Chapter 1
Introduction to the Four Stages of Learning
Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general—much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger. Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.
—William James
What if someone you love more than anyone else in the world is dying of a rare disease and only has six months to live? And, what if you Google this disease and learn of a miracle antidote owned by a rain forest shaman (who's also a capitalist) that costs $1 million and you only have $1,000 to your name?
How hard would you bust your butt to make that $1 million? How quickly could you turn the impossible into the definite? Like a finely tuned, high-performance sports car, you operate with multiple gears. Seldom, however, are you faced with crises or emergencies that require you to maximize your potential and fully leverage your abilities that, in turn, creates dynamic results.
Have you ever heard a story about a terrified mother lifting an impossibly heavy object to free her child from harm's way? Or a father who fights off a wild animal with his bare hands to protect his family? While, hopefully, you'll never be faced with one of these situations, the fact remains that your life is governed by the self-imposed limitations you've established. Such limitations run the gamut from repeating self-defeating phrases such as “I could never do that” to maintaining destructive ways of being, such as staying at a job you loathe because you've convinced yourself that you have no other options.
Ultimately, the further you can stretch these limitations, the more fulfilled you'll be.
As William James observed, most people use a very small portion of their possible consciousness and of their body's resources in general. You hold the power to kick your life into overdrive. However, you also hold the power to continue coasting. As evidenced by the aforementioned examples, if one has the power to create extraordinary results when pushed to the brink, is it then possible for this to be a repeatable action that can be called upon as needed? Couldn't extraordinary performance become the go-to way of being as opposed to the other way around?
Close your eyes and establish a clear vision of the person you love more than anyone else. Now, remember they have just six months to live and you can be their hero by securing the funds necessary to purchase the antidote. In my presentations and workshops, I ask attendees to consider this scenario and raise their hands if they believe they could deliver the $1 million by hook or by crook, doing whatever it took, within six months to save this person's life. Consistently, more than 90 percent will indicate that, yes, they could make this happen.
Could you? If so, and you're willing to operate at maximum speed to save someone you love, what speed are you willing to travel to save yourself?
Creating Your Foundation
In order to discover your WHAT and share the one amazing thing you were born to do with the world, you first need to understand who you are. This is essential for manifesting long-term, sustainable change that continually supports the realization of your goals and objectives.
Part I of this book helps you create this change by identifying the cravings of your being and the restricting forces that prevent you from living the life you deserve and desire. Few people reach their potential because they operate like a windsock—letting chance dictate their lives and moving in whatever direction the whims of others takes them. The process of personal transformation is too often similar to the “new car high” many experience. For the first few months, the love is deep. Each week, the car is washed, waxed, and vacuumed. After a period of time, however, the love fades, and what was once a prized possession becomes just another car.
I don't want this to happen for you. Therefore, to remain focused and inspired, you'll need to set deep anchors into your soul and establish an unyielding foundation upon which to build a new, more powerful you. This will prevent you from being “enlightened” for a brief period of time and then returning to old habits.
Picture a beautiful glass and steel skyscraper built upon an unstable base. While passers-by may admire the impressive structure that reaches for the stars, a weak infrastructure below the surface will eventually send the whole building toppling to the ground. My objective is to help you construct an unshakable footing that will support the person you'll be once you've completed this book. Without resolute grounding, you, like the poorly constructed skyscraper, will find yourself unstable in your approach to life, easily swayed by those trying to blow you off path, and continually thwarted in your desire to achieve meaningful satisfaction and contentment.
To create an extraordinary life, follow what I call the Path to Freedom. This requires you to:
- Become aware of strengths and self-imposed limitations.
- Make a conscious choice about what to do with these strengths and limitations.
- Improve upon, maintain, modify, or eliminate them.
One of the most effective tools for obtaining such understanding and creating the necessary blank slate for reinvention is the Four Stages of Learning. While very powerful, the Four Stages are a bit dry. Please grab a glass of water and bear with me as I take you through it. I promise you'll reach the other side with a compelling new perspective on your life and the strength required to stay clear, focused, and fired up about becoming who you were born to be.
The Four Stages of Learning
The discovery that there are four distinct stages of learning comes from Thomas Gordon, who in the 1970s developed the Conscious Competence Learning Stages Model. It was first published in his Teacher Effectiveness Training Instructor Guide and is widely used in academia and business to this day.
