The Steps of Learning

On our road to achieving great success in our lives, we will learn many valuable lessons and develop many new skills that are part of the journey towards achieving the dreams that we have defined.

If you have been applying the first 3 Basic Principles in your life… (1) Who do you listen to, and you are maintaining a high (2) Teachability Index and focusing on the Thinking side of the (3) Training Balance Scale, it is inevitable that you will be introduced to situations, ideas and concepts that you were unaware of previously. Often, your success will rely on how well you learn these new ideas and concepts, which leads us to the 4th Basic Principle of Success…

 

Success Enabling Insight:

Basic Principle #4 – The 4-Steps of Learning

 

Take a moment and reflect back on your life. Consider the steps you followed when you learned anything and everything from tying your shoelaces, to learning mathematics, to learning a new skill or activity… like playing golf.

You Will find that your education followed the 4-Steps of Learning… I’m quite certain of that.

You will also discover that the higher you got on the 4-Steps, the more success you had achieved with what you were learning.

 

The 4-Steps of Learning:

 

  • Unconscious Incompetence – You don’t know what you don’t know
  • Conscious Incompetence – You know what you don’t know, but still don’t know how to “do it”
  • Conscious Competence – You know and you can “do it”… as long as you focus on what you’re doing
  • Unconscious Competence – You know how to “do it” and you “do it” without even thinking about it

 

Our objective when we learn a new skill, concept or idea is to get to the level of Unconscious Competence… where we just do it without having to think about it. It becomes a part of us.

In order to achieve that level, you must go through the previous 3 steps of learning.

Let’s take tying your shoelaces as an example. There was a time in your life when you were completely oblivious to the concept of having shoelaces, let alone knowing how to tie a shoelace. You didn’t know that you didn’t know how to tie a shoelace. You were Unconsciously Incompetent. Then one day you noticed your parents put your shoes on your feet. As you sat there observing what was going on with your feet, you witnessed your parents do what could only be described as some sort of secret handshake with your shoe and just like that, the shoe was tied tight with a nice bow… and you had reached the level of Conscious Incompetence. You didn’t know how they did it, but you came to the understanding that people tie their shoelaces.

Sometime later, you were given instruction on how to loop the two ends of your shoelace, cross them over and pull them tight. You know… loop, swoop and pull. You likely didn’t get it right the first time. And you had to talk yourself through the steps… but you became Consciously Competent at tying your shoelaces… an exciting and monumental achievement, at the time.

There was certainly some value in learning this skill, because you started to use it every day. Sometimes you may have even practiced when you didn’t even need to have your shoes on. The more time you spent practicing tying your shoelaces, the easier it got for you.

One day, without even realizing it, you put your shoes on, tied the laces without even paying attention, and then walked out the door. Your brain just knew how to do it. You had reached the level of Unconscious Competence.

 

We go through these same steps when learning anything and everything in life. The more we practice and the more we train our brain, the less time it takes to reach the level of Unconscious Competence.

When you are able to apply the Basic Principles of Success in your life with Unconscious Competence, you will become a success magnet. It’s inevitable. You Will believe that you can have, be and do anything you want in your life… because you will be experiencing the magic. You will develop a true understanding of Napoleon Hill’s statement, “anything the mind of man can conceive, and bring itself to believe, it can achieve.”

Continue to apply the concepts you learn from your Success Enabling Insights. Practice. Train your brain. Feel good now and get excited! Your dreams are coming to you and they Will become a reality!

One thought on “The Steps of Learning

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *