The necessary plateaus
We all like to feel that we’re improving, no matter what we’re doing in life. Whether it’s personal growth, playing the piano, running a marathon, or building a business, progress feels good.
We often imagine this progress as a straight climb to the top — always evolving, always moving upward.
But reality has other plans. No matter what you’re striving to master, I can assure you that your journey won’t follow a perfectly straight path.
It will likely start strong, then seem to take a step back, plateau for a while, and eventually lead to a breakthrough. Then, the cycle repeats. Think about anything you’ve worked hard to master, and you’ll probably find this pattern holds true.
This means the plateau — that mysterious phase where nothing seems to be happening — is an essential part of the process, just like failure.
What matters during this time is how you handle the frustration and emotions that come with it.
This is the point where self-doubt creeps in. You may start second-guessing yourself, hearing the echoes of past failures. For some, this becomes overwhelming, leading them to either give up or settle into the comfort of the plateau to avoid further disappointment.
While we may understand this conceptually, living through it is another story. For many, it can feel as “simple” as losing motivation because the steady upward progress they were used to has stalled. At this point, you might catch yourself saying (or thinking), “I just don’t feel like doing this anymore,” or, “This is boring.”
This is when we’re tempted to jump into something new, chasing the excitement of early progress — only to eventually find ourselves back in the same cycle.
It’s easy to fall into this trap without even realizing it. That’s why it’s so important to stay self-aware and keep a close eye on your energy and mindset.
The Principle of Polarity
Here’s an interesting quote from William Walker Atkinson:
“And so it is on the Mental Plane. “Love and Hate” are generally regarded as being things diametrically opposed to each other; entirely different; unreconcilable. But we apply the Principle of Polarity; we find that there is no such thing as Absolute Love or Absolute Hate, as distinguished from each other.
The two are merely terms applied to the two poles of the same thing. Beginning at any point of the scale we find “more love,” or “less hate,” as we ascend the scale; and “more hate” or “less love” as we descend—this being true no matter from what point, high or low, we may start. There are degrees of Love and Hate, and there is a middle point where “Like and Dislike” become so faint that it is difficult to distinguish between them. Courage and Fear come under the same rule.
The Pairs of Opposites exist everywhere. Where you find one thing you find its opposite— the two poles.
And it is this fact that enables the Hermetist to transmute one mental state into another, along the lines of Polarization. Things belonging to different classes cannot be transmuted into each other, but things of the same class may be changed, that is, may have their polarity changed.
Thus Love never becomes East or West, or Red or Violet—but it may and often does turn into Hate—and likewise Hate may be transformed into Love, by changing its polarity. Courage may be transmuted into Fear, and the reverse. Hard things may be rendered Soft. Dull things become Sharp. Hot things become Cold. And so on, the transmutation always being between things of the same kind of different degrees.
Take the case of a Fearful man. By raising his mental vibrations along the line of Fear-Courage, he can be filled with the highest degree of Courage and Fearlessness. And, likewise, the Slothful man may change himself into an Active, Energetic individual, simply by polarizing along the lines of the desired quality.”
A pristine Will connection
We often talk about the power of the Will — that inner force that connects to the deepest parts of ourselves and drives us forward.
But there’s an often-overlooked aspect of this: the pristine connection with the Will. This is a pure, undistracted link, free from the noise of competing impulses and conflicting desires that constantly vie for our attention.
To achieve this pristine connection, you need internal silence — a stillness that allows you to understand the different elements within you. For example, the part of you that craves a cookie isn’t the same as your inner Will, which seeks to elevate and guide you toward greater things.
That cookie craving might have its place — or it might just be a superficial impulse — but it’s not essential for connecting with your Will. It’s simply noise.
This is why it’s so important to set aside time to observe what’s happening within you. Pay attention to the various calls for your focus and the different impulses driving your behavior.
Without this self-awareness, it’s much harder to understand what’s truly motivating you. Instead, you’ll find yourself reacting to surface-level impulses (like the craving for cookies!) rather than connecting with the deeper, more meaningful drives that call you to grow beyond your routines.
In our course, Will Mastery, we explore these elements in depth and help you differentiate between them to strengthen your connection to your true self.
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