Behind this bland academic title lies the key to understanding why you're able to excel in certain aspects of your life and lag in others. The four stages are:
Figure 1.1 details Gordon's model. It illustrates how the process of learning begins at the stage of Unconscious Incompetence—exemplified by low resistance, little time expended, and a high degree of incompetence—and flows to Unconscious Competence—exemplified by low resistance and a high degree of competence with little time expended to attain one's desired results.
Figure 1.1 The Conscious Competence Learning Stages Model
Ultimately, your goal is to attain the stage of Unconscious Competence in as many areas of your life as possible. Many correlate this stage with having achieved “mastery.” The world applauds and generously compensates those who have become a master of their craft. While pursuing mastery of additional skills should be your ongoing objective, mastering even one skill can result in significant spiritual and psychological benefit for both you and those you touch.
You have the ability to inspire the world. Let's look at Gordon's Four Stages model and how its revolutionary approach to understanding how we learn is an extraordinary tool you can leverage to create the results you want and shed the habits you don't.
Stage One: Unconscious Incompetence
In this stage of learning, the following characteristics are present:
- You're not aware of strengths or problems.
- You're not aware that you lack a course of action to benefit from strengths or address problems.
- You might deny the relevance of strengths or problems and/or usefulness of the strengths or missing skills.
- You must become conscious of strengths or problems as well as your incompetence to improve upon or address them before the process of attaining mental or physical proficiency can begin.
Put simply, in this stage of learning you're not aware of your strengths or problems, or your inability to address them. Life in the stage of Unconscious Incompetence is exemplified by a “What's wrong with the rest of the world?” attitude. Within this unaware state, it's everyone else who doesn't “get it” and you experience frustration due to your inability to recognize personal shortcomings or strengths.
You must be ruthless with yourself to identify where you live within the state of Unconscious Incompetence, and in the next two chapters, I'll show you how. Until you're willing to reclaim control, your life will run on autopilot, and your reactions to the world will continue to be what is most familiar and most comfortable. This is a destructive pattern that eliminates the possibility for growth. And if you're not growing, you're dying.
To become aware of issues that you don't realize control your quality of life, commit to exploring who you are and why you do what you do. This will take more than simply reading. It requires completing the exercises in this book. The most effective way to approach each exercise is with an open mind and without distractions. Be brutally honest and write down exactly what comes to mind. Try not to let fear or self-sabotaging thoughts interfere with the process.
Taking on your reinvention from a place of denial, or with the concern that others are going to read through your notes and get mad at you for what you've written, is counterproductive. This is your private journal. Protect it as such.
Treat each exercise as if your life depends on the quality of your results. It does.
While doing so may sometimes be difficult, it's the only way to extinguish the components of who you are that aren't serving you well. Otherwise, the “old you” will come back with a vengeance and overthrow everything you've learned. This is not an option. The next chapter, “The Vortex of Vulnerability,” begins your exploration of Stage One—Unconscious Incompetence—and presents one of the most challenging exercises in this entire book.
It asks you to dig deep to identify hidden elements of your personality and underlying drivers that largely control your life. Once you're able to recognize these mischievous sprites, you'll hold the power to either permanently eradicate them from your thoughts or continue to allow them to come along for the ride. It's time to disengage the cruise control.
- The further you can stretch your self-imposed limitations, the more fulfilled you'll be.
- Most people operate like a windsock—blown about by the whims of others and never realizing their potential.
- Set deep anchors into your soul and establish an unyielding foundation upon which to build a new, more powerful you.
- Follow the path to freedom:
- Become aware of strengths and self-imposed limitations.
- Make a conscious choice about what to do with these strengths and limitations.
- Improve upon, maintain, modify, or eliminate them.
- The Four Stages of Learning is a powerful tool you can leverage to create the results you want and shed the habits you don't.
- The world applauds and generously compensates those who have become a master of their craft.
- Stage One is Unconscious Incompetence. In this stage, you lack awareness of your strengths and problems, as well as your inability to improve upon or address them.
- You must be ruthless with yourself to identify where you live within the state of Unconscious Incompetence.
- Treat each exercise as if your life depends on the quality of your results. It does.
