Success Doesn't Happen Overnight, Reasons To Not Rush Your Life

I’m going to be straightforward here: Success doesn’t happen overnight – for anyone. And that’s okay, because slow and steady work leads to success that is sustainable in a way that nothing “overnight” can match.

Recent history is filled with highly successful people who worked hard for years before achieving their dreams. Take James Dyson, of the vacuum cleaners and hand dryers. He changed the vacuum industry and is working to change other industries as well. But he spent 15 years going through more than 5,000 failed prototypes before creating his first successful vacuum cleaner.

Or, take Lucille Ball. The actress, producer and studio executive was one of the most successful people the entertainment industry has ever seen. She’s regarded as both a comic genius and an industry pioneer. The debut of her TV show, “I Love Lucy,” turned her into what seemed like an overnight sensation. But she was no overnight success – she was 40 years old and had been working toward that success for more than 20 years. She had been sent home from drama school in New York and turned down for show business jobs at audition after audition. Through the decades, though, she remained focused on her goals, working hard and getting better at her craft. Although success didn’t happen overnight for Ball, she never stopped working toward it.

Many factors go into true success: hard work, determination, focusing on your goals, assistance from and collaboration with others, learning from your mistakes. Plus, “overnight success” is often preceded by years of failures, setbacks, and straightforward hard work. And those rare occasions when someone seems to have achieved “overnight success”? It’s likely just pure, dumb luck – and pure, dumb luck isn’t the foundation of sustainable success.

Patience is both a powerful strategy for sustainable growth and a coping skill when setbacks do occur. Without it, you can’t stay on a steady course toward your goals. Patience helps you refocus when something doesn’t happen the way you hope it will. It allows you to take a step back, evaluate your situation, and keep moving forward.

If you feel a constant “harrying sense of time urgency,” you may be suffering from what is called “hurry sickness”, a term coined by Cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman. On a micro level, this means your schedule is booked, often double-booked, every second of the day. You may constantly over-commit yourself. On a macro level, hurry sickness may mean you’re always thinking about the next thing you need to accomplish, the place you should be, the thing you should have.

In hurry sickness, you get locked into a state of overstimulation. This makes you tired, anxious, irritable, and unable to relax. Research shows that hurry sickness makes you less effective, both at work and as a human being. I’ll say it again: Don’t rush life!

This is not to suggest that you simply sit back and wait for things to work out in your life or your business. Rather, practice what Marcus would call “patience with a plan.” While success doesn’t happen overnight, it also doesn’t happen unless you set your goals and work toward them over time. Think of patience as an active state.

Patience and steady work have many benefits:

• Smarter decisions. Patience allows you to remain calm, centered and focused on your long-term goals, all of which lead to smarter decision-making.

Taking notice of these wins improves your confidence that you’ll achieve the next win.

All these benefits can be cumulative. When you stop trying to achieve overnight success and concentrate on steady progress, your successes will be easier to achieve. Because you’re making smarter decisions, functioning more effectively, feeling more confident and staving off burnout, you’re able to set and achieve new goals and work toward greater successes.

Since success doesn’t happen overnight, you’ll have to “settle” for working hard and steadily. As Marcus would say, “You don’t get anything. You have to earn it.” So how do you practice this strong, steady progress – especially in a world that keeps sending you the message that you should be achieving overnight success? There are several strategies you can use:

• Pace yourself. This applies to all aspects of your life. You don’t need to own a house and a luxury car next year, or even in five years. Start by aiming to save up the money to buy a used car, or to move into an apartment with a roommate. Then, consider your next step, and take the time you need to get there. The same goes for business: You don’t need to own a $5 million-a-year company in two years. Start by getting an entry-level job where you can learn about an industry, a market, or business in general, and work your way up to starting your own company. And, if you own a $1 million company, don’t be in a rush to turn it into a $10 million company. The companies that grew too quickly and imploded on themselves are legion. Aim for sustainable business growth, so your $10 million company doesn’t collapse into a $1 million company.
• Recognize your incremental progress. It’s not always easy to pace yourself when overnight success seems within your grasp. One way to remain on track is to recognize incremental progress. If you are saving to buy a home, celebrate milestones such as your first year of putting money aside every month, the first $1,000 in your savings account, hitting $5,000 in savings, or getting your credit in excellent shape. In your career, recognize milestones such as completing a project, having your idea picked up by the company, getting to pitch a client, receiving a compliment from senior management, and, of course, earning each promotion or lateral move.

• Recognize your personal growth. Milestones aren’t the only benefits you’ll enjoy during your steady work. When you don’t rush life, you also can recognize your own internal growth. Did you get through a client presentation without sweating after three years of presenting? Are colleagues or coworkers now asking for your opinion on key decisions? Do you complete a task that once took hours in just a half hour? Are you able to enjoy time with your parents without slipping into negative habits? Did you improve your jogging pace? Take a moment and bask in the progress you’ve made on you.
• Refocus on your long-term goals with no pressure. If you start to feel frustrated by where you are, or the urge to rush life starts to tug at you, remind yourself about your long term goals and that success won’t happen overnight.

While it is more rewarding, sustainable, and lasting, slow and steady success isn’t easy to achieve. Here are a few actions you can take right now to begin your journey:

• Catch yourself in the act of rushing. When you find yourself pushing through a day/quarter/semester/project, a day, or even an interaction, ask yourself whether it’s necessary or even beneficial. Most of the time, you’ll find it’s not. Slow down, even just a little.

While some people or companies may catch a lucky break, true success doesn’t happen overnight. Instead, it requires patience and slow, steady, hard work. If you don’t rush life, you’ll find the rewards are sweeter, stronger, and longer-lasting.