Learning Plateaus

“There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you.” – Bruce Lee

Have you hit a wall in your learning journey?

It’s a common occurrence in the learning curve when learners stop making rapid progress and experience stagnation in their level of performance. It can be frustrating and demotivating.

Definition

A learning curve refers to the graphical representation or mathematical concept that illustrates the rate of learning or improvement in performance over time as an individual gains experience or acquires new skills. It demonstrates the relationship between the amount of effort or practices invested and the resulting level of proficiency or efficiency attained in a particular task or domain.

What is a plateau phase?

The plateau phase, also known as the plateau effect or the leveling-off period, refers to a stage in the learning curve or skill acquisition process where the rate of improvement or progress becomes stagnant or levels off temporarily. During this phase, individuals may experience a slowdown in their performance gains, and their proficiency or skill level may reach a temporary plateau. While the plateau phase can be frustrating or discouraging, it is an everyday learning process. It is essential to recognize that it is typically followed by further growth and improvement. By persevering, seeking new strategies, or seeking guidance from mentors or experts, individuals can overcome the plateau and continue their journey toward mastery.

Identifying a Plateau Phase

Understanding and identifying a learning plateau is crucial if you want to continue progressing toward mastery. Recognizing the signs of a plateau phase can help you take action before it gets out of hand. Identifying a plateau phase can be crucial for professional development and overall success.

Here are some ways to recognize a plateau phase in team members:

Motivation goes dry

Performance stagnation

Observe whether your performance has remained relatively stagnant. If there is no noticeable improvement or growth in your work output, it may indicate a plateau phase.

Lack of enthusiasm or engagement

Pay attention to your enthusiasm and engagement in your work. If you exhibit a decreased interest, motivation, or passion for your tasks, it could be a sign of reaching a plateau.

Decreased learning or growth opportunities

Assess whether you are no longer seeking or taking advantage of new learning opportunities or challenges. If you appear to be content with the status quo and are not actively pursuing growth, you may be experiencing a plateau.

Repeating the same mistakes

Notice if you repeatedly make the same errors or faces similar challenges without showing improvement or the ability to overcome them. It could indicate a lack of progress and be stuck in a plateau phase.

Feedback from colleagues and supervisors

Seek feedback from colleagues, peers, or supervisors who work closely with you. Their observations and insights may shed light on any performance plateau that you may be experiencing.

Reasons for Plateaus?

Several factors can contribute to experiencing plateaus in various areas of life, including skill acquisition, personal growth, or professional development.

Here are some common causes of plateaus:

Mastery of Fundamentals

In the early stages of learning or skill acquisition, progress is often rapid as individuals grasp the fundamental concepts or skills. However, as they reach a certain level of competence, further improvement becomes more challenging, and progress slows down.

Your source material only takes you to a certain level.

Lack of Challenge

Plateaus can occur when individuals are not exposed to new challenges or opportunities that push them outside their comfort zone. Without novel experiences or goals to strive for, motivation and progress can stagnate.

Avoiding a Challenge

You might stop learning if there’s a challenge you’re avoiding. A hurdle you have to cross that’s scary. One you might fail. Growth has been comfortable and easy up till this point, and you don’t want to take on a challenge that turns the fun game into a serious commitment.

But these challenges are exactly how we get better at the skill. If you’re trying to learn stand-up comedy but you’re not performing in front of an audience besides your friends, you’re unlikely to get the feedback you need to improve. If you’re trying to learn a language but you’re not having conversations with people in that language, you’re not truly learning.

The first step to breaking through a learning plateau is to identify if there’s a big challenge you’re avoiding. If you’ve been spending tons of time on Codecademy “learning” to program but haven’t built something you can put in front of another person to use, then you’re stuck at a plateau. If you’re only cooking recipes you find online and not trying to make new recipes on your own, that’ll be a plateau too.

You have to take the training wheels off at some point, and the sooner you do, the sooner you can fall down a few times and figure out how to ride the bike. Each stage of the Dreyfus model is a natural plateau, and taking off the training wheels is the critical move to get past the Advanced Beginner stage and continue towards Expertise. If you never start using your intuition, you can never become Competent, so it makes sense to make that leap sooner rather than later.

Insufficient Practice or Effort

Consistent practice and effort are crucial for continued growth and improvement. If individuals do not dedicate enough time and effort to honing their skills or acquiring new knowledge, they may experience a plateau in their progress.

Limited Feedback or Guidance

Feedback and guidance from mentors, coaches, or experienced individuals are essential for identifying areas of improvement and setting goals. Individuals lacking constructive feedback or mentorship may struggle to overcome plateaus.

Burnout or Fatigue

Mental and physical fatigue can hinder performance and contribute to plateaus. When individuals are exhausted or overwhelmed, their ability to focus, learn, and grow may be compromised, resulting in a leveling off of progress.

