Good Morning Reader,
I hope all is well and you are having a great Sunday. I am happy to share the newest episode on the Mentium Podcast.
EPISODE SUMMARY
When Nothing Seems to Be Working How to Keep Going When Progress Is Hard to See
There is a difficult space between “This isn’t working” and “I’ve made it.”
Most meaningful journeys spend a lot of time somewhere in between.
You started. You showed up. You put in the work. There are signs of progress—customers are coming, opportunities are appearing, you’re learning, and things are moving.
But the results still aren’t coming as quickly as you need them to.
In this deeply personal solo episode of the Mentium Podcast, Madiama reflects on a lesson he is living right now while building Sakeena, his executive transportation business.
The business is working. There are customers. There is revenue. Relationships are developing.
And yet, the money cannot come fast enough.
That experience led to an important realization:
Urgency has a way of making progress look smaller than it really is.
When responsibilities, expenses, and financial pressure are real, a win can quickly feel insufficient. You can celebrate a new customer and immediately begin worrying about where the next one will come from.
But there is a difference between not having the result you want and making no progress toward it.
Progress also appears as knowledge, relationships, better judgment, improved skills, stronger discipline, and greater capacity.
At the same time, this isn’t an episode about blindly “trusting the process” or refusing to quit.
Persistence without reflection can become stubbornness.
Instead, Madiama introduces three choices for evaluating a difficult season:
Continue. Adjust. Or Release.
Continue when there are genuine signs of traction and the direction still makes sense.
Adjust when the goal remains important but the strategy isn’t producing what you need.
Release when the goal no longer aligns with who you are becoming—or when you’re continuing mainly because of how much you’ve already invested.
The episode also explores comparison, the importance of looking honestly at the numbers, and why someone else’s visible success can make healthy progress feel like failure.
The Progress Audit Choose one area where progress feels slow and ask:
- What is actually working?
- What isn’t working?
- What am I learning?
- Does this season require me to continue, adjust, or release?
The purpose isn’t simply to feel better.
It’s to see more clearly.
Memorable Reflections “Progress can be real and still feel insufficient.”
“Urgency has a way of making progress look smaller than it really is.”
“Don’t let the distance still ahead of you erase the distance you’ve already traveled.”
“Comparison can make healthy progress feel like failure.”
“Feedback is not failure.”
And perhaps the question that matters most:
“How do I build on what is already working?”
You can be grateful for your progress and still be hungry for growth.
Those two things can exist together.
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