I think you will relate to this — you put tremendous amounts of effort into something and see little to no progress. But then comes a point when you just snap your fingers and suddenly you’re leaps ahead. It’s not a coincidence, that’s how progress works.

Progress isn’t linear. It’s exponential and it’s plateaued. It compounds over time. The standard rules of cause and effect don’t apply as you might expect. What this means is that you will see less of it in the beginning, followed by sudden acceleration, followed by stillness, and then it oscillates between jumps and periods of stillness.

That’s why starting something new is hard. You have to put in hours and hours of time and take baby steps. It is daunting but it is what you expect — you know that it’s gonna take time so you don’t feel pressured. You don’t feel like something’s wrong.

But there’s something few people rightly acknowledge — the plateau. This is where many of us struggle. This is the point where we stop moving forward, even though there’s no reduction in the efforts. It feels like an unknown force is stopping us or even pushing us back.

You’re not new, you’re experienced. You know your way out of this. You’ve done this before. But still, somehow, you can’t. You just can’t. That is what we call plateau.

How do you get past it? Simple, just keep doing what you do. Keep placing one foot after the other, even if you’re on a treadmill for now. You will get off when it’s time to get off. Just don’t stop.

I’m not advising anything new here. All of us know this. But for the person stuck there, knowing isn’t enough. It’s a period of self-doubt and misery. It becomes hard to maintain the confidence to keep moving.

Something that can help in this phase is to keep the bar extremely low. If you think you can run 5km, try running just 2km. If you think you can read a chapter in one sitting, try reading a single page. If you think you can produce an entire song, try composing a melody and see what it feels like.

Basically, do less then you think you can. The goal is not to do less, but to roll a snowball of momentum. When you start small, really small, you’re bound to win. And this small win gives you a sense of certainty and progress. It tells you, “Look, you’re moving forward. Keep going!”. And you do keep going.

So you start by doing less than you think, but end up doing more than you think. This is something that almost always works for me :D

I have one more rule similar to this — make it optional. If I dislike something, I just tell myself that you’re not bound to do this. You can quit, right here and now. This permission to let go enables me to think freely. I can then pull myself out of the situation and see the whole picture more rationally.

From the person struggling to keep going, I become the person who can quit any moment but decides not to. He wants to see where the path leads to, see how far he can go.

When you know that you have the choice, chances are, you will delay quitting. Nobody wants to quit. One bad day may produce these thoughts in your head, but when you know that it’s just a bad day and not a bad life, you will get up and continue the next day.

Don’t force yourself. Always have the choice. Flow like water.

🤔 Makes me wonder

A lovely essay from Vizi comparing the superblocks in Barcelona to the fractal neighborhoods of Madrid in terms of walkability. Lots of insights, inspires you to visit both cities (and many others), and contains other quotes and aphorisms as well. Just read it!

💭 Aphorisms

Were you able to resonate? Which journeys are you finding it hard to complete? Let me know by replying to this email or commenting on the website.

I’ll talk next week!
Aachman