Reframe a Career Plateau as a Preparation Phase

Career plateaus feel like failure because they do not match the expected trajectory. They are usually something else: an external constraint, an internal gap that is being silently closed, or a redirection that has not yet become visible. The difference between a waiting plateau and a redirection plateau matters enormously, and you probably cannot tell which one it is without better information. This reframes the plateau and identifies the experiment that would give you that information.

I feel I have hit a career plateau. Context:
- My current role: {CURRENT_ROLE}
- How long I have been in it: {TIME_IN_ROLE}
- What the plateau feels like: {PLATEAU_DESCRIPTION}
- What I originally expected would happen by now: {ORIGINAL_EXPECTATION}

Reframe the plateau:
1. What a plateau usually indicates: the most common reasons a career plateau occurs at the stage I am describing, distinguishing between external constraints (market, organisation, sector) and internal ones (readiness, capabilities, clarity about direction)
2. The preparation frame: what this plateau period could be a preparation phase for, if I chose to use it that way, based on the capabilities and experience my current role is likely developing even without advancement
3. The question I might be avoiding: what question about my career direction this plateau may be surfacing that advancement would have deferred
4. One concrete experiment: a specific action I could take in the next [month] that would give me better information about whether this is a waiting plateau or a redirection plateau