We all have an iceberg — what the world sees is just the tip of everything it took to get there.
The late nights.
The second guesses.
The hundredth revision no one will ever know about.
That unseen effort is what makes the “effortless” moments possible.
Last week, I gave a keynote on developing a REINVENT•ABLE™ Mindset to a group of financial advisors in Charleston.
I was on stage for just over an hour...
... but here's what it actually took:
- 2 years to develop the framework I shared
- 2 decades of lived experience and work to be able to create it
- Hundreds of hours to put the actual keynote together
- Hundreds of hours to practice and refine it (if you've seen me walking and talking to myself around Boston, this is why!)
- Dozens of hours of talking myself through doubt (about whether it's good enough, unique enough, will create enough impact, etc.)
That one hour on stage was built on a mountain of invisible work.
And it made me think: How often do we dismiss our own invisible work?
All the unseen hours we spend doing, learning, and iterating.
The quiet persistence when progress feels slow.
The doubts and fears we push through and the challenges we overcome.
During a recent session with the women in my Unleash Your Next Accelerator, we did a simple reflection:
I asked them to reflect back on hard things they have done.
It was amazing to witness how their energy shifted when they re-connected to their greatness and resilience. When they
They remembered how capable they truly are.
Sometimes the best way to move forward is to remember how far you’ve already come.
Actually, let me be even more blunt:
The only way to do the challenging things you want to do is to remind yourself about the times you persisted when things were challenging.
We live in a world that celebrates the highlight moments: the launch, the promotion, the standing ovation. But it’s the quiet persistence underneath that creates them.
So if you’re in that in-between phase right now — the messy middle, the goo, — and you're putting in those hours that haven't resulted in anything external yet, please hear me:
You’re not floundering. You’re building.
Every bit of effort, even when no one sees it, is expanding who you are and what you’re capable of.
Your invisible work is not wasted. It’s the foundation of your next visible breakthrough.
Keep taking steps.
Whatever you do, don't stop taking action.
Because one day soon, someone will look at what you’ve created and call it effortless. But you’ll know the truth: it was built on courage, consistency, and a thousand choices to keep going.
I’m cheering you on, always.
Nataly
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