A friend wrote me an email that included this line: "We are a work in progress I hope."
As long as we are pushing with all our might, mind, and strength, there is progress.
I've thought about how sledging a boulder is progress, whether you see cracks forming or not. You never know when the next stroke will achieve the end. Similarly, even if you aren't strong enough to lift a certain rock, trying with all your might will actually make you stronger. Even if you can't yet move it, trying to with all your might will eventually succeed. Whatever physical limits are involved in this analogy do not apply to spiritual progress.
Search for the Pearl of Great Price with all your heart, might, mind, and strength. Seek what is worth the most with everything you have to give. Reconcile your time, resources, and desires in life to what you perceive to be of the greatest value, and adapt your target as you learn more.
As long as we cling to the iron rod [1], keep our hands on the plough [2], or hold to the dog sled (all analogies describing the same thing), he will overcome everything in us that separates us from him. He will do so commensurate with the heed and diligence we render to improvement.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. (Revelation 3)
[1] - And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction. (1 Nephi 15:24)
[2] - And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62)