Competence or Incompetence Four Ways (and a Map)

Use this detailed map about how ignorant you (and I are). It’s helpful to have context for your level of understanding of any area of life. Today I’ll tell you what to do about your understanding of things at each stage.

Try the Incompetence Meter!

A few weeks back we were talking about just this in Coach’s Prep. This is our internal coaches development program from which all of your favorite DEUCE coaches have emerged. 

1. Unconscious Incompetence. “You don’t know what you don’t know.” While the trick here is that you wouldn’t even know that you’re ignorant in this area, there’s one thing to take action on for ideas in this category. You’ve got to get out in the world and accumulate disconfirming information. Leave your silo and bump into new stimuli and disagreeable ideas. 
2. Conscious Incompetence. “You know you aren’t good yet.” This is where the practice is. You know your weakness and now it’s time to build a body of work or practice around the area. Don’t look up until you’ve got hundreds of hours behind you. 
3. Conscious Competence. “You’re effortful in your understanding.” You’re holding note cards. You’re repeating talk tracks and quoting your teachers. This is where your movement is choreographed and calculated. Here you’ll need to know it so well that you can play. Seek mastery so your work becomes effortless. 
4. Unconscious Competence. You’ve achieved comfortable mastery. You have two choices. If you want to progress this specific skill further, you’ll need to implement deliberate practice principles so as to not slide into a skill development plateau. And/or, you’re ready to seek another area of development in the unconscious incompetence realm or the conscious incompetence realm. 

Now that you know what to do, you better get busy. But, before you go, I hope you recognize that at the end of the unconscious competence write up that this process is a lifelong never ending one!

Keep going.