If you get used to a certain few plans you can become really efficient at them even when they don't really fit the situation. For example pushing f4, queenside castling, minority attack, swap off pieces for the better endgame. When they don't fit the situation you can often manufacture them against weaker opposition, especially in blitz where you push out the moves fast. However you'll start running into major problems as your opposition gets better and they punish your play. So you have to abandon your usual set of tricks and try to find what really suits the situation, which is much harder, you'll have to start thinking again and it may well cause worse results for a while.
Hi I've played chess for 2 years now and I've been studying games, books and I've done a lot of tactics. I've also expose myself to tons of OTB games (rapid and classical). However for the past 6 months my rating remains the same and now it's beginning to drop. Why does this happen and how do you deal with it and grow from it?