Learning curve

Have you ever noticed that there's a point in a learning curve where the new thing starts to seem normal then all of a sudden things go pear-shaped? It's like a fork in the road - will I keep going ahead, or will I become discouraged and fall back?

I wonder if there's a name for this phenomena. For example, I used to find this happened whenever I moved house - I would learn the new route to drive to work: at first it was new and interesting and I had to focus on what I was doing and where I was going. Then after a while it became normal, and I didn't have to really think about it and started driving it automatically, but then at this point I would find myself driving back to my old house instead. Like my body was thinking 'which normal do I follow'?

I find this with sewing and baking as well. It's when I really know the pattern/recipe well that I start making stupid mistakes with it - forgetting to add yeast to the dough, forgetting to sew interfacing in.

The lack of yeast in the bread dough was this morning's problem. I pulled out the solid little ball in the bottom of the bread pan and almost got cranky, then I thought - huh, I'm at that point in the learning curve. I'm making bread a different way now, and I forgot the yeast. No problem. Guess I'll slice it up and make it into dog biscuits instead.

Does anyone else's brain work in this bizarre fashion, or is it just me?

Reminds me of the whole old man/new man thing in Eph 4:22-24. I often feel like I'm at that point when I've done something stupid: do I get cranky at myself, or do I recognise it as just an old habit, and remember I have a new way of thinking now, I'm not the same person I once was and I have different options available to me now...

The photos are of pea shoots... kind of fits the theme? Maybe? In some kind of remote way? Some of them seem to be wondering which way to go - that's for sure!