If (like me) you’ve ever tried to lose weight, you know the horror that lies in the word “plateau.” A plateau is a point that you reach in your progress… and sometimes don’t progress beyond.
In geological terms, a plateau is “an area of relatively high level ground”. And this is where it gets interesting. Because you’ve worked hard to get up to that point. And the view from up there can be outstanding. Is there anything wrong with being on a plateau? Or hanging out there for a while?
I was reading Cal Newport’s fantastic book So Good They Can’t Ignore You recently, and was struck by the way in which he talks about how we progress as writers and creators. Many of us writers and creators start hungry (a.k.a. ambitious), and eagerly pursue growth and improvement.
But after a while, in the words of Newport: “… if you’re not careful to keep pushing forward, your improvement can taper off to what the performance scientist Anders Ericsson called an ‘acceptable level’, where you then remain stuck.”
So essentially, we progress to a place where we’re good at what we do… and we (consciously or unconsciously) ease off the gas pedal of ambitious growth. We (consciously or unconsciously) rest on our laurels.
This is so fascinating to me because I’ve spoken before about the dangers of comparison, and this adds yet another danger to the list. When we get “good enough” — when we compare ourselves to the other writers, podcasters, and creators around us and think, “Huh, I’m just as good as they are now!”, do we stop pushing ourselves to learn, grow, and improve?
I don’t think that hitting a plateau — or even staying on one for a while — is a bad thing. Our careers as creators are rough and uncharted, and the trajectory of CONSTANT UPWARD GROWTH simply isn’t realistic. And I really hate hustle culture.
But I also never want to stop learning, growing, and mastering my craft. So this week I’d ask you to consider: what is your plateau? What is “good enough” for you — and what lies beyond?
Words & warmth,
Sarah