If you’re someone with ambition – someone who wakes up every day thinking about your goals, your dreams and where you want to be – it can be easy to feel frustrated when things don’t go as planned.
You work hard, you sacrifice, you put in the hours and yet, success feels just out of reach.
Your business hasn’t taken off. You haven’t received the promotion. Maybe your big break hasn’t come. Maybe you’re looking at your life, comparing it to where you thought you’d be, and you feel disheartened.
But what if the way you see your progress is shaping your future?
Suppose you’re an entrepreneur who pours all your savings into a startup and struggles to land your first customers. Every rejection will sting. You’ll wonder if all the effort is worth it.
If you doubt long enough, your mind will start making decisions before you do.
Or suppose you’re an actor who moves to LA with big dreams, working late shifts at a restaurant while going to auditions in the daytime that seem to lead somewhere – but not where you thought.
You watch as friends book roles and get noticed, while you keep hearing “no.” Doubt creeps in. You start to wonder – Am I not talented enough? Will I ever make it?
What you tell yourself in these moments is the difference between moving forward and giving up. Belief and action are the same.
It’s easy to let frustration consume you – to feel like success is passing you by while everyone else seems to be getting ahead. But no two journeys are the same. And sometimes, what feels like a delay is protection.
Success at the wrong time can be just as dangerous as failure. Some doors stay closed not to keep you out but to ensure you’re ready when they finally open.
Entrepreneurs who keep pushing despite failures aren’t just building a business but rewriting their identity. The artist who keeps showing up despite rejection aren’t just refining their craft – they’re carving out their space in the world. The business professional who keeps showing up, outworking doubt, and delivering results isn’t just waiting for their moment – they’re becoming the kind of force that can’t be overlooked.
Here’s a thought: Your internal world manifests your external world.
The mind doesn’t just react to circumstances; it architects them. If you see failure as a stop sign, your journey ends there. But if you see it as a test, a forge, a necessary resistance – you keep moving, and in that movement, you evolve.
Every setback, every roadblock, isn’t a sign that you’re off course. It’s proof that you’re in the process of becoming strong enough to handle what’s coming next. Your current struggle isn’t a signal that you’re losing. It’s the test that determines your readiness.
It’s not about whether success will come; it’s about whether you’ll still be standing when it does.
When you focus on what you’re gaining instead of what’s missing, the missing pieces start to fall into place.
Your mind believes the story you tell it. Tell it you’re failing, and you’ll feel like a failure. Tell it you’re on the way, and suddenly, doors begin to unlock.
So if you’re feeling stuck, if you’re frustrated that you haven’t achieved everything you want yet – stop and take a breath. Because how you see your journey determines where it leads. The frustration, the doubts, the setbacks – they aren’t signs to stop. They are proof that you’re in motion, that you’re carving a path forward.
What you focus on – your progress or your limitations – decides what happens next.
Success isn’t just about talent or timing; it’s about belief. It’s about pushing forward when nothing is working, about standing tall when rejection threatens to break you. The people who make it aren’t the luckiest or the most gifted. They are the ones who refuse to break.
The struggle isn’t a detour – it’s the road itself. Every setback, every failure, every moment of doubt is shaping you into someone who can handle what’s coming. Success isn’t just about getting there; it’s about being ready when you do.
So keep going. Keep building. Keep believing. Because when your moment comes – and it will – you’ll look back and realize the obstacles weren’t in your way.
They were the way.
• Toby Moore is a Shaw Local News Network columnist, star of the Emmy-nominated film “A Separate Peace,” and CEO of CubeStream Inc. He can be reached at feedback@shawmedia.com.