The more I advance inside the workforce, the more I notice how frustrated the workers are. There are many reasons why we are frustrated. It could be the increase in workload, the slow increase in pay, or pursuing careers we don’t really like. They’re all valid reasons, but they’re not what I want to address in this article. Instead, I want to speak to the individuals working towards specific goals.

Setting career goals is not a bad thing, but it can take a turn for the worse when a goal takes a long time to achieve. This is when frustration makes its way in. But where did this frustration come from? I understand that goals are subjective, but regardless of what the goal is, isn’t it true that we get better with practice? If we consistently work towards a goal and get better at what we are doing, haven’t we already won? What are we really chasing if frustration finds a way to creep in?

“I am so tired of this!”

“Things haven’t changed for me!”

I’ve been doing this for (x) amount of years, and nothing has improved!”

I don’t want to dismiss or oversimplify the reasons why people think this way. A lot of individuals, including myself, have had similar thoughts, even for a brief moment. I’m pointing out that we have some control over the matter. Let’s challenge ourselves to rewire our thought process. Could one of the main causes for our frustration be related to the lack of recognition we receive?

Can we agree that on some level, we have been conditioned to expect some type of acknowledgment when we do something? If we do well in class, we get good grades. If we do well in our jobs, we get raises. If we volunteer, we get comments validating how good we are as people. Getting acknowledged isn’t bad, but constantly wanting to be acknowledged is.

We all know that greatness takes time. Heck, haven’t you heard that Rome wasn’t built in a day? So where has our patience gone? We expect things to fall into place faster than it takes us to get likes on something we post on social media. When it comes to career building, things do not work that way. Success takes hard work, and hard work requires consistency. To put it simply, success equals hard work.

Hard work is immeasurable. It’s a lifestyle. Success takes time, and it certainly doesn’t require instant gratification through acknowledgments and praise. Those things are just distractions. If we want to achieve success, we need to focus on building a lifestyle that is based on hard work and consistency