I know time is on my side when I make the effort

Effort has a bad relationship with feedback. You put in the twenty minutes and get nothing back that same evening, which is the exact condition under which most people conclude it isn't working.

Someone who learns to swim at forty-one does it in twenty-minute pieces, twice a week, badly, for about two years. No individual session in that stretch would look like progress to anyone watching from the café window.

Time is on your side in roughly the way a bank is: it does nothing at all for the empty account. Given something to work with, it's the most patient ally you have.