sees them until the tree’s cut open.

Persistence leaves a mark on the inside where nobody can see it. Every year a tree stays alive adds a line, and the whole record is invisible until something cuts through it. People work like that too: the years you stayed, kept going, held something together while it was hard, are not visible to anyone standing next to you.

Keep your own record, because no one else is keeping it. A note at the end of each year with what you got through, not what you achieved. Read it back the next time somebody tells you that you give up easily.