There is a quiet source of AI anxiety that almost nobody admits out loud. You see screenshots of complex AI workflows... You watch people talk about how they automated half their business.You hear terms like "agents", "custom models" and "pipelines". And a small voice in your head says: "I am way behind. I am barely using this thing." If that feels familiar, you are not alone. The highlight reel problem Social posts, case studies and tool demos rarely show: - The half-baked experiments that went nowhere - The prompts that did not work - The systems that broke after a week - The hours spent debugging You see the impressive outcome, not the messy middle. It is the same pattern you see in fitness, finances and business growth... We are simply not wired to remember that we are looking at the best 5 percent of someone’s journey. What progress actually looks like When we look at people who integrate AI successfully, their progress is usually boring. It looks like: - Using AI for one type of writing until it feels natural - Then adding one more use case - Then tweaking a workflow that already works Month by month, their life gets easier. - They start using AI for outlines - Then for rough drafts - Then for summaries - Then for brainstorming - Then for planning At no point do they suddenly become a different person. They just keep stacking practical wins. The cost of comparison When you compare your day one to someone else’s year two, a few things happen: - You feel overwhelmed instead of curious - You judge your simple use cases as "not enough" - You try to skip steps and copy complex systems - You burn out and decide "AI is not for me" In reality, your "simple" uses might already be saving you: - Hours of decision fatigue - Emotional energy on tasks you hate - Cognitive load from repetitive work You just do not give yourself credit because it does not look fancy. A different way to measure your progress Instead of asking: