The Work is Working (Even if you don't feel it yet)

There’s a very trying  stretch between doing work and feeling progress. The part where your systems are improving, your routines are locking in, your team is starting to trust you… but emotionally, you’re still stuck in the same loop of doubt.

Welcome, folks!

Welcome to… The Lag.

It’s the space between planting and harvest. Between the deposit and the compounding interest. Hell, between the brush stroke and the paint drying.

And most people quit there. In the Lag. Which is interesting, in the sense that this lag, or middle state, is where all the muscle gets built without noticing it. It’s where resilience shifts, and your concept turns into character. And this happens everywhere, from teams to careers to relationships.

But, erm, let’s stick with marketing. Here’s how the Lag kicks your butt in marketing.

The lag is most obnoxiously noxious when the marketing org that’s rebuilding its GTM model doesn’t feel effective at week six. That’s just when it hits that stretch of discomfort before clarity.

The leader getting back into fitness doesn’t feel stronger at day 14; they’re just reacquainting themselves with effort. (And they spent the first 11 days in the gym just trying to untangle their headphones.) (Because they still have corded headphones.) (Because Airpods get LOST, okay??)

The parent rebuilding trust after chaos doesn’t feel like progress; they’re just learning to show up quietly.

But inside, in all of those examples, is where the Lag is telling you to scream, fists shaking, at the moon, shouting “Is any of this even working?!?”

And… it is. That werewolf audition is actually where the proof is.

In my experience, I’ve tried to learn to track evidence, not emotion:

• When the team that starts asking sharper questions, even if they still hesitate to act…

• When the indelibly charming Tomorrow CMO post doesn’t go viral, but starts a handful of meaningful conversations with exactly the right people…

• When the morning comes up fast and you don’t feel motivated to put on those gym sneakers for that workout…

• And when you choose, in the moment, to not react to the rage-baity thing that used to get your steam flowing…

This is the compound interest I was looking for the whole time.

It’s hard, really, when we expect transformation to feel triumphant and it all just feels like monotony. But progress doesn’t announce itself — it accumulates quietly in the background until one day, you realize you’ve become the person who would’ve been proud of this version of yourself.

So here’s a thought experiment for the week:

Look at the work you’ve been doing - personal, professional, interpretive dancing, whatever - and write down three things that are objectively better than they were 60 days ago.

You might not feel the difference yet, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. Find the evidence that the work is working.

You’ll also find that’s when you start to catch up to it, too.