This post started as a post about weight training.
When I first started lifting weights, I thought that I’d progress on a curve that would be steep in the beginning, but slowed over time. I knew that beginners tend to progress quickly. Over time progress slows, and gains became harder to come by. It’s the law of diminishing returns. It looks something like this:
What I’ve discovered is this: That curve is correct in the short term. It’s part of a much larger curve. The cycle of gains repeats. The overall height of the curve may decrease at different stages. I’ll plateau for a while, or make small gains, and then suddenly, I’ve made a big one. With building muscle, there are a couple possible reasons. One might be perception. The gains may be linear, but I may only notice certain milestones. Another might be the stepwise nature of adding weight. Most dumbbells go up in five pound increments. If your working sets are 8-12 reps, you’re not likely to go up until you can do at least 8 reps with five more pounds. You’re building strength, but you’re not going to notice until you make the step.
No matter what the reason, I tend to find that my gain chart tends to look more like this:
It still follows the same rough path. Earlier gains are more dramatic, and the plateaus are shorter. Over time, I’m making larger gains, but the plateaus start to lengthen.
I was thinking about a lot of aspects of my life in this way. My professional career, once I decided to actually have one, grew in huge leaps in the beginning, with short intervals between gains. I learned a lot and applied it quickly. Now, later in my career, my knowledge gains are in smaller increments, and tend to take longer to apply. Parenting is similar. In the beginning, you’re making extraordinary gains in your success as a parent. You’ve kept the child fed, clothed, clean, alive! You’ve gotten them out of diapers, potty-trained, into kindergarten! Your knowledge grows in leaps and bounds. Now, as the father of a 12-year-old, I find those gains are smaller (sometimes more significant, but smaller), with longer periods of just general getting along in between.
Even personal growth has this curve. In your youth, you made huge strides in your maturity, and they came fast and furious. As we get older, out of our 20s and 30s and move into middle age, the increments get smaller, with longer periods in between.
There’s a point to all of this, by the way. The point is this – no matter how you see the curve, make sure the slope of the curve is always trending positive. There are times when your plateaus may be actual dips. There are points in your life when you may be headed down, but keep the overall curve moving up. Keep building, learning, and growing. And pay attention to the small victories – they may be bigger than you think, and the next one could be a long time coming.