The learning plateau

In any focussed skill development, there will be surges and lulls of progress. Sometimes these don't seem to even line up with something that makes obvious sense: "I used to do x and y happened, now x or even 2x still doesn't give me the increase." At these times you need to do something different, maybe even do nothing, stop doing it all together. But importantly, keep hold of the desire to excel, even if the motivation changes.

Here's something I wrote for someone having this trouble recently;
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Regarding the feeling of plateau, that's really common and something you will experience several times in your path to knighthood. You're like a multi-stage rocket headed for space, the first stage has just finished and the feeling of acceleration you've gotten used to is missing while you stabilise and prepare for the next, more subtle but just as powerful stage to kick in and accelerate you again. I know you compare yourself to others, but like the rocket, you're on a different path and have a different construction so while they appear to be getting ahead now, it may just be perspective making it look that way, or they just had a bigger first stage than you that you have a good chance of overtaking in later stages when they've run out of puff. So keep hope. In the meantime, there is something active you can do. Take yourself back to basics and re-learn them but with more intent and precision. I've read and re-read the various fighting handbooks out there and each time I learn something new, something I've learned wrong and something that I've just gotten lazy on. This is as much a mental exercise as an actual lesson, it's the start of looking at yourself in the context of yourself.