You Don’t Know Everything: Part 2 of the Conscious Competence Ladder

Conscious Incompetence 

Now you know that you don’t know what you don’t know and if you are thinking about staying in Unconscious Incompetence, stage 1, you can forget it because it's nearly impossible to do. See once you get the idea in your head that you want to venture into something you've become interested in, you have to learn! You are now aware that there’s a lot to be learned and you are aware that you don’t have this knowledge (yet); you’re Conscious Incompetent. In this stage you may feel your abilities are limited and your confidence may be low. It’s an uncomfortable time because you may be intimidated at all there is to learn and find out there are others around you that may be more competent than you. You have two choices:

1. You can choose to stay incompetent deciding you are not going to learn these new skills. 
2. You will decide that you will learn all there is to master these new skills.

It’s okay to know you cannot be competent at most things! 

Chose What to Learn and What to Let Go! 

Choose the Few Things we Can be Competent With 

We can be competent in one thing and choose to remain incompetent in others. In this information age, new ideas and technologies are being introduced constantly. Being consciously incompetent is a very important stage. This is where we get to decide and choose to learn what we need to advance or we can choose not to learn what we need to advance.

I’d like to think of this stage as GRACE. If you are spiritually inclined, you may feel as supernatural assistance taking place because you are pondering on or in state of considerable thought. Most of us will remain in this stage with most skills we come across. What if you are mentoring a business partner? In this stage you must do all you can to provide encouragement to those you are mentoring and be gentle with correction, helping them be okay with mistakes they are making. There’s more than one way to skin a cat; meaning there are many ways to do something. It is only when we choose to educate ourselves and move into the next stage of competence that we take stock of what we need to move forward. That next stage is called Conscious Competence.

Onward and Upward! 

Written by Sonya Michele
Freelance Writer | Web Designer & Marketer
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Question: Now that you've figured out what it will take to gain the knowledge needed to venture forward in your dream business, will you choose to stay incompetent or are you willing to master what you don’t know?

Posted in: Blog,The Gracious Entrepreneur