Have you ever been making a lot of progress and suddenly you hit a plateau you can’t seem to get through?

We’ve experienced this before in a variety of areas in life.

Turns out there’s a reason for this.

It’s what we call The Path of Progress. We’ll explain that in a second.

But first a quick story...

We were having a grand time galavanting around Europe and decided to drive across the border of Switzerland into Italy.

Time passed quickly as we were admiring the scenery and architecture as we drove through short tunnel passes and wove in and around the magnificent mountain ranges.

We were making great progress and could tell that we were getting closer to the border as the foliage began to change and the color scheme of the buildings got increasingly warmer.

All was great until…

We drove into the next tunnel.

Now, we’d been driving through several of these at this point and suspected nothing of the next one. Each one previous had been a relatively quick in and out, each time revealing a new vista to enjoy.

Not so with this one!

Predictably, we found ourselves in the dark grey hole, but unlike the others, we were nowhere near coming out.

It just kept going…

We looked down at the GPS...no signal.

We looked down at the watch...we’d now clocked 8 minutes in here, and there was no light in sight.

Sheesh! Were we ever going to get out of here?

Back to The Path of Progress.

It goes something like this.

You start off making great progress, and seeing the growth and improvement is really exciting.

Then, for some inexplicable reason, you seem to stall for a bit, hitting that first plateau, but you work through it, and soon enough you are moving forward again...

But this time the progress isn’t as dramatic.

It’s acceptable though, and it feels good to be going up again.

And suddenly, you’re back, flat lining again. The rising was too short lived, and this plateau feels like the Sahara desert. As far as the eye can see.

Or as we’ve experienced it: a 15 minute tunnel.

You read that right.

Turns out, we had driven ourselves right into the WORLD’S LONGEST TUNNEL...with no advance warning!

When we were driving through that tunnel, it felt like we were never going to get out of there!

Perhaps you feel the same way about your progress towards your goals.

It can be discouraging and even a bit unnerving.

But, for those of us who are strong enough and persistent enough, we’ll reach the most exciting part…

Finally, the breakthrough comes, and this time it brings astronomical results, propelling you further than you’ve ever gone before.

As the time neared 15 minutes, a light appeared at the end of the tunnel (literally and figuratively!).

Emerging on the other side of the mountains, we were greeted with sunshine splashing through the windows and charming Italian buildings.

From there on out, it was smooth sailing all the way to a fabulous dinner along the water's edge, where the long tunnel was almost forgotten...kidding! How could we ever forget that adventure?!

It had been a journey, but boy was it worth it.

The same goes for all of us and our goals.

We can’t afford to quit in the tunnel.

So, what about you? Where do you find yourself on The Path of Progress right now?

Next time you find yourself in a tunnel, don’t give up; in fact, dig in deeper, review the “why” behind your goal, visualize the end result, and keep going.