Late bloomers still bloom. They just spend a few extra seasons building roots underground.

Development runs on its own clock, and the visible part is only the last stage of it. What looks like nothing happening is frequently slower work: skills accumulating, a sense of direction forming, something healing. None of that is legible from outside, and sometimes not even from where you are standing.

If you are in one of those stretches, measure it by what you are building rather than by what is showing. Keep a short record of what you learned each month. It will not make the season shorter, but it will stop you concluding that the season is the whole story.