121. Invisible Progress. Why personal growth isn’t always immediately visible.

Hi everyone and welcome to Project Mindset. This channel is for all of you who know that with the right mindset, anything is possible. First of all, I have to apologize for the recent irregular release of new podcast episodes. The reason is that I’m currently in the middle of preparations for an event taking place on April 23rd. This is an event I organize once a year called Dinnheim Castle. It’s held at Heidelberg Castle and is incredibly fun, but, as always, the effort involved in organizing events is surprisingly high.

This time I’m planning on having just over 300 guests, five different panel discussions on the topic of business and sustainability. So it’s going to be a really great day. Last year there were about 100 and some change, and this time I’m aiming to break the 300 mark. Then we’ll be starting to reach the castle’s capacity limits. Why am I doing all this? Well, like with the podcast, it’s a completely over-the-top hobby of mine. I’m not a full-time event organizer.

I believe that regular listeners know that I really enjoy doing things I find fun. Networking, and speaking in the context of business and sustainability, is something I find incredibly enjoyable. Speaking in the context of mindset is also incredibly enjoyable. And that’s why I’m now hosting this event for the third time. Therefore, please excuse my somewhat irregular podcast release schedule lately. I promise to do better, at the latest after the event.

Preparations for dinner at the castle

So, today is April 10th, the day this podcast is released, and the event where it’s held is on the 23rd. And after that, I definitely promise to do better. Perhaps with that in mind, before I get to today’s podcast episode. Today I want to talk about the topic of Invisible Progress. I could tell you a thing or two about that topic. And I thought I’d delve into it a bit more today. It’s definitely going to be quite interesting. But before I do that, maybe I’ll share a few personal anecdotes from my life here and there.

And this case is something I find really interesting. A few months ago, to be precise, I was at the Bits and Pretzels event in Munich. I found it incredibly interesting. It’s basically about bringing startups together with investors. There were exciting presentations, fascinating panel discussions, and so on. And there was a startup pitch competition right in the middle of the stage. Each startup had, I think, two or three minutes to pitch. And it went down extremely well with my audience.

Inspiration through a pitch competition

I really enjoyed it too. I think there were about four or five startups that pitched. Each pitch was two or three minutes long, I can’t remember exactly. And then there was such a sharp cut. And you could really feel it. The excitement of the pitchers, the startups themselves, they were so happy when the pitches were over. And I liked the concept so much that I said, hey, at my next event, the next dinner at the castle, I’m going to do a pitch competition like this too.

Also in the context of sustainability. I then thought I’d do this for green tech startups from the region here and from other regions, wherever the people come from. I was completely surprised by how many people, how many startups contacted me and wanted to pitch at the event on April 23rd, and I completely underestimated it. And that’s also a lifelong experience of mine, that I completely underestimate the tasks and the effort involved. When you have a small idea, you completely underestimate how much work it actually takes to coordinate something like that, to stay in contact with the startups, to prepare everything properly.

Take up ideas and implement them yourself

I also have a jury on site who will evaluate everything, and so on. So what I’m trying to say is, it’s always good to roll up your sleeves and get inspired. In my case, it was at the Bits and Pretzels event, this startup pitch event. And I need to slowly get into the habit of thinking, hey, okay, if I estimate the effort will take maybe ten working days, then I definitely have to multiply that by three or four. Because that’s the realistic amount of work involved.

So what I’m trying to say is, put your ideas into action. But I think you also have to pay a little attention to how much effort is realistic and whether it fits into your current life situation. Anyway, let’s get to the actual topic of today’s podcast: Invisible Progress. I find the concept incredibly interesting. I heard about it on another podcast a while ago, and I can’t even remember what it was called there.

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I somehow saved it under “invisible progress,” as if I’d written it down in my journal for myself. And the concept is this: We all know that feeling when we’ve been working on something for a long time and see no progress. It can easily happen that you lose interest, lose courage, lose the will to finish the project, the work, or whatever it is that’s in front of you. And this analogy fits very well here.

For example, if we think about the topic of ice and water, specifically applying invisible progress to water or ice, what does that mean? Imagine a temperature of minus 10 degrees Celsius and a block of ice that’s simply lying there, stable and not melting. It doesn’t melt at minus 9 degrees, minus 8, or minus 7 either. Visually, nothing at all happens. Even though the temperature is changing, we don’t see any change in the ice itself.

And of course, that goes down to minus 2, to minus 1, and then we get to 0 degrees and a touch above 0 degrees, and then the ice starts to melt. I think this analogy translates perfectly to the issues I’m currently dealing with in my life. When I’m working on projects, at my job, working on various things, and I see absolutely no progress for weeks or months. And the topic of events is also something like that, where you suddenly see everything, the result of what you’ve done.

Why every single step counts

But you work for weeks, for months, on something where you see absolutely no progress. And now, let’s apply that to melting ice. It’s important to go through these individual temperatures. So, minus 10, minus 9, minus 8, and so on and so forth until you reach 0. And from 0, or a little above, it then starts to melt. I find this concept incredibly, incredibly, incredibly important for me, for my personal mindset. Whenever, for example, as you know, I’m self-employed, or rather…

I have my own company and sell, among other things, sports equipment and nutritional supplements. And there are, of course, phases where, when I’m working on a new product, for example, I don’t feel like I’m making any progress at all, it seems like a long way off until the product is even released, and so on and so forth. For a long time, nothing happens, even though I’m working on it for at least a few hours every day.

