I really like this George Leonard quote (via Shane Parrish) from a 1987 Esquire Magazine piece, talking about how mastery is a series of plateaus interspersed by brief spurts of progress:
“The most important lessons here — especially for young people — is that even if you’re shooting for the stars, you’re going to spend most of your time on a plateau. That’s where the deepest, most lasting learning takes place, so you might as well enjoy it. When I was first learning…I just assumed that I would steadily improve. My first plateau was something of a shock and disappointment, but I persevered and finally experienced an apparent spurt of learning. The next time my outward progress stopped, I said to myself ‘oh damn, another plateau’. After a few months, there was another spurt of progress and then, of course, the inevitable plateau. This time, something marvellous happened. I found myself thinking ‘Oh boy, another plateau. Good, if I stay on it and keep practicing, I’m absolutely assured another surge of progress. It was one of the best and warmest moments of my life.’”
Plateaus are an inevitability in our career and our life but we should not look at them as negatively as we do. We tend to think of life and work as a straight, upwardly-focused trajectory when, as we all know, the reality is much more of a squiggly line. So we might see plateaus as periods where we’re putting effort in but making no visible progress. But this is often not true. They are opportunities to practice, finesse, to consolidate and deepen learning before we find something that takes us to a new level. They are essential in reaching that next level.
Leonard has also written a book about mastery in which he describes how plateaus are an integral part of a path towards mastery. Long periods of consistent practice punctuated by sudden breakthroughs or improvement. It’s true of learning a musical instrument. It’s true of progressing in our career. It’s true of an athlete training to become the best in the world at her sport. We should learn to embrace the plateaus and see that they are an essential part of progression and the journey towards mastery. As Leonard says:
‘To love the plateau is to love the eternal now, to enjoy the process of learning itself.’
Amen.
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