55 | You ARE Growing More Than You Think

• Have you been so focused on getting through the day that you have not stopped to notice how far you have come?
• Do you keep measuring your progress by big wins and miss the quiet growth happening underneath?
• What if you are growing more than you think, and you simply have not been taught how to see it?

Growth does not always feel obvious. Sometimes it looks slow, quiet, and easy to overlook, especially when anxiety, comparison, social media, and self-doubt keep pulling your attention to what you have not done yet. In this one-year anniversary episode, Jessica Davis reflects on the first year of Block Out the Noise, what building this podcast taught her about growth, and why so many teens and young adults miss their own progress while they are in the middle of it.

You will learn the difference between a win and real growth, why setbacks do not mean you are failing, and how to start looking at your life in a way that helps you see your strength more clearly. Jessica also shares five reflection questions to help you recognize your progress and think about the person you want to become over the next few months. Stay until the end, because this episode is a reminder you might need more than you realize.

If you have ever felt behind, overlooked your own progress, or questioned whether your effort is paying off, this episode is for you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• The difference between a win and real growth
 • Why comparison, social media, and self-doubt make progress harder to see
 • How setbacks can still be part of your growth
 • Five questions to help you reflect on how far you have come
 • Why acknowledging growth in yourself and others matters so much
 • How to build a simple habit of noticing progress

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⚠️ Disclaimer:  Block Out the Noise provides personal insights and practical stra...

