Starting to learn a new skill—whether it’s a strategic framework, a coding language, or complex market analysis—can be exhilarating. Initially, you are unaware of what you don’t know. However, as you progress, you often encounter a gap.

This gap transitions you from “Not Knowing” to a chaotic middle where progress slows and excitement fades, often replaced by frustration. Many refer to this as the “learning curve,” but I call it the Distortion Field of Learning.

What is the Distortion Field?
In this gap, your perception of reality becomes warped:

– The Difficulty Distortion: Problems seem insurmountable, even when they are merely complex.
– The Competence Distortion: You feel less capable than you are, simply because you are now aware of nuances you previously overlooked.
– The Time Distortion: A week of struggle feels like a year of stagnation.

This phase can be perilous, as it is where many quit, mistaking the feeling of struggle for failure.

👉The Antidote: Resilience as a Lens
To navigate this field, you must enter what I call the Resilience Phase. Resilience is not just about toughness; it is the ability to correct the distortion. It involves the mental discipline to view the chaos of the learning gap and affirm, “I am not failing; I am just gathering data.”

In challenging times, remind yourself and your teams of three key points:

1. Discomfort is evidence of growth. If you aren’t feeling the friction of the distortion field, you may be relying on outdated knowledge.
2. The “Dip” is temporary. The distortion field is finite, with an exit that can only be reached by moving through it.
3. Knowing is a lagging indicator. You often understand the material before you feel confident in it; confidence comes last.

As leaders, we often throw our teams into this field and then wonder why morale dips. Our job isn’t to remove the distortion—we can’t—but to be the voice of reality that cuts through it. We need to normalize the confusion that comes before clarity.
Next time you feel like you’ve hit a wall in your learning, check your coordinates. You aren’t lost. You’re just in the distortion field. Keep moving.