Session 51: The last 10%
I took the wrong train to get to my optometrists office today. I had to run and still arrived eight minutes late… At least I made it. The running however messed up my visual performance during this training session. I used to be a great runner but it’s always been sort of a given that after running binocular vision isn’t something to rely on. After I calmed down I did my regular exercises and talked to my optometrist about my experiences. About how over the last few weeks I have been able to track flying birds and driving cars without them going double. However normal those things might seem, this stuff is huge. I think smooth tracking, along with making swift saccades, is one of the most important prerequisites for stereo vision. Slowly but surely these skills keep improving. Hard to believe I ever got anything done without them. Well, it does explain the unreasonable amount of work and energy I wasted on getting anything done. That’s not exactly the past either…
Recently I was talking to a VT friend of mine named Robert about how I felt that a stereo vision break through might only be months away. He returned the feeling and in fact he expressed it far better than I did so I didn’t want it to go to waste.
“I can visualize the successful conclusion of my therapy – it is tangible somehow. But at the same time, knowing how well my eyes have to be coordinated and how often (all the time…), at times it seems to me to be an impossible goal. So you say you are months away from a breakthrough. I can relate. I feel like I am close to a break through, yet paradoxically it is a long time off – as if the final 10% of progress will take a disproportionately long time.”
I always tell myself it’s a matter of time and effort and so it will be until the end.
AGhh! That was very well said by Robert. I’m in that exact same place. I’ve been doing VT for 2.5 years and now I’m nearing the end. Is it going to be one more month? Two? Eight? Kills me. Keep calm and carry on. Lather, rinse, repeat. Be aware when you hit a plateau, adjust the exercises, and keep going until objects are solid.
It’s inspiring and encouraging to see people write about this. This is what I’ve been missing for so long: people going through the same thing as me.