Transcript

The Invisible Kind Of Progress

Jessica N. Davis 0:07

Can I ask you something? When's the last time you actually stopped and looked at how far you've come? Not a win, not something that just happened that you're proud of. I'm talking about your growth, the slow stuff, the stuff that doesn't show up in a single moment but has been quietly building in the background while you've been focused on getting through the day. Because here's what I know growth can feel like a crawl. And when it feels like a crawl, it's easy to look around and feel like everyone else is walking or running, and you're still just trying to find your footing. But what if you've been growing this whole time and just didn't know how to see it? That's what today's episode is about. And it might be one of the most important conversations we've had on this podcast yet. Hi, and welcome to Block Out the Noise, a space to quiet the noise of anxiety, self-doubt, and overthinking. I'm Jessica Davis, licensed therapist, mindset coach, and the creator of the Courage Method, a framework designed to help teens and young adults show up as the most confident version of themselves. If you've ever wished someone would just hand you a toolkit for hard moments, the spiraling thoughts, the 2 a.m. anxiety, the days when everything feels like too much, I made something for you. The free anxiety survival toolkit is linked in the show notes. Quick reminder: this podcast is here to support and guide you, but it is not a replacement for talking to someone in real life. If you're struggling with your mental health, please reach out to a therapist. And if you're in crisis, contact emergency services or a local helpline. You don't have to go through it alone. Okay, now let's get into it because today is a special one. This is our one-year anniversary episode, and I could not be more grateful that you're here. First and foremost, thank you. Thank you to everyone who has listened, shared, and kept coming back. We've had over 5,000 downloads in the first year, and I don't take that lightly. When I started this, I didn't have a number in mind. I just knew I wanted to help people navigate anxiety, overthinking, and self-doubt that can make you question who you are. And I'm really proud of what this has become. I didn't expect this journey to teach me as much about myself as it has. There was vulnerability and starting this. There was excitement and nervousness. How would this really look? How would it come together? And over the past year, it has become something deeper than I ever anticipated. It's become about finding my voice and trusting my own ideas, experiences, and honoring the work I've done with clients, honoring that I have something real to offer and that I don't need to shrink that. That has been my growth this year. You probably don't know this, but roughly 47% to 90% of podcasts never make it past three episodes. Of the ones that keep going, 90% don't make it past 20 episodes. And I am on episode 55. And I'm sharing this not to brag. I'm sharing it to say it's so easy to discount your own growth when you're in the middle of it. It's easy to feel like you're not doing enough, not reaching enough people, not making a big enough impact. I get it. I felt that same way too. But when I actually stopped and looked at how far this has come, I'm overwhelmed with pride. Because I've stayed consistent, because every Monday, without fail, there's been a new episode. That was my goal. That was the one thing I made a non-negotiable. And I held myself to it for an entire year. And that is why I will scream with excitement that I did that. That's what growth looks like. And I almost missed it by measuring and focusing in on the wrong things. So I think a lot of you are doing the same thing, missing your own growth because you're measuring it in a way that makes it invisible. So let's talk about what celebrating growth actually means. Because I think we get confused by it. Celebrating a win is celebrating something in the moment, something that just happened that we're proud of. It feels instant. You get a good grade, you made the team, you nailed the presentation and you feel it right away. That's a win. The wins are worth celebrating. Of course, you know this, but growth is different. Growth is intentional. Growth can be slow. And if you're not deliberately stopping to look for it, you can miss it. Think about the times you do stop to reflect. Maybe it's New Year's, maybe it's around a birthday. Those are the moments most people use to look back, even me, right? I hit a year mark of this podcast and then I look back. But outside of those, we don't really build in time to think about growth. We don't have a practice or a system for it. And I think that's why so many people feel like they're not making progress. Not because they aren't, but because they just haven't been taught how to really see it. I'll be honest with you, I've always been good at celebrating wins, but celebrating my own growth, that's been harder. And I think it's because as a society, we just haven't done a good job of teaching people how to do it. We celebrate the moment, we celebrate the result, but the quiet, slow process of becoming someone stronger, more resilient, more self-aware, we gloss right over it. So I want to go over kind of why that happens and how we all fall into these traps. Not just one person, everyone. And yet, for teens and young adults, seeing their own growth is especially hard because they're navigating one of the hardest seasons of life. Historically, developmentally, this time period is hard. And then you layer in things that are largely outside of your control, and your own progress gets even harder to see. So what gets in the way? I think it comes down to three things. The first is the comparison track. When you're a teen or young adult, there's this feeling of extra vulnerability. It can feel like everyone around you can see every single one of your weaknesses. Like there's a spotlight on your problems. And on top of that, you can feel really alone, like no one else is navigating what you're navigating, like your peers are happier, healthier, more athletic, more confident, whatever it is that you're measuring yourself against. And when you constantly are measuring yourself against someone else, it becomes almost impossible to focus on your own path. How can you see how far you've come when you're too busy looking at where everyone else is? The second thing is social media. Social media makes it easier to doubt yourself, doubt your journey, and doubt your own capabilities. It takes a comparison trap and puts it on a loop 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And I'm lucky. My generation didn't have to compete with that growing up. Self-doubt and comparison still got in my head without it. So I can only imagine what it feels like to be navigating all of that with a highlight reel of everyone else's life living in your pocket. And the third thing is self-doubt. When you put all three of these together, the comparison trap, social media, and self-doubt, your own progress gets buried. You could be a really talented athlete with everything it takes to succeed and still start to pull back, still stop showing up the way you know you can. Not because the talent disappeared, but because the mindset shifted. And it all started with one comparison that planted a seed of I'm not good enough. That's how powerful these three things are together. And