This may offend some, but I'm not worried about that. I became blue within 3 months of starting competitive programming and have hit red since then. On the other hand, I'm seeing some people who have never been able to surpass 1400 despite, on the surface, clearly practicing frequently and consistently solving problems higher than their rating--sometimes for an entire year or longer, which should have easily put them into at least blue by now, in my opinion.

So, out of genuine curiosity for people who fall into that category, please comment: what are you doing? For example, how are you practicing, what is your mindset (in general, on competitive programming, on your rating, etc.), how long are you thinking on each problem, etc.? I'm curious to see if there's some pattern preventing people from improving.