Nobody remembers the hallway you walked alone. They remember where you ended up.

The stretch in the middle is invisible from outside, which is part of why it feels so heavy while you are in it. Nobody watches the quiet years or the months of practice with no result, and the lack of witnesses can make it all feel unreal. What people eventually see is the room you walked into, not the corridor.

Since nobody is keeping the record, keep your own. Write one line a week about what you did, not what you achieved. On the days the loneliness of it gets loud, read back a month and let the corridor have some evidence.