#18 - Competency and Making Money

It didn’t go out this morning, but I’m committed to posting content every day, and Friday is the day I send out the newsletter. I’m writing this at the end of a somewhat hectic week. In last week’s post I discussed the merits of removing perfection and aspiring towards consistency. I don’t know that I lived up to the perfect ideal of that concept (irony intended).

I learned from someone else this week about the four competencies, and it helped me put into perspective where I am in the moment, but more importantly where one can and will arrive – provided you stay the course.

Unconscious Incompetence means you don’t know what you don’t know (easy enough)

Conscious Incompetence means you realize how little you know and that kind of knowledge can be dangerous if you let it take a hold of you.

Knowledge is a funny thing, just because you know what you have to do, and you want to do it, doesn’t stop anxiety or worry from getting in your way. When you recognize this, you are in the stage of conscious incompetence, and I’m right there with you.

You can play the victim to your own demons if you want. Self-sabotage after all helps prove you correct, and it is comforting to say it’s not your fault. If you were to do that, and wallow in conscious incompetence, nothing you aspire towards will ever happen.

I had a conversation this week with a friend who wasn’t sure why he would want to take on different or more responsibility at his job. He is already really good at his current role, and he doesn’t want to leave the summit of the proverbial mountain just to climb another peak, because that’s hard. See he’s already made it past the conscious competence – you have a system you follow consistently to achieve your goals – to the unconscious competence. He knows what to do so well, he operates at the level of instinct.

Rather than wallow, I’m adopting a mantra I learned from the same guy who taught me about the competencies – I even made it my background on my computer.