Growth arrives carrying a lot of sales language — optimization, steady upward curves, becoming a better version of yourself. That framing is not much help, because it makes any plateau look like failure and any setback look like proof. Real growth is less linear and less flattering: long stretches of nothing visible, then a moment when something that used to be difficult is merely ordinary. It is mostly invisible from inside and obvious in hindsight. The flat stretches are not wasted; they are where it happens. Today, notice one thing that is easier now than it was, without deciding what it means about you.
Most of it is invisible while it happens and obvious afterwards.