We’ve had a lot of students moving up over the past few weeks. That’s good – because forward progress makes it easier to stay with it. In any activity, plateaus are dangerous. You can get stuck, and when that happens, you get frustrated. When people get frustrated, there are two options – get through it or do something else.
There are lots of plateaus – lots of sticking points – where progress stalls. Jumping from Green to Brown, and from 3rd to 2nd to 1st Brown – it takes longer and the gains are smaller, because more is expected and because you’re already pretty good. Think about how much better you could get at tennis in the next month with some private classes and a few hours of week on the court – and then think about how much better Serena Williams could get with the same effort. You’d get a lot better – but she’d see little or no gain. She needs a lot more to make that small incremental gain, while you, at a lower level, would improve rapidly.
Or, as you push that rock up the hill, it gets steeper near the top. And stopping is easy.
The Black Stripe helps. Once you add the Black Stripe to your belt, you’ve made the decision to stay for a year. You know that you’re paying for a year, whether you come or not, so you’re committed. You might get stuck, but you’re going to get through it. If you’re a White Belt and you take the Black Stripe at Yellow, you’re really saying that you are going to make it to Blue Belt over the next year. Maybe even Green. Even with slower progress near the top, taking the Black Stripe (or, more likely, keeping it) guarantees you to more promotions.
Before you know it, Black is the next belt, and suddenly it gets easy.
