After losing her sight to diabetes seven years ago, a blind woman from the UK has been writing a novel by hand. Each week her son visits her and reads her writing back to her. Recently she was devastated to find out that 26 pages of her story were lost, because her pen ran out of ink when she was writing. What was surely hours of work was gone, after never having been captured in the first place. Or was it?

Instead of chalking it up to bad luck and stocking up on Bic pens to last a lifetime, the woman and her son decided to contact the local police department. Officers working on their free time were able to uncover what she had written on all but one sentence of the 26 pages. While her pen may have been out of ink, the imprint she had left on the pages was enough to be able to decipher the lost work.

There is a lesson here.

We live in a world of immediate gratification. Instant rewards for minimal effort. It’s an exciting time to be alive. But because we are so used to quick fixes and fast results, we sometimes forget that the hard and important things take time. Like our health. 

Don’t be discouraged if you’ve recently started eating right and exercising but those pounds still seem slow in coming off. You are leaving an imprint on your body that will pay off. Like the woman’s manuscript, the hard work doesn’t show up right away, but the effort you put in those first weeks and months will eventually show up. And if you stick with it, your health will be greatly rewarded.

Notice that regardless of how much the mother and son wanted to recover the words on their own, they simply didn’t have to tools to do so. When you are trying to reach any goal in life, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Fitness professionals have the tools and resources to help you get the results you need.

Apply this lesson to your fitness goals, or any area of your life.

When you write your story, press hard. You’re leaving an imprint.