The 4 Phases of Learning
by Travis Pederson CHt.
I’ve got some great new material for you today…
Have you ever watched a professional athlete perform and wondered “How do they do that!”
It seems like they are gods and you may think that they’ve just always been that good, but every athlete, no matter how skilled they have become, started off the same way. Every athlete goes through a certain process when they learn anything new.
1. Unconscious Incompetence
Another way to say this is that you’re really, quite terrible at something, yet you don’t even realize you are.
2. Conscious Incompetence
What happens is that you eventually realize consciously that you are amazingly unskilled at what you were doing.
In this phase, you still have no idea what you’re doing, but now you know it. Something has happened to tip you off that you need to improve.
3. Conscious Competence
After practicing and working on yourself for awhile, you eventually reach the stage where you are quite skilled, yet you still have to consciously think about every detail to maintain this skill level.
4. Unconscious Competence
This is the height of skill. What Unconscious Competence really means is that you’ve mastered all the exact timing, movements and behaviors so well that you don’t even have to think about it anymore - It’s all automatic.
So For Example…
Imagine learning how to skate. First, you tie on a pair of skate, then soon after you realize you’re not very good at this “skating” thing. You then begin to learn the exact movements and timing you need to be a good skater. After awhile, your skill level increases and eventually you don’t even have to think about it. It has become as natural as walking and now it’s all automatic.
How do you achieve Unconscious Competence?
Practice, practice, practice. The very best way to practice is to set the intention in your mind that your skills will continually increase with practice, then just relax and have fun.
Remember: Learning takes place most rapidly when your mind and body are relaxed.
Once you’ve reached the level of Unconscious Competence, you’re able to drop into the zone quite easily, but only if you’ve set up your mind and body to allow for a natural transition to the zone state. You can do this by using self-hypnosis, anchoring, affirmations and associated state rehearsal among other things.
So that’s all for today. I’ll be in touch.