that's why I want you to understand that if you've been struggling to see your own growth, it's not because growth isn't happening. It's because these things have been working against you. And here's the other thing nobody really talks about. Sometimes growth is hard to see, not because it isn't happening, but because something feels like it's going wrong right in the middle of it. I talked about this in episode 53, which was based on the book Green Lights by Matthew McConaughey. And one of the things that stuck with me most from that book is the idea that sometimes a red light is actually setting you up for a green one. Sometimes things have to go sideways before they can go right. Sometimes what looks like standing still is actually you being repositioned. So if you're in a season right now where it feels like nothing is moving, I want you to sit with that for a second. Because a setback is not the same thing as a lack of growth. Sometimes a setback is designed for a comeback. And that reframe matters because if you believe nothing is happening, you stop looking. And the moment you stop looking is the moment growth actually does stall. So here's what I want you to know. Acknowledging your growth is the celebration. It doesn't have to be a big production, it doesn't have to be a party or a post or a moment that looks good from the outside. The act of stopping, looking back and saying, I did that, that is the celebration. And here's something I noticed working with clients. When I ask someone how their month went, they'll often say nothing happened or I didn't really do anything. And then I walk them through it and we find it every time. The hard conversation they had, the thing they did that scared them, the day they kept going when they didn't want to. It's always there. They just didn't know how to look for it. So I want to give you a way to look for it. I want you to try answering these five questions. You can write them down, type them out, or even voice record yourself because I know not everyone loves putting pen to paper, and that is more than okay. The format really doesn't matter. What matters is that you actually stop and answer them. Question number one: Where have you seen your progress? I ask it that way on purpose, not how you've been feeling because feelings ebb and flow, and they're not always accurate reporters of what's actually happened. I want you to look at where progress has shown up. What's different? What are you doing now that you weren't doing before? Question two. What would a younger version of you be proud of? Go back four or five years or even further. What would the 10-year-old you think? What would 15-year-old you say if they could see where you are right now? This question pulls your focus away from everything you haven't done yet and puts it on everything you already have. Question three. What is something in the last month that you got through or overcame that you didn't expect in yourself? Because here's the thing: even in the hardest months, you're still overcoming. Maybe it was a hard conversation you had with someone, maybe it was doing something new, maybe it was simply that you kept going, even when you felt like everything was super heavy and you were struggling, carrying it all. All of it counts. Question four What have you been most proud of lately? Give yourself a time frame. The last month, last three months, six months, whatever feels right, and then sit with it. Don't rush past it. I want this question to pull out something you maybe didn't even realize you were proud of until you stop to think about it. And finally, question five. Three to six months from now, how do you want to feel, think, and what do you want to be doing in that time frame? This one is forward-facing. And I love it because even if you don't follow through on everything, the act of answering it starts training your brain to think about becoming the person that you want in the future. You're planting a seed, and that seed is part of your growth too. So, yeah, three to six months from now, what do I want to be feeling? Do I want to feel excited when I start the day? Do I want to feel calmer? What are the thoughts that I want to have? Like, oh, it's going to be a great day, or hey, I can handle this. And what do you want to be doing? Maybe you want your routine to be better. Maybe you want to be filling out applications or applying to colleges, whatever it is, it doesn't really matter what it is. But by visualizing and writing down or saying out loud what you want to have for that future three to six months from now, you really are helping yourself get it. When I sat down to work on this next part of the episode, I was originally thinking about parents. But the more I work through it, the more I realized that this really is for anyone. We all need to do better at acknowledging growth, not just in ourselves, but in the people around us. Think about the last time someone told you they saw how hard you were working. Not just the result, but just the work itself. Not the grade, not the win, just the effort, the showing up, the trying. Something shifts when that happens, doesn't it? Like you start to stand a little bit taller, you want to keep going. You feel like what you're doing actually matters. That's the power of acknowledging growth and someone else and in yourself. So I want to challenge you whether you're a parent, teacher, coach, friend, coworker, family member, whatever, start telling them what you see. Tell them when you notice how hard they're working. Tell them when you see how far they've come. You have no idea how far those words can go. And for yourself, make this a practice. It doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to take a lot of time. It could be a journal entry, a voice note for yourself, even just a few minutes at the end of the week where you sit down and ask yourself one of these five questions, just make it a routine, daily, weekly, or monthly, whatever works for your life. The format doesn't matter. What matters is that you build the time and to actually look because growth is always happening. But what you have to be willing to do is stop and see it. When I sit down to reflect, and I mean really reflect, I think about you, the listener, the person who has found this podcast for whatever reason and under whatever circumstance. Maybe it's just to support me. Maybe it's because you did a search and it popped up and you decided to listen. However, you found this podcast, you are the reason I do it. And by showing up for you, I found myself growing too. That's what this year has been for me. I truly can't thank you guys enough. I know I've said it earlier, but one year in the making, I am excited for what is ahead and I am honored for the whole process I've been through. And I hope you feel the same way about your own growth. I hope that when you take a minute to actually reflect on how far you've come, even if you're in a really rough season, I hope you look back and just say how much you have grown, how much strength you have built. If this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to share it with someone who needs it. Leave a review, tell a friend, pass it along. It genuinely helps people find this space. Thank you for being here. Thank you for one incredible year. Here's to everything that's still coming. Until next time, keep moving forward. Trust yourself and never forget you have what it takes to black out the noise.