Psychological Factors

Negative beliefs, self-doubt, fear of failure, or a fixed mindset can impede progress and lead to plateaus. Limiting beliefs about one’s potential can create a mental barrier to further growth.

Breaking Through the Plateau

Getting through that plateau of contentment is critical to hitting the bigger goals you’ve set for yourself. Doing so requires learning how to break yourself out of that contentment, out of that plateau, so that you can keep learning and keep getting better.

Hitting a plateau doesn’t always mean the end. It just means you need to find an alternative way to get better at it.

You must recognize when to adjust your approach to overcome a learning plateau. Experts recommend deliberate practice and rest periods to reinforce new skills and avoid forgetting old ones. Learning curves can take time, but the plateau effect doesn’t have to be permanent. Breaking through a plateau can be challenging, but with the right strategies and mindset, overcoming stagnation and resuming progress is possible.

Here are some approaches to breaking through a plateau:

“Growth comes at the point of resistance. We learn by pushing ourselves and finding what really lies at the outer reaches of our abilities.” – Josh Waitzkin, The Art of Learning

A Checklist for Breaking Through Learning Plateaus

If you think you’ve hit a learning plateau, follow these steps to get through it.

Identify a challenge you may be avoiding and face it head on
Mix up your practice methods to stress all parts of the skill
Attempt new challenges to identify weak parts of the skill
Develop tactical practice techniques to improve the weak parts of the skill
Repeat at the next plateau

Tactical improvement

If you find that you’ve hit a plateau you can’t break through just through a diversity of practice methods though, then it’s time to get more tactical. Start by identifying what part of the skill might be holding you back, and then see how you can devise a training method that focuses on that part of the skill.

Maybe you have a huge vocabulary of Spanish words from doing Anki practice, but you struggle putting them into grammatical sentences. The solution isn’t to keep practicing on Anki. It’s to get on the phone with a native and hammer away at sentences, or start writing massive numbers of them for feedback on Lang8.

Any time not spent improving the weakest part of your skill is a waste. It only increases your frustration over being stuck at the plateau while doing nothing to get past it. As soon as you see that you’re stuck, you should figure out how you can modify your practice to deal with the weakest part of your skillset.

Set new goals

When you feel stuck on a plateau, setting new goals provides a new sense of direction and purpose. By identifying specific areas where you want to progress and setting challenging yet achievable goals, you create a roadmap for overcoming the plateau and reigniting your motivation and focus.

Seek feedback and guidance

Getting feedback from mentors, coaches, or experienced individuals in your field is crucial during a plateau. They can offer valuable insights, identify blind spots, and guide strategies or techniques to help you break through stagnation. Their perspectives can provide a new lens to view your challenges and find solutions.

Embrace learning opportunities

Actively seeking new opportunities expands your knowledge and skills, helping you break through a plateau. Attend workshops, conferences, or seminars, take on new projects, or pursue additional training. By continuously learning and acquiring new knowledge, you challenge yourself and open doors to fresh perspectives and approaches that can propel you forward.

Change your approach or routine / Mix Up Your Technique

A change in direction or routine can disrupt the monotony accompanying a plateau. Experiment with strategies, techniques, or methods to find what works best for you. Exploring new approaches introduces novelty and adaptability into your process, sparking renewed enthusiasm and progress.

If you know where your limits are and you’re leaning into them but they aren’t budging, you have to try something else. This is best seen with weight lifting. If you’ve been trying to increase your bench press, deadlift, squat-rack-curls, but they aren’t increasing, the next step is to stress the muscles in a different way.

“…the best way to move beyond [the plateau] is to challenge your brain or your body in a new way. Bodybuilders, for instance, will change the types of exercises they are doing, increase or decrease the weight they’re lifting or the number of repetitions, and switch up their weekly routine. Actually, most of them will vary their patterns proactively so they don’t get stuck on plateaus in the first place.” - Peak by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

The simplest way to apply this to learning is to change your practice methods and education sources. If you’re trying to learn a language, don’t just use one resource all the time. Focus on one at a time while doing smaller amounts of the others and rotate your focus every few weeks as you start to plateau or get bored. What you’ll find is that by taking a break and coming back to each one, you’ll blow through where you were before.

Maintain and develop a growth mindset

A growth mindset is essential for breaking through a plateau. Embrace discomfort and challenges, seeing them as opportunities for learning and growth. Take calculated risks and persist in the face of setbacks or obstacles. By cultivating a positive and resilient mindset, you can navigate the challenges of a plateau and remain committed to your growth journey.

Conclusion

Breaking through a learning plateau requires patience, persistence, and strategy. Understanding the learning curve and identifying when you’ve reached a plateau phase is essential. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to reflect on your approach and try new methods to challenge yourself and push past the plateau. Remember to set achievable goals, seek feedback from others, and focus on building a growth mindset. With these tips, you can break through your learning plateau and progress toward your goals.

References

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