How To Deal With Being Stuck On a Plateau

At the beginning of this year, I started interval fasting to lose weight.

The first two kilos were done quickly, but then my progress suddenly stopped. For almost a week I didn't lose another gram. On some days, I even weighed a few hundred grams more than the day before.

Many would have given up at this point. But I knew from previous projects that such plateau phases are entirely normal. When you reach such periods, it's nothing to worry about. You're not doing anything wrong.

I stuck to my fasting program, and a few days later, the next kilo was gone. I've had a few more times since then, but I've always just kept going and focused on the process rather than the short-term outcome.

It is in the nature of things that the further you have progressed, the longer it takes to make new progress.

When learning a new language, the beginner makes rapid progress. If he couldn't speak a word in the new language yesterday, two days later, he can speak a few simple sentences.

If you start running after a long time without sport, you may be able to run for five minutes in the beginning, but after a week you can run for ten minutes. You have improved your skills by one hundred percent in one week.

But a hundred percent increase is smooth if you start from zero. Each improvement takes longer than the last. Each new advance seems more unimpressive than the previous one.

The destination lies in the fog

The biggest problem when you head for a destination is that you cannot see it yet. It's like climbing a mountain of unknown height, but you can only see the next ten meters of the path because of fog. Every few hundred meters, there are at least waymarks that show you that you are still on the right track.

When you set off, you were still sure that the summit existed and could be reached. But the more time passes and the less often you pass a marker, the more doubts you have.

Are you still on the right path? Is the summit even close enough that you can still reach it in this life? Sure, you looked at a map before, when you were still at the foot of the mountain.

It looked as if you could make it. The map didn't contain exact numbers, but since it exists, there must be someone who has reached the summit at least once before.

Someone was able to do it, so it must be possible for you, you thought.

But in the daily struggle, step by step, your strength, and your motivation dwindle. At some point, you want to give up. And finally, you really give up. You don't know how far it would have been, and you will never know.

If only one meter is missing to get to the gold

Imagine a prospector who confidently unpacks his pickaxe to search for a legendary vein of gold in a mountain.

He has seen people living in magnificent houses in the city, reveling in incredible luxury.

They all once moved to that mountain and dug. They struck gold, staked their claim, and got rich. But nobody owns the whole vein of gold that runs through the mountain. They all own only a small part of it. There's room for so many more fortune hunters. So our prospector decided to try his luck too.

He's driving a tunnel into the hard rock. The thought of wealth and freedom makes him forget his aching hands and the sweat on his brow. He works into the night, sleeps a few hours, and then continues day after day.

A few years pass by. Our gold-digger only works at half power. Often he prefers to go to the saloon early in the evening rather than digging further.

His original dream is just a pale notion somewhere deep inside his head.

He only works because he is used to it and doesn't want to admit to himself that he has wasted his time in the last years.

But one day, he doesn't even care. He sells his equipment, moves to the city, takes a cheap room, and drinks himself slowly to death in the saloon over the next few years. He has become a bitter man who starts every fight and hates himself.

This story is tragic. But it becomes even sadder when we know what the poor gold-digger didn't know. At the moment he had given up, he was only one foot away from the vein of gold.

The rock in front of him, in the dark tunnel, looked as usual, but boundless wealth was already within his reach. He only had to dig one more day.

Remember that it is possible

When you reach a plateau, and it seems to go no further, remember the story of the poor gold digger.

It always helps me immensely, because it reminds me that I would never have tackled my goal if it was impossible to reach it.

Whatever you aim for - it can be achieved. A goal is only unattainable if we stop going towards it. Failure is only inevitable if we give up.

So go your way with peace and confidence and just don't give up.

He who does not tire wears out hardship and misery. (Quote from an unknown source)