All growth is hockey stick like!
All growth happens slow at first and then exponentially. A tree bears fruit only after years of patience. Relationships mature gradually if nurtured consistently. Wealth compounds after years of investing. Startups take years of relentless work to find product-market fit and 10x their revenue.
Good health comes to those who consistently eat, sleep and move well for years — not to those who gulp down pills looking for quick fixes.
When I started swimming, I had travel coming up. To not break the chain, I took my swim gear and used the hotel pool — a 21-day challenge, showing up 21 times even for as little as ten minutes, with a little diary to measure progress. What gets measured gets managed.
The initial period of stagnant growth is stressful — you don’t see your effort paying off. Understanding how growth actually happens is crucial to making progress, and having systems to keep you consistent is how you keep at it. The first 10–15 days were hard on chilly Bangalore mornings; the pocket diary made me show up.