Learning any new skill involves relatively brief spurts of progress, each of which is followed by a slight decline to a plateau somewhat higher than that which preceded it. . . . To take the master’s journey, you have to practice diligently, striving to hone your skills, to attain new levels of competence. But while doing so—and this is the inexorable fact of the journey—you also have to be willing to spend most of your time on a plateau, to keep practicing even when you seem to be getting nowhere.
—George Leonard