In life only overcomers are rewarded. Allahﷻ is the only one who rewards effort, but not this world. In this world you get rewarded for results only. Allahﷻ said about effort in Dunya and Aakhira:

وَأَن لَّيْسَ لِلْإِنسَـٰنِ إِلَّا مَا سَعَىٰ

Najm 53: 39   And that man can have nothing but what he does (good or bad).

Overcomers are rated by the magnitude of the challenge they overcame. The bigger the challenge, the greater the honor. Mount Everest is 8 kilometers high. If I walk 10 kilometers and claim that I should be given an award because I walked more than Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay who were perhaps the first people to scale the peak of Everest, people will laugh at me. If I try to argue and say that they and I, both walked on earth, people will laugh even louder. Because it is not the distance on earth but the angle of the earth which makes their feat memorable and inspirational. If they had tried to climb but failed to reach the peak, nobody would have remembered. If they had gone up in a helicopter and been dropped on the peak, it wouldn't count as ‘scaling the mountain’. The difficulty of the task is what makes it honorable and worthwhile. So, the first thing to ask yourself is, ‘What is my internal conversation with myself?’ To listen to that, you must switch off the external noise that we have willingly inflicted on ourselves. You can listen to your heart, or you can listen to your phone. You can’t do both. What are you telling yourself? Are you saying, ‘I can succeed’? Or ‘There’s no point in trying because I will surely fail.’ Both statements are not fact. They are hopes. But for you, both can come true, depending on which one you want to use most often. My friend Dr. Fridolin Stary tells me that in German, there is a saying, “Hope dies last.” We must never allow hope to die. We must continue to hope and to work to make that hope a reality. So, ask what you are saying to yourself inside. That’s where it begins.

Our internal conversation depends on our connection with Allahﷻ because it is based on Tawakkul. Tawakkul is an outcome of Taqwa and Taqwa is the result of the love (Hubb) of Allahﷻ. The more we love Allahﷻ, the more we fear to displease Him (Taqwa) and the more we rely on Him (Tawakkul). Allahﷻ described the stages and said:

إِنَّمَا ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ ٱلَّذِينَ إِذَا ذُكِرَ ٱللَّهُ وَجِلَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَإِذَا تُلِيَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ ءَايَـٰتُهُۥ زَادَتْهُمْ إِيمَـٰنًا وَعَلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ يَتَوَكَّلُونَ

Anfal 8: 2   The believers are only those who, when Allah is mentioned, their hearts shiver (with the awe) when His Ayaat (Qur’an) are recited unto them, they (Ayaat) increase their Faith; and they put their trust in their Rabb.

Ask yourself what must have been going on in the heart of Rasoolullahﷺ when he stood on Safa and called his people to Islam. What sustained and supported him was his connection with Allahﷻ. Allahﷻ was real to Him.

Ibn Abbas (R) narrated that when Rasoolullahﷺ used to awake for Tahajjud he would say: Allahumma lakal-hamd. Anta qaiyimus-samawati wal-ardi wa man fihinna. Walakal-hamd Laka mulkus-samawati wal-ardi wa man fihinna. Walakal-hamd anta nurus-samawati wal-ard. Walakal-hamd an-tal-haq. Wa wa’du-kal-haq wa liqa’uka Haq. Wa qawluka Haq wal-jannatu Haq wan-naaru Haq. Wan-nabiyoona Haq Wa Muhammadun, sallal-lahu’alaihi wasallama Haq. Was-sa’atu Haq. Allahumma laka aslamtu wabika amantu, wa ‘Alaika tawakkaltu wa ilaika anabtu. Wa bika kha-samtu wa ilaika hakamtu. Faghfir li ma qaddamtu wama akh-khartu wama as-rartu wama ‘a-lantu. An-tal-muqaddimu wa an-tal-mu akh-khir. Laa ilaha ila ant. [Bukhari]

O Allah! All praise and all thanks for you. You are the Establisher of the Heavens and the Earth,