Most of a tree lives underground. Most of your growth will too.

The visible part of anyone’s development is a small fraction of it. Reading, thinking, failing privately, conversations that changed your mind, the years of unglamorous practice: none of that shows, which is why other people’s progress looks sudden and your own looks slow. You are comparing your roots with their branches.

Stop treating unseen work as wasted work. The evening nobody knows about is still load-bearing. Keep some record for yourself if you need reassurance, but do not require visibility before you count something as real.