Our professional and personal lives set us on a course of constant skill development. In order to further success, especially in your career, honing and sharpening your knowledge and skills is vital. However, it is common to experience plateaus in the course of your development. These are defined as experiencing a lack of progression from your current level. This is a normal experience, whether you are working on professional development or even bodybuilding. Knowing how to get out of the plateauing cycle can mean the difference between building upon your skill set and running in place.

Understanding Why Plateaus Happen

Plateaus are common in any sort of personal progress. It’s commonly associated with weightlifters. They plateau in their strength levels when they become unable to progress past a certain amount of weight for a particular exercise. In the professional world, plateauing refers to an employee whose growth and abilities level off. In your career, you can encounter these limitations for a variety of reasons, such as:

Structure of management hierarchy
Mastery of skills required for current job
Stressful work environments limiting growth and creativity
Inability or lack of desire to learn new job skills

Some of these causes of plateaus are internal while others are external. Knowing what is causing a plateau is the key to getting past it and continuing to advance your career.

How to Get Out of the Plateauing Cycle

Once you’ve pinpointed the cause of your plateau, you can formulate a plan of action to begin climbing upwards again. The steps may be as large as looking for a new job or as simple as taking on more responsibility.

External factors causing a plateau may require you to speak to a supervisor about your issues. An open and honest conversation with your superior can help to uncover solutions. If you’re feeling uninspired or unchallenged then they can move you into a new role or change your responsibilities.

If internal factors have caused you to plateau, then consider what changes need to be made. Perhaps your work is simply not interesting to you anymore but you also do not desire to move into a new area of responsibility. In such cases, a career change may be necessary. Other times, it may simply be a matter of motivation. In this case, take an inventory of what is wrong and why. Make the necessary personal changes and then come back to your responsibilities with a renewed perspective.

Maintaining Your Growth and Improvement

Once you’ve gotten yourself out of your plateau, you’ll want to take steps to ensure that it does not happen again. There are a variety of ways to do so. Finding ones that work best for you can help keep you on track in your career. Ways to get out of the plateauing cycle and stay out include:

Setting lofty but attainable goals
Using new approaches and methods
Learning new skills
Taking a training course or seminar

Ultimately, getting over a career plateau is a personal battle. What works for one person may not be the best fix for you. If you’ve found yourself wondering how to get out of the plateauing cycle then try some of the above tips. No matter what you’re struggle it’s always possible to keep moving forward.