Skill is a result of focussed and consistent practice. When you are learning to improve, the initial rate of skill acquired is usually a flat line.

A great quote from Ira Glass

“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me … is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

When you are learning something new, you usually start with a goal in mind. If you are like me, usually, you would start with a lofty goal in mind - an idea of how good you wish to become at the end of your endeavours. Honestly, there is nothing wrong with having a lofty goal to begin with. But as with most things in life, you rarely get something that you wish for without being patient enough or subsequent failures in your journey. Good things takes time and patience, and the process is heartbreaking for some. There are barriers to how better you can get in your estimated time.

Initially, things would be really hard, and your results would be pretty lacklustre compared to the idea of success that you dream of. Lets say, you wake up one day and you decide you want to become a guitarist. You decide to go to the store to pick up a guitar and then you come home and start watching some youtube videos. In your head, you see yourself progressing to a level where you can play “All Along The Watchtower” with a breeze in a matter of week. But then, as you gradually begin to pick up chords and learn to wrap your fingers around the fret board, it hits you, even the most basic chords takes time for you to get used to. It gets really frustrating at first,

TIME is your greatest enemy as well as your friend.

Be patient and don’t benchmark yourself with other achievers.

As with every other thing in this world, you can keep reading and watching and talking about something, but unless you actually go out there and really do it, play it, you won’t improve.

• The Snowballing of Practice | CSS-Tricks https://css-tricks.com/the-snowballing-of-practice/

• How I Rewired My Brain to Become Fluent in Math - Issue 40: Learning - Nautilus http://nautil.us/issue/40/learning/how-i-rewired-my-brain-to-become-fluent-in-math-rp

• Probably Overthinking It: Learning to program is getting harder http://allendowney.blogspot.com/2018/02/learning-to-program-is-getting-harder.html

• The Beginner’s Guide to Deliberate Practice | James Clear https://jamesclear.com/beginners-guide-deliberate-practice