To strive for a certain goals means that you are aiming for something that not everyone is capable of obtaining. For example you might be working overtime or multiple jobs in order to keep the numbers positive. Despite the hard working it could still be that you are not doing so well financially, however without the extra input it would be even worse.
When we work on something we never know what the results will be. Unfortunately no one can predict he future, if we could we would just buy a certain stock that we know will skyrocket next month… No one can predict the future no matter how hard they try. While we may not know what the result be of our input we know that if we work towards something it will likely improve the possible results compared to not spending your time on it. For example if you are following a healthy food plan you may not see a difference in weight in the first two weeks. This doesn’t been that the food plan isn’t working, just that your body is still adjusting. While we may think that a food plan is meant to let us drop in weight rapidly it’s main focus is on becoming healthy, not on shocking the scale. Even a heathly food plan that doesn’t reduce your weight will have it’s benefits, you will feel healthier and have more energy. This in turn will improve the amount of effort you can put in your workouts.
Talent without working hard is nothing. – Cristiano Ronaldo
Working hard is not always considered as a prerequisite for succes. The people who work hard in the shadow consider it as normal while others who don’t know how much work is put in will brush it off as someone “being lucky” or having “talent”. Even the greatest persons in their field are often not considered as the hard workers by people not knowing them. But people standing close to them will be the first to recognize that they are always trying to improve themselves despite how it looks to the outside world. Consider someone working the same job as you for example trying to get sales. The other one may seem really talented salesperson but if they never perform tasks to improve you will beat them easily if you keep working on small improvements.
As you are improving yourself you may think what is the point in working so hard if I still get paid the same and the other person is better than me? It’s this mindset itself that causes you to stay in the same lane you always are. Rather dare to look through your current situation and work hard no matter what the outcome will be. If you perform the hard work not thinking that you deserve a raise or deserve a promotion you will be more likely to reach them. Think about how hard someone would have to work when they achieve the promotion and beat that expectations. Consider what you would have to learn after getting the raise and start learning it now. Instead of wanting to be rewarded for the hard work you put in see the hard work as a reward itself. You are putting your willpower to the test and the hard working mentality will always be usefull no matter if you use them for your job or for something else.