10: Plateaus are the Enemy

Why do so few people attain mastery?

When I was 21, I had a conversation with a friend about using drugs to attain more enlightened or awakened states. I thought it was cheating, not because there's a right way to do enlightenment, but because something precious gets lost if you don't earn your way toward higher states.

Although a trip might open the doors of your perception, you don't gain a map of the terrain. After the trip passes, you have been affected, but you can't necessarily go back there without taking another dose. I wanted states of consciousness that could be returned to without depending on anything else.

"Go live in a monastery for 20 years, and I'll take this," he said.

For me, the path is in between these extremes. If Morpheus appeared to me and offered me a pill to transcend the matrix, I'd take it.

You earn your way to high states of consciousness, yet attaining high states is also a profound grace, something mysterious to be grateful for.

Some people dedicate 20 years to living in a monastery without attaining anything. They clocked a lot of time sitting.

What's missing?

I've driven a car since I was 16, but I'm not 1000x better than I was when I was 20.

I clocked a lot of time behind the wheel, but I don't improve each time I drive. Once I was good enough, I stopped getting better.

Nature Only Offers Plateaus

When you start from zero, you learn fast.

You're also more likely to enlist for bigger challenges. Newbies overestimate their competence because they haven't had to test themselves against harsh reality. Naivity is like rocket fuel. When you don't know all that it will take, you can get a lot done.

When you don't realize how long the race is, you sprint.

It's hard to commit to a goal that you know will be a long, complicated slog with no certain outcome. This is a cognitive bias known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

When you start off in a sprint, you overestimate your abilities and underestimate the awaiting trials. It will later feel like you're not getting any better when in truth you are.

You started out overestimating your ability, and as you gained experience, you got better but also became more aware of the challenges.

You can outsmart this by:

• keeping objective measurements (so you know where you stand)

• focusing on the process (so you don't get overwhelmed)

Focusing on the present moment means staying drunk on learning and letting yourself be fed by the challenge. Remain ignorant to any but the necessary details. In truth, you can't know what the end will be like until you get there.

Let's say you are keeping track, and you're seeing an actual plateau. You'd like to improve, but you aren't.

You still need to step back to ensure you accurately assess the situation. Our assessments always appear rational, but emotions fuel them. You wish things were different, and the truth looks frustrating. You've pictured an ideal future and fear it will never come.

As for strategies when hitting a plateau...

Embrace Challenges

Step out of your comfort zone.

My background is in higher education. For a few years, I had challenges that made sense to an English professor. If I had persisted only in that, I would have stopped growing.

I founded a company leading writing retreats. This brought challenges that made sense to a business owner. If I had persisted only in this, I would have hit a plateau based on this identity.

Then I got into homesteading, off-grid living, and construction. I built skills in different areas. I had different priorities. I dove into sci-fi writing. I narrated audiobooks.

I got interested in software engineering. I did a bootcamp and worked full-time as a developer.

These shifts made me a better writer. They gave me more to write about, more opportunities to write in different contexts, and challenged me in very different ways.

These specific pursuits are peculiar to me—most people aren't wired this way. But there is a big lesson here that applies to anyone.

Tackling new and more difficult things will stoke growth and help break through plateaus.

Who are you now, and who do you want to become next?

Get Real Feedback

Ask people you trust about potential blind spots or areas to improve. Invite specific constructive criticism from those who know you and understand your values.

Even better, get them to reflect what you do best, and lean more into that. Being a well-rounded person is overrated. I don't expect to hear sound investment strategy from Jim Carrey. I don't need him to know how to train a dog. I want him to become who he wants to be.

This type of feedback is something you have to explicitly ask for. Most relationships do not imply this sort of input.

Be Anti-Comfort

Unless you're embracing challenges, you're getting acclimated to things being comfortable.

Comfort and habit creep in, making things "normal" and mediocre.

Memory retention declines over time if you aren't effectively rehearsing or applying new knowledge. Without regular review or practice, learned information will be quickly forgotten. If you don't use it, you lose it.

We have an insane inclination for comfort. It's wired into our brain's functioning. This natural tendency extends into our behavior.

Unlike our ancestors, you're not collecting berries for a living. You have bigger dreams beyond subsistence. Right from the start, you find yourself working against the grain of instinctual programming. Like weeds in a garden, old habits and prehistoric self-concepts will creep back in.

The primary source of comfort-based plateau comes from achieving success and losing the hunger to become more. On paper, you might be a high achiever, but how about what you are really capable of?

Beware Obsolete Mastery

Don't upskill yourself into a corner. Watch out for dedicating too much time to skills or technologies that may become obsolete or lose relevance. If you dive into learning COBOL, you're relevant for working deep in the computer-bowels of large financial institutions, but your expertise won't transfer into front-end development. What will transfer are problem-solving skills, your ability to communicate, and a baseline of technical know-how.

Above all, the work that you do on yourself, you get to keep. If during your time working as a COBOL developer you became passionate about project management, even though your technical skill won't directly apply elsewhere, your ability to manage technical situations will.

Consider Whether You Care

I would be very suspicious of anyone whose motivation didn't wane. Especially in fitness, people treat flagging motivation like a mental health issue. It's natural. Some days you care more than others. Motivation brings highs and lows.

Some people tend to listen to High Voice rather than Low Voice. Neither one is you. Stay with yourself in the process. Get introspective—is the lack of interest authentic?

Is there value in persisting for a phase? Will your motivation change if you know it’s not forever?

Unless you know there's an end date, you can't fully dive in. You can easily commit to something when you know how long you're committing for. Without this clarity, things will atrophy and drag on. You wouldn't be wrong to lose motivation, but you would be wrong to give up.

Sometimes it's just about having other things you're doing that feed you differently. I like pottery. I never put any pressure or expectation on it. It's good for me, and I love making things for others. I keep it simple, and it continues to feed me.

If, after checking in with yourself and getting feedback from those you trust, you know the demotivation is authentic, then head elsewhere.

Reflection

I'm lucky to have been taught by some great teachers as a writer, artist, and with yoga and meditation.

I believe karma is involved when you have been exposed to something true, good, and beautiful. You owe it to yourself and the universe to honor it, to let it be a force in your life. Otherwise, you're saying no to it. Karmically, I don't think that's good.

I don't have forever in this life, and I want to embrace what I believe to be true.

Takeaways:

• Stop wasting time on less valuable activities

• Don't try to be good at everything

• Do it for yourself first

• Don't focus on looking a certain way for someone else

• Keep it simple

• Set up systems that support you in doing what you want.