The Internet Thinks Success Happens Overnight
“The internet shows you the final movie. It rarely shows you how long it took to make it.”
Success on social media can look like it happened overnight, but what we see online is usually the finished product, not the years of work it took to get there. Comparing your progress to someone else's highlight reel can make you feel behind, especially when you haven't stopped to define what success actually means to you. Real success isn't about following someone else's timeline or reaching one giant goal as quickly as possible. It's built through small goals, realistic timeframes, the right support, and the things you're willing to do repeatedly when nobody is watching. Before you decide you're behind in life, maybe it's time to figure out where you actually want to go.
I wish my life were sort of like a Disney Princess.
Every single one of them had some forest creature, a sidekick, a helper to get them through whatever conundrum they were facing.
I will happily take a Gus Gus or Jaq from Cinderella. My house would be clean, the chores would be done, heck, maybe even a pumpkin to take my son to school and deal with the drop-off and pick-up lines.
But such is life, and mine is far from being a fairy tale.
I promise you that the majority of what you see on the internet is the blood, sweat, and tears of a final product that probably took 5+ years to build.
Very rarely does an overnight sensation actually happen.
Everyone famous started somewhere.
But before we get into all of that, you need to define success for yourself first.
What Does Success Actually Look Like to You?
I'm going to challenge you to do an exercise, and I want you to think about it without looking at someone else, seeing the life they're living, and deciding that's what success is.
No, no, no.
If I were to ask you today, in a perfect world where you were a Disney Princess, what is the one thing that would define your success?
Just one thing.
I bet you're waiting for examples.
I'm not going to give them to you.
I really want you to use that cabezita of yours.
No AI. No social media doom scroll. No looking around to see what everyone else has and deciding you should probably want that too.
Think of a time when you were a chiquita niña with braces.
What did younger you think success looked like?
Because Cynthia, with braces and Afro hair thanks to Miami humidity, had a whole plan.
I thought success would be an amazing career as a doctor, with a husband and a house full of kids.
I wanted five.
And I was going to drive a red convertible Audi.
Yeah.
With five kids.
LOL.
Apparently, little Cynthia wasn't concerned with where the hell all these children were going to sit.
My definition of success has changed over time.
Today, braces-free, still with unruly hair minus the Miami humidity, success looks like something completely different.
Owning my own time.
I'll pause here because I want you to really think about this.
I give you permission to pause. Go write some things down. Brain dump. Really think about what success looks like when nobody else gets a vote.
And then remember to come back to this blog post.
If you know damn well you're not going to do that, keep reading. 😂
Okay, You Defined Success. Now What?
Once you've defined what success looks like for you, now we can ask:
How can I get there?
This blog post is going to ask you to write a lot, so prepárate.
And before you think this is another exercise on SMART goals, it's not.
Stay with me. You'll see.
Small Bite-Sized Goals
Take that one-liner of success and ask yourself:
What can I do right now that gets me closer to success?
There's a famous saying about eating an elephant one bite at a time.
Same concept.
You don't have to know every single step between where you are today and where you eventually want to be.
You just need the next bite.
What is one small thing you can do that moves you forward?
Then do that.
And when that's done, figure out the next bite.
Taking action on small, bite-sized goals will help you get closer to what success looks like without convincing yourself you need to transform your entire damn life by next Tuesday.
Timeframe
Be realistic about this.
How long is it actually going to take you to reach one of those bite-sized goals?
Again, this shit doesn't happen overnight.
My personal rule of thumb is that I give myself anywhere from three to six months.
Some things happen faster. Some take longer. Sometimes life comes along with a chancla and knocks the whole timeline sideways.
The point isn't choosing some magical date when everything is supposed to come together.
It's giving yourself enough time to actually do the work.
Helpers
Go and find some helpers like good ol' Gus Gus or Jaq.
Sadly, mine have yet to show up and clean my house, but helpers can be mentors, someone who has already done what you're trying to do, or a trusted comadrita who isn't going to chismosear all your goals.
You don't have to do everything alone.
But not everybody needs backstage access either.
Choose your helpers wisely.
Maybe you're reading this and realizing you've been working toward a version of success that doesn't even feel like yours anymore.
Maybe the goal isn't to work harder.
Maybe you need a minute to figure out what the hell you're actually working toward.
Feeling this? Start here → The Boundary Check-In
Give yourself some space to slow down, clear out some of the noise, and reconnect with what actually feels like yours.
Read next → I'm Not Scared of Failing. I'm Scared of Being Seen.
What Are You Willing to Do Repeatedly?
And I mean on repeat forever for a long time.
Am I near owning my own time?
Yes.
And by yes, I mean I have learned to manage my time very well, but a lot of the time I still feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done.
I really do get annoyed with people online who are like, I'm at the beach. I'm at the park. I'm taking a stroll.
No, mija.
Those people probably recorded things on a Saturday and strategically scheduled them so people think they're living this glorious carefree life on a random Tuesday.
I know because I do it too.
I schedule content days into my calendar. I'll record five or more videos and strategically post them later.
So what you're seeing is someone's highlight reel.
You're seeing the final movie.
You didn't see the parts of the movie that took time to make.
The budgetary needs.
The setbacks.
All the nos.
The editing.
The re-recording of scenes.
More editing.
The plan that didn't work.
The thing that had to be completely redone.
You just saw the final version.
You're Watching the Movie, Not the Production
Think about how ridiculous it would be to walk into a movie theater, watch the finished movie, and think:
Well shit, they made that look easy.
Of course they did.
That's the version you're supposed to see.
You didn't sit there for every day, month, or year it took to create it.
So why are you looking at somebody else's finished movie and using it as evidence that your production is taking too long?
And more importantly:
Why are you rushing through your own life?
I see success a lot like playing hard to get.
You do something that moves you forward toward your definition of success, and you tease a little trailer.
Then you do another thing that moves you along.
Yep.
Another little tease of a trailer.
Start hyping yourself up that way.
Enjoy the journey.
Celebrate the trailer instead of telling yourself it doesn't count because the whole damn movie isn't finished yet.
Because that's the part the internet makes really easy to forget.
We see the launch.
The promotion.
The new business.
The beautiful house.
The big announcement.
The finished product.
We don't see every tiny decision that got someone there.
We don't see how many times they changed their mind.
We don't see the boring repetitive shit they kept doing when absolutely nobody was watching.
We don't see the nos.
We don't see the Saturday they recorded five videos so Tuesday could look effortless.
We see the movie.
Your Success Doesn't Need to Happen Overnight
Go back to the sentence you wrote earlier.
Success, to me, means ____________________.
Now ask yourself:
What's one bite-sized thing I can do to move toward it?
How much time am I realistically willing to give myself?
Who are my Gus Gus and Jaq?
And what am I willing to keep doing repeatedly, even when nobody sees the work yet?
Because maybe you're not behind.
Maybe you're just still in production.
Maybe you're filming the scenes nobody else will ever see.
Maybe you're editing.
Maybe you're dealing with a budget problem.
Maybe you just got another no.
Maybe you're on take number 47.
Whatever part you're in, it still counts.
The internet might make success look like it happened overnight.
It didn't.
So make your little trailer.
Hype yourself up.
And then get back to making the movie.
