Progress stages
You are on the right learning path. The path is very long and at different stages you have to do different things. Usually a person goes through three stages/plateaus. Each one is longer than the previous one.
- The first plateau
- Time required to reach this level: 3 months to a year.
- Contents: foundations and yilu.
- Time you probably will stay at this stage: roughly the same: 3 months to a year before you can learn again.
- The second plateau
- Time required to reach this level: 3 years.
- Contents: Adding Cannon Fist, weapons and push hands. That's also the time you make substantial progress. You will have normal taiji skills and you think you can handle most situation. You are very good. But there is no magic.
- Time you probably will stay at this stage: roughly 3 to 7 years.
- The third plateau
- This is more elusive. Most often it happens around 7-8 years. For most people this is where learning/progress stops totally. This is also the time new styles are created. There is simply nothing more to learn within the same situations (same master, same routines, same type of training, etc.).
- The final destination
- This is only available to a few select people.
- This is the nature of the art.
- This is the stage when you get the magic: power, speed, size, and nothing is relevant. You have taiji and nothing else.
Source: https://practicalmethod.com/?p=18241