Embracing the flats

The ideal graph of growth leans upward, with some increase every day, every year, no matter how small. That’s the conventional expectation. But there’s another kind of growth, where the graph flattens instead.

It’s the period of deep investment that brings no immediate, visible gain. Sometimes we need those seasons of giving, sowing, and committing with little or no return.

We might just be getting by, yet something is happening beneath the surface. The seeds begin to compound, and when the right opportunities meet that readiness, the results no longer make linear sense.

A steady upward slope is good progress. But sometimes we must dig deep, enduring the flat or even downward stretch, while sowing the right seeds. Then, one day, the flat graph suddenly spikes upward — only that there’s nothing “sudden” about it.