The Tragic Misunderstanding of Plateaus - pt 1
Severus Snape.
Great White Sharks.
Po from Kung Fu Panda.
That job you didn’t get hired for.
Plateaus.
At first glance, these things, like many others that we encounter, are perceived as bad, evil, useless, an obstacle impeding progress and something to avoid. This is easy to understand - our brains frequently seek to minimize deep thinking in order to conserve energy (and keep us alive), leading us to draw conclusions and generalizations by quickly filtering data and relying on a significant bias-mindset. “While fast processing may have kept us alive in earlier times, it does not often serve us well in a fast-paced, information saturated world.” (source)
Severus Snape, though tragically misunderstood, was not the antihero to Harry Potter, he was his savior. Great white sharks do not exist with the sole purpose of eating you; they play a vital role in ocean ecosystems. That job rejection ended up being the best thing to push you to grow into the job you DID get. And that plateau you’re stuck on? It’s perhaps the most misunderstood and undervalued of all. It’s where all the learning, growing, and progress happens. It is the red-headed step child to the “mountain top” everyone’s always trying to reach. In part 1 of this 2-series post, I’ll be exploring society’s understanding of, and relationship to, both plateaus and mastery - two concepts from George Leonard’s book, “Mastery - The Keys to Success and Long-term Fulfillment”.
Plateaus
No one ever says anything good about plateaus. It’s usually something folks are trying to avoid. Like jail on the monopoly board - do not pass go, do not collect $200. Nowhere is this misconstrued value of plateaus more apparent than in the health & performance industry - where being on a “plateau” is generally stigmatized as BAD.
“I haven’t hit a squat PR in forever”
“I’ve been trying to get ring muscle ups for months”
“The # on the scale has stopped moving”
“My snatch numbers have plateaued”
People, coaches, & athletes perceive plateaus as an indicator of stagnation, which runs quite antithetical to our modern western cultural infatuation with constant, unyielding progress; the unspoken mantra that we’re either getting better or getting worse - revealing our fundamental misunderstanding of how progress actually occurs. An integral element of “getting better” involves (seemingly) “going nowhere” i.e. being on the plateau.
“The plateau is the long stretch of diligent effort with no seeming progress”
George Leonard, “Mastery”
More reps, more practice, better coaching WILL help you past a plateau. But they will NEVER vanquish them. If that was the case, the process of learning, growing or changing would resemble a linear path of upward progression. Or, in case you’re a glass half-empty person, a linear path of REGRESSION upon meeting an initial level of success.
While plateaus may be frustrating, the flip side of the coin is that plateaus are an integral step in making process; they are essentially a milemarker on the path of learning and mastery. Once we shift our perspective to comprehend the role and function of plateaus, they can motivate us; signaling that we’re moving in the direction we want to.
Mastery is for Everyone
The moment we identify something that we want to learn, change, or accomplish (a skill, a behavior, a professional advancement, a talent, etc.) we have a path of learning laid out in front of us. The path will involve progress, regression, and plateaus. It will be non-linear. (2 facts that are unfortunately the first to be forgotten). Comprehension of this road map and insight into how we react to aspects of this learning curve will greatly impact our success, timeline, and level of fulfillment in pursuit of said skill. Author George Leonard describes 4 archetypes of learning behavior - The Dabbler, Obsessive, Hacker, & Master. See if you can recognize yourself in any of these:
THE DABBLER
The dabbler approaches new activities (sport, hobby, relationships, jobs) with enormous enthusiasm. They make initial progress, as most beginners do, but the first obstacle or plateau of progress is unacceptable. Instead of working through it, they often pivot to something else, rationalizing to themselves and others why it wasn’t the right fit for them. “The Dabbler might think of himself as an adventurer, a connoisseur of novelty, but he’s closer to being what Carl Jung calls the eternal kid.”
An example dabbler in the gym:
Someone that makes initial progress, which is thrilling! But struggles when they inevitably encounter difficulty or the slowing of measurable progress - whether it be weight loss, strength gain (PR's), or skill development. Frustration ensues and they jump ship when their expectation of progress doesn’t match with reality.
The dabbler’s path of progress:
THE OBSESSIVE
A bottom line, results-oriented persona. They want unrelenting progress and will push themselves mercilessly to achieve it, whether with work, relationships, or a skill. They are determined to get results and see immediate improvement. When they hit a plateau of progress, they redouble their efforts, unlike the dabbler who jumps ship. While this sounds like a dedicated and productive persona, the obsessive has no balance or understanding of playing the long-game to create future sustainable results that yield greater results than anything that can be achieved in the short-term.
An example obsessive in the gym:
Extremely high work ethic, but lack of overall patience with the process of growth. They expect PR's and proficiency now, and are not afraid to work hard to get them. But it may accompany injuries, burnout, or poor movement patterning that they are unwilling to go back and re-learn. Without patience, they’re willing to sacrifice longterm sustainable success for short-term gains in the moment, like a PR.
The obsessive’s path of progress:
THE HACKER
Possibly, the lesser of 3 evils. The hacker gets the hang of things and after reaching an adequate capability, is willing to stay on a plateau indefinitely. They do not seek out opportunities to improve, learn or develop the holes in their craft, job, or personal behavior. The hacker is willing to skip stages of development (practice) if they can hack-around with fellow hackers on a path of non-progress.
An example hacker in the gym:
Someone that is pretty solid at many things, but never addresses the imbalance or skill deficiency that coach talks to them about. The weak spot in their game is something they just avoid or make excuses for. Maybe it’s mobility, technique, nutrition, or strength. Whatever it is, they don’t go back to address it, they just keep marching on, avoiding it.
The hacker’s path of progress:
In truth, we each have aspects of the obsessive, the hacker and the dabbler within us. Perhaps you are the obsessive at the gym, the dabbler in your hobbies, and the hacker in your relationships. Recognizing these patterns of behavior is useful in helping us to see when we’re NOT on the path of mastery. So what does the 4th archetype look like? It is the path of mastery.
MASTERY
Mastery is not perfection. It is not excellence. Mastery is not the achievement of 30, 60 or 90-day goals. Mastery is practice, and in that sense, mastery is the act of staying on the path (not jumping ship, not looking for unsustainable shortcuts, and not settling).
Mastery is the path of patient, dedicated effort without attachment to immediate results.
George Leonard, “Mastery”
That bears repeating:
Patient. Dedicated. Effort.
Without. Attachment. to.
Immediate. Results.
The Master’s path of progress:
While Leonard admits that this is an oversimplification of what learning and growth looks like, it aligns with many principles of neuroscience. Leonard describes the mastery curve:
“Learning any new skill involves relatively brief spurts of progress, each of which is followed by a slight decline to a plateau somewhat higher in most cases than that which preceded it.”
I particularly love this definition of mastery because it gives us the recipe and roadmap to create joy and fulfillment in our pursuits - regardless of whether they relate to personal development, athletic endeavors, or professional advancement.
The Roadmap of Mastery
Our mindset will be: Patient. Dedicated (VS short-sighted, expectant)
Our actions will be: Effort-driven (VS achievement-focused)
Our timeline will honor: that short-term goal attainment does not equate to linear, long-term optimal growth.
Someone striving to be a black belt in jiu jitsu, should have little concern with how quickly they progress from white belt to blue belt, or whether they won or lost a single match. The same goes for learning your muscle up, PR’ing your snatch, or seeing the # on the scale change. Now that we know what the path of mastery looks like, we have unlocked my FAVORITE perspective-shift of the entire book - our relationship to plateaus!
(Check out part 2 of this article to continue >> )