An old Navajo man was out walking with his young Granddaughter one day teaching her the stories of the deep canyons and flat plateaus of the American Southwest.  His Granddaughter stopped and asked, “Grandfather, what’s a plateau?”  The Grandfather said, “A plateau is where a mountain stopped growing.”

All of us have reached  plateaus, a place where we’ve stopped growing, at one point or another.  These plateaus can be in any number of areas including physical training, dieting, spiritual growth, or the growth of a relationship.

Whatever the area, plateaus share a couple of characteristics:

1.  Steep sides. The steep sides of a plateau represent the hard work it’s taken us to get to where we currently are.  Whether it’s working out at the gym everyday or really trying hard to understand and be responsive to your spouse or loved one, the past couple of weeks have been filled with hard, difficult work.

2.  A flat top. After all the effort of climbing the steep sides, the flat top of a plateau tends to take you by surprise.  It seems like you’re still putting out the same amount of effort as you were when you were climbing the side, you’re just not getting any higher – in other words, you’re not growing.  This usually leads to:

3.  Redoubling your efforts. What’s the first thing most people try when they hit a plateau?  They think they can break through it by trying harder and redoubling their efforts.  Actually, that sometimes works to get you a little further along.  However, more often than not, you quickly find yourself right back where you started.  This eventually leads to the realization that:

4.  Old formulas just don’t work anymore. Having reached a plateau and redoubled your efforts only to find that you’re still stuck in the same place, you quickly realize that what you’ve been doing just doesn’t work as effectively anymore.  You can only build so much muscle with your existing training routine, for example, before you plateau out and have to change your routine because your old one just isn’t cutting it anymore.

So what’s the answer?  How do you break out of a plateau and start climbing and growing again?  The answer is actually part of characteristic number 4.

Once you’ve hit a plateau, the old formulas just don’t work anymore.  There are a number of reasons for this that I won’t get into here.  Just take it as fact that after a while, your usual routine just isn’t going to cut it anymore.

Therefore, you’ve got to change it.  You’ve got to try a different route.  To get off the plateau and start climbing (and improving) again, you’ve got to try something new in order to  “level up.”

What does it mean to “level up?”  According to Wikipedia, to level up means, “To progress to the next level of player character stats and abilities. Often used in role-playing games when the character has acquired enough experience points.”

If you’re a “gamer,” you already knew this.  In most video games, your character starts out at a starting level with a basic set of skills.  As you progress through the game, your character gains “experience points” for using those skills to accomplish specific tasks.  Once you gain enough experience, you “level up” to the next skill level.  Your skill set usually improves as well in order to tackle the tougher challenges of the new level.

Well, life is set up pretty much the same way, only with YOU as the main character.  The more you use the skill set you’ve got, the more experience you acquire.  However, there is a point beyond which you just can’t progress any further until you acquire more “experience points.”  In other words, you’ve got to learn how to use your skills in a different way, or in a different combination, or in a different order or intensity.

If it’s your workout routine that’s plateaued, change it up by rearranging the order of your exercises or by changing the intensity level.  If a relationship has plateaued, try using a different tone of voice or meet at a different type of setting or location.  Spiritual plateau?  Try meditating or praying at a different time of day than usual or in a different place, or even in a different position (standing instead of sitting or vice-versa).

Jim Rohn, one of my personal development mentors (via hours and hours of audio tapes) loves to say that, “the only way for things to change for you, is if you change.”

So if you feel like you’re putting in a lot of effort but not getting anywhere, if you feel like you’re butting your head against the same wall, if you’ve plateaued, then you need to change your approach.  Time to try something new, gain some new experience, and “Level Up!”

Hiram
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

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