How fast you’re growing doesn’t stay static.
You accelerate. Or at least, that’s often an option.
Consider a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. When you dump the pieces out of the box, you have an initial rush as you build the edge. But then, progress can slow way down as you begin to look for matches among the many remaining pieces.
But each piece you match also reduces the number of remaining pieces. Before long, it gets easier to find matches and your solving rate speeds up. The last 50 pieces can be matched in just a few minutes.
The same is true for much learning, in my experience. For example, developing music literacy can follow the same general steps:
- Initial rush.
- Long slog.
- Increasing pace of mastery.
The problem is, so many people stop pursuing mastery during the long slog. They never get to Step 3.
Jigsaw puzzles would never be finished if puzzlers stopped during the long slog. And you’ll never master a new skill if you don’t trust that the long slog doesn’t last forever.
The pace will pick up, your skills will increase faster and faster. Your learning will accelerate.