I often feel discouraged when I face setbacks or realize that I’m not making progress toward my goals, and I’m sure many of you feel the same. When we look around, all we see are successful people who have it all together. No one sees the failures and doubts, the imperfections that a person deals with along the way.

What’s the outcome of all this? People are afraid to start.

So people run from their problems, going to parties every weekend or simply procrastinating, to escape their difficulties. They then return to the same problems they had in the first place but expect them to magically change. Everyone has to start somewhere. As the rapper Big Sean said, “I guess it took me 10 years to become an overnight success.” Each of us has to work through our difficulties and setbacks; there’s no miracle coming to save us.

It always struck me as odd that investing in self-development was seen as weird, wasteful, or too expensive. Spending a few hundred dollars to go to a conference in one’s field would be too expensive, yet spending $500 dollars for a music festival and alcohol is seen as perfectly normal. Many people in the world are not privileged enough to have that choice, but those that do don’t take advantage of the resources at their disposal.

So urge you to work through the self-doubt to find your success. To quote Big Sean for a final time, “I’m working on myself and that’s the most important work.” Keep improving.