And then, of course, it can happen that you lose interest a bit or even think, “What am I doing all this for?” It reminds me a bit of my university studies back then. I was always, well, it took almost ten semesters in total. I studied business administration at the University of Mannheim, until I finally finished it. You really need willpower and perseverance for that. And it feels like you’re studying for years, but nothing changes if you don’t have time to actually work.

Whether you get any smarter is another question, but it feels like you’re making absolutely no progress in your life, except maybe a little bit in the studies themselves.

Invisible progress in studies and sports

You make absolutely no progress, but you still have to have the will and the knowledge. Yes, in the end, something important happens for me. You can apply that to all other areas of life. I find the topic of sports, for example, incredibly interesting. If we think about it, for instance, whenever we’ve taken a break from sports and then start again on the first day, we don’t notice anything after the first training session. Maybe a few muscles hurt, maybe we have muscle soreness, and so on.

But looking in the mirror doesn’t bother me at all. The scale shows practically nothing; you probably even gain weight after the first few days of training. On the second day, you see nothing, on the third day you see nothing, and so on and so forth. I’d say you see practically nothing for the first three or four weeks. So why do you train anyway? Because you know perfectly well that every single training session counts. That means I have to do training session number one, number two, number three, and so on and so forth.

I’ll have to do number thirty before I even see the first progress. I think that’s a bit easier to understand in sports because we know from life experience that it simply takes time before you see anything. If I want bigger muscles, then I have to train for weeks, months. Of course, nutrition and so on also play a role, but we have this life experience that it takes time to get there.

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And back to today’s podcast topic, Invisible Progress. We have to go through these individual steps. This includes the first day of training. We have to do the second day of training, the third, fourth, fifth, and so on and so forth, until we finally see changes ourselves. Most of the time, other people see the change much faster than we do. In this context, I always think of kids, for example. I see changes every day, of course, but not as dramatically as someone who hasn’t seen my kids for months and then sees them again for the first time, and thinks, “Oh my God, they’ve grown!”

What all has happened in the meantime? You hardly notice these changes yourself. That’s why I’ve coined the term “invisible progress.” It’s a great concept for me. You’re making progress on the issues, but you have the feeling that you’re not. The big question, of course, is how to approach it mindset-wise in such a way that you don’t lose your perseverance, your will, whatever it takes to complete the project, the company, your studies, your training, whatever your goal may be.

How do you manage to keep going despite this and not get discouraged? I can speak from my own perspective, especially regarding the topic of entrepreneurship I mentioned earlier. For example, when I’m working on a project or product with a long-term release date and I feel like I’m not making any progress, I always ask myself: Did I accomplish the things today that I know are important to get done?

Tackling the truly important tasks

I’m a total pro at putting the most important tasks last and always prioritizing those little side issues. But have I actually completed the tasks where I know they’ll move the needle a little closer to my goal? And I think we all need to be honest with ourselves about this: we actually know what needs to be done. I mean, it’s not rocket science, even in sports, for example. We all know we need to exercise a certain way or eat a certain way to get fitter, lose a few pounds, and so on.

It’s not complicated, nor is it complex to do all of this. It’s simply difficult because there are probably certain mindset-related hurdles. No one wants to experience the pain of carrying out these tasks. And every day I consciously remind myself if I’ve completed the tasks where I know for sure that they’re moving the needle in the right direction. For me personally, for my own company, I know very well that the most important tasks at this stage are sales and marketing.

Priorities in everyday business life

I need to generate a certain amount of revenue to have an income, to generate revenue so I can reinvest in other products and broaden my portfolio further. Have I completed any tasks that contribute to this, yes or no? Personally, I find it quite easy right now to consider what the most important tasks are that I need to accomplish. But there are other phases in life where perhaps other things take precedence.

So, if you’re currently in the process of starting a company, of course you first need to make sure that the most pressing matters are in place. But once you’ve taken those initial steps, you need to check if you’re generating enough revenue to actually make money. Then it becomes crucial to focus on marketing and sales, for example. So, to summarize, for me personally, it’s about procrastinating on things I know I should have done.

Number one and number two, I tackled the things where I know for sure they’ll move the needle in the right direction. So, folks, that was my personal mindset on the topic of invisible progress..

Confidence in one’s own progress

Believe me, I know all about it. In many areas of my life, I experience this invisible progress, where I work on something every day that’s important to me in some way, but I don’t see any progress at all and I constantly have to remind myself, okay, I’ve been working on it, I’ve done the most important things. Sometimes I realize I haven’t actually done them, and I have to change that the next day. But as long as I have the impression that I’ve been working on the most important things, I have the confidence, just like in sports and other areas, that I’ll make progress, and I simply have to go through these individual steps to reach my goal.

Alright folks, that’s it for today’s podcast episode. I can only promise you that I’ll improve the regularity of my podcast after the event. Please bear with me. And for those interested, my event is taking place on April 23rd at Heidelberg Castle. You can find some information online; if you’re interested, feel free to join us. Also, like last year and the year before, I’ll be covering the whole thing live on Instagram through my Instagram Stories.

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Anyone who’s interested should definitely check it out. Thanks for listening. Talk to you again soon. And until then, remember, mindset is everything.