TL;DR: 

Tracking progress through concrete measures and giving yourself a baseline of “checkpoints” to compare to has helped me immensely 

The problem: 

Everyone has likely experienced a plateau, or multiple plateaus, in their language learning journey and has felt the self-doubt or uncertainty that follows - at least I did. 

I am currently in the midst of a struggle to bring my French from terrible to not-terrible, and, having previously learned Swedish, am reflecting on what helped me push through those plateaus.

What causes plateaus: 

Plateaus are usually an issue of bad perception rather than bad progress, particularly for the “intermediate plateau.” 

In the early stages, you jump from 0 to something, which is an infinity% gain in your language abilities. In the more advanced stages, you being to reap the rewards of your efforts: natives start to compliment you, you unlock a whole new “world” of people, media, etc. Maybe you can reconnect with family, friends, etc. on a deeper level.

The intermediate stage is the worst of both worlds: it feels like you're making minuscule progress (because in relative terms you are), but you also aren’t yet good enough to really reap the rewards. People might still speak to you in English, despite the hours you've put into learning your TL. This causes mental spin: “Am I doing things wrong? Should I change my method/strategy? Should I stop altogether? Is this even worth it?” The answer to these is probably no, and here are two simple tips that helped me stay grounded.

The two tips: 

1) Tracking progress objectively and concretely, and 2) Maintaining “checkpoints” 

For concrete tracking, this can be as simple as taking a moment to note down how many new pages you’ve read, hours of media consumed, Anki cards added or studied. This is a good “reset to reality" that helps show how much you've really done. Every word you see, every minute you spend practcing, every new concept you learn is inching you towards the end goal, so it can be motivating to see how many inches you've already gone!

Establishing “checkpoints” for your progress is also very helpful. For example, every so often, record yourself speaking. Whenever you encounter something that saps your motivation, whether it be a difficult reading, podcast, conversation, or whatever, note that down / save it, and come back to it after a month or two.

In these demotivating times, you will often be pleasantly surprised by how much progress is actually happening when you give yourself a baseline to compare to or a reliable measuring stick. Here's an analogy I often thought of: Imagine how hard it would be to stay motivated in the gym if you couldn't see yourself in the mirror / take pictures or read how much weight was on the plates! You might be getting stronger each time, but feel that you're stagnating because it was never getting easier. It shouldn't feel easier, but that is because you're progressing.

Concluding remarks: 

If you’re not currently in a plateau, these points might feel fairly obvious, but when you’re in the middle of one and questioning your abilities or decisions, it is a lot more difficult to see straight. Sometimes you have to write it down or hear it from someone to snap out of it. 

Writing this down was helpful to me to remind myself of how to deal with these ups and downs, so hopefully reading it is helpful to someone out there! Everyone feels the plateau, you are not doing anything wrong, and if you stick with it, you WILL come out the other end stronger than ever!