Consciously Competent Career Management | Career Rocketeer - Career Search and Personal Branding Blog

Let me introduce you to a cool model. It’s called the Conscious Competence Model. For those who haven’t heard of it before, it explains how you get proficient at something. We use this model a lot at Stuck in a Rut to explain how to maximize the use of your natural born abilities (something we call your Given Talent). Here’s how Conscious Competence works…

Let’s use tying your shoes as an example. When you were a little baby, you were Unconsciously Incompetent at tying your shoes. You’re so young you didn’t even know that you didn’t know how to tie your shoe.

Then you became a toddler, and you became Consciously Incompetent. You still couldn’t tie your shoe, but the difference is you knew you didn’t know how.

Then you got old enough that your mom or dad finally showed you how to tie your shoe. You really had to think about it, though. “Twist each lace around each other, make a loop in my right hand, make a loop in my left hand, then circle them around each other.” You became Consciously Competent. You could tie your shoe, but wow was it hard.

Finally, you mastered tying your shoe and you became Unconsciously Competent. You got so good at tying your shoe you didn’t have to think about it anymore. It happened automatically.

That’s how the mind works for anything that becomes natural to you. It explains how you develop this crazy thing called natural ability or intuition. More importantly, it is a model to use to become even better at using your intuition. Here’s how.

When intuition kicks in, it probably feels like you don’t do anything to make it happen. Instead, it’s like the genie within you wakes up and tells you something out of the blue.

Even though it doesn’t feel like anything is happening inside your mind to create intuition, there is actually a ton going on. What happens is very similar to the last time you tied your shoe. You go through a series of steps in such a proficient manner you don’t have to think about it to make it happen. It happens unconsciously, just like magic.

The particular steps you follow to form your form of intuition are unique to you. Just like tying your shoe, you predictably follow the same series of steps every time you use your intuition.

There is a way to find out how your intuition works. All you have to do slow down your mind, and turn your Unconscious Competence into Conscious Competence momentarily so you can see it work. That’s what we do in our proprietary process called The Clarifier . We slow down your mind through our line of questions until we see exactly the steps that make up your brand of intuition.

You might say, “So what? Who cares?” You should care. Your intuition is a powerful weapon. When you change your intuition from Unconscious Competence into Conscious Competence, that’s when you can turn it into Super Conscious Competence. That’s when your intuition, your natural ability, or your Given Talent really takes off. That’s when you really shine and love life.

Turn off the autopilot button every once in a while. Turn that Unconscious Competence into Conscious Competence, and see how good of a friend your intuition really is.

If you want to know how much you’re using your Given Talent (your form of intuition) at work and at home today, try out our free Reality Check .

Author:

Dave Dutton – Founder of stuckinarut.com – Answering the question for all ages, “What do I want to be when I grow up.” Try our free online Reality Check to see how much you’re using your Given Talent today.