There will be plateaus. Don’t sweat them but don’t accept them either

Everything I’ve ever excelled at has had long pleateaus along the way. Whether it’s been programming, ballroom dancing, skiing or sales, they’ve all had chunky periods where they felt like nothing was getting better. But then at some point it did.

Sometimes things tumble forward at breakneck speed and everything feels exciting and you struggle to keep up. And then sometimes you just plateau. And that’s to be expected. Sports people have it all the time. They train day in day out and then sometimes their body just doesn’t respond for a long while. And so they mix it around, change it up and then things get rolling again.

It’s easy to panic during a plateau. To feel that the rest of the world is passing you by and that you’re being left behind. To feel that you’ll never get out of it and that there’s no end to it. The panic makes you rethink and double-think everything you’re doing. It’s an awful feeling.

But very often the plateaus are when you develop the skills that ready you for the point when the change comes. When the earthquake goes off and it feels like everything’s changing at once.

Sometimes you get luckier than you deserve, sometimes unluckier, sometimes nothing at all. During the bits when you’re flat or uphill you should maintain a healthy introspection but you should also accept that there are always going to be long flat periods. It’s par for the course and you don’t have to question it just make sure you’re doing the things that will ultimately end it.