Stalled Progress?

[APeacefulWarrior]

Progress in any discipline -whether we're talking math or piano or spirituality or anything else- is never a linear upwards climb. It's more like a series of steps, with steep rises followed by plateaus. During the "plateau" phases, it might seem like progress has stalled out, but that's rarely the true case. It's a process of consolidating and understanding. The learner reflects on the steps which are behind them, and gains greater mastery of past lessons through reflection. Then, armed with a deeper understanding of the tasks behind them, they gain insight to tackle the next major climb.

It's an important part of learning, these alternating phases of difficult challenges followed by relatively unhurried reflection and practice. A person can't push themselves all the time, and they need those opportunities to rest and reflect.

In my experience, once a student is ready to tackle the next big challenge, they realize it almost instinctively. There's something like the proverbial "lightbulb moment" where they go oooohhhhh and understand how past lessons add up to a solution to the next challenge ahead of them. Then they gain new skills by surmounting that challenge, reach the next plateau, and repeat the process of reflection and understanding.

This is totally natural and normal. Just try to enjoy both phases for their own rewards. The joy of accomplishing a major task, and then the peace that comes from introspection and deeper reflection upon that past task.