But the last few garments I've made haven't been working out so I lost my motivation, until I stumbled upon a video that led me to some books, and now I've learned of an entirely new level of knitting. The book talks about making a fabric out of your knitting, and shaping that fabric to your measurements,
instead of blindly following the pattern. Mind blown! I never knew that thinking existed.
The same thing happened to me with coaching. When I started, I was great at the basics. I kept looking for more advanced training, but didn't really find what I was looking for. Until one day, I did. I learned you can get advanced degrees in coaching, there is research to back up the
work and tools, and there are more methodologies than I could count. Now THAT's what I was looking for! Again, mind blown.
These are examples of the Four Stages of Competence framework:
- Unconscious Incompetence - You don't know it exists, so you don't know you're
incompetent
- Conscious Incompetence - You're aware of it, and you know how incompetent you are
- Conscious Competence - You're gaining competence, but you have to focus or try really hard to do it well
- Unconscious Competence - You're good at it and don't have to think about
it to do it well
But it's not like you go through each phase only once, especially if you're on your way to mastery. It feels more like a cycle to me, and even if you're in Unconscious Competence you can also be in Unconscious Incompetence at the same time about the next level. How frustrating!!
And yet, I love this about life. We can never get overconfident that we know something, because there is always more to learn.
I also think Unconscious Competence can be a relief to some, but quite boring to others. Conscious Incompetence, and even Conscious Competence, can be quite painful or difficult places to be as you need to make lots of mistakes on the
path of learning. And thus, we find ourselves trying to move along the path as quickly as possible, or jumping off entirely.
Do you notice this in your business? Do you quit doing certain things when they're hard and you're not good at them (yet)? Or do you find you get so good at it you're bored? Or something else entirely?
What can you learn from this exploration?
I'm still in the reflection phase of this myself, so I don't have any advice for you at this point (though I try to avoid giving you advice anyway, much preferring you to favour self-discovery!).
What I do know is this kind of reflection works great when you can talk it out with someone. If you'd like to explore the support of a seasoned coach, let's talk. Life and business is better with a thought partner :) You can book a call with me here.
Until next week, you've got this!
Stephanie Wasylyk
