One Step Forward, Two Steps Sideways

I've been practicing chess. I do tactics. I look at openings. I play games and analyze moves. I'm by no means any kinda of master; quite the opposite, in fact. Practicing chess has always felt lite one step forward, two steps back. Every time I would learn something new, I would find more ways my play and understanding could be improved. Worse yet, I wasn't playing any better than before; I was only playing differently from before.

Recently, however, I realized that that has changed. Instead of one step forward and two steps back, now it feels more like one step forward and two steps sideways. I'm learning (one step forward), that learning shows me so much more I need to learn (two steps sideways), but most importantly I'm actually playing better than before! No more going backwards! (Well, less of it, anyway...)

Perhaps I spent too much time trying to be a queen, when all I needed to be was a knight. :-)