To build muscle tissue, you have to push your body’s homeostatic mechanisms past their normal ability to compensate, at which point your body will strengthen your muscles to re-establish homeostasis. Our neurological structures appear to respond in similar ways, adapting connection networks to make often-used routes easier to traverse (Barnes and Finnerty, 2010).
So if you aim to develop a skill, you need to challenge homeostasis. By pushing into a “new normal” beyond your current comfort zone, your body will respond by making that state easier. At that point, the “new normal” will become the new homeostasis set-point, so you’ll need to push yourself even harder to keep growing. See Purposeful practice, after Ericsson and Pool.
{Woollett et al} ({2009}) found that retired London cab drivers’ performance at navigational tasks is {poorer than that of full-time London cab drivers, but greater than that of control subjects}.
Barnes, S. J., & Finnerty, G. T. (2010). Sensory Experience and Cortical Rewiring. The Neuroscientist, 16(2), 186–198. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073858409343961
Ericsson, A., & Pool, R. (2016). Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise (1 edition). Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Peak - Ericsson and Pool