I Thought Consistency Had an Expiry Date. Then I Read About the Plateau of Latent Potential.

A few days ago, I came across a line in Atomic Habits that made me stop reading for a moment:
"Winners and losers have the same goals."
At first, I thought about all the goals I've set for myself over the years. They were ambitious, but that wasn't really the problem.
The problem was how I expected progress to look.
I expected consistency to produce obvious results. If I kept showing up, surely I'd see something happening.
Then I read about the Plateau of Latent Potential.
James Clear compares it to heating an ice cube. From 25°C to 31°C, nothing appears to change. But each degree is storing energy until the ice finally melts.
That analogy felt uncomfortably familiar.
Looking back, I realized progress had been happening in quieter ways than I expected.
People I'd met on Twitter eventually found me on LinkedIn.
Some people had quietly followed my journey from WhatsApp groups.
Others reached out with encouraging messages in my DMs.
None of those looked like the breakthrough I was waiting for, so I almost ignored them.
Reading that chapter reminded me that progress isn't always obvious while it's happening.
Sometimes you're simply building the conditions for future results.
I'm still learning that lesson.
Have you ever mistaken slow progress for no progress?