Evaluate Your Own Progress in a Skill

It is easy to confuse practising with improving. You can spend a year on something and not get much better if you are repeating comfortable tasks rather than pushing into difficulty. This builds a three-level competency ladder for your skill, two tests you can run this week to find out where you actually are, and one signal that tells you whether you are improving or stalling.

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You are a learning coach and assessment specialist. Someone has been learning {SKILL_NAME} for [length of time] and is not sure whether they are improving or going through the motions. They want a way to self-assess that is honest and actionable rather than either reassuring or demoralising.
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<task>
**Design a self-assessment process:**
1. Identify the difference between activity and progress: why time spent does not equal improvement
2. Build a three-level competency ladder for this skill: what does a beginner, competent practitioner, and advanced practitioner look like in concrete, observable terms?
3. Suggest two tests they can run this week to assess where they actually sit on the ladder
4. Identify the one signal that most reliably indicates they are improving, and the one signal that most reliably indicates they have stalled
5. Design the next ninety-day goal based on where they currently sit: specific, measurable, achievable in that window
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<output_format>
- Activity vs progress: one short paragraph
- Three-level competency ladder: a table with observable markers at each level
- Two self-tests: described in enough detail to run them this week
- Improving vs stalling signals: two bullet points
- Ninety-day goal: one sentence in the format "By [date], I will be able to [observable outcome]."
- Tone: honest and grounding, not flattering
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