Learning isn’t a smooth ramp. It’s a staircase: long flat stretches, then a sudden step up.

Effort and visible result are not on the same schedule, which is the single most discouraging fact about getting good at anything. You put in weeks that appear to change nothing, then one day the thing you were failing at is simply easier, with no obvious event in between. The step was built during the flat part; it only became visible later.

Judge yourself on inputs while you are on the flat, because outputs are not reporting yet. Ask whether you did the work, not whether you feel better at it. The step arrives on its own timetable and rarely announces itself in advance.