The spectrum of self awareness

Self awareness isn’t just some meta-thing for buddhist monks. We can all benefit from increasing our self awareness.  Focusing on getting to know ourselves is an important component for continual improvement.

I wanted to share a concept I learned this past spring that has helped me increase my own self awareness.  It is The Spectrum of Self Awareness. The spectrum has four different stages we go through when mastering a new skill.  

Stage 1: Unconsciously Incompetent

The first step is what is lovingly called “unconsciously incompetent”. This is where we don't know what we don't know. We have no idea we're not very good at something or we’re not performing at our best in some task. 

This is when it will be important to being open to hearing other people’s feedback. If we're unconscious to something, really the only way we're going to find out is if something happens. It is often someone coming to us saying we need to make some improvements in an area.

We can do one of two things.  We can get angry and defensive and decide that they don't know what they're talking about. Or we can thank them because they didn't have to give us this feedback. It might have even been pretty difficult for them to provide us their thoughts.

If we don't thank them, they might not come to us in the future. That could then leave us unconsciously incompetent about something else.  We should view it as, “this is something I need to know because that’s the only way I can move into the next stage.”

Stage 2: Consciously Incompetent 

Consciously incompetent is where we are fully aware we're not very good at something. That’s not always a concern to us though.  We might be ok with it. 

If it is some task that we don't have to do that often, we might not really care that we're not very good at it.  We might think, "Hey, it stinks. I wish I was better at it, but I'm not going to invest any more time to get there." We all have things like that in our life. One of these for me is Excel.  I’m truly bad at using that program.  My wife lives in spreadsheets, so she always chuckles at how basic mine are. But it doesn’t really bother me. I don’t need to spend time beefing up my excel game.

However, we also have things that once we become aware we're incompetent in that area, we want to get better at them. We now desire to improve. So we start seeking out ways to get better, to become competent.

This might be things like asking for feedback from people in our social or professional network, reading books and articles, watching videos, or maybe just spending more time at a task.  Experience is the best way to create competence. Whatever it is that you need to do, your goal should be to move from “consciously incompetent” to “consciously competent”.

Stage 3: Consciously Competent

The third stage is where we are now getting better at something. We're fully aware of what we’re doing when we successfully complete a task. We're conscious of the fact that we're becoming pretty capable in a specific area or skillset. My golf swing is in this stage. When I focus on it, I can hit a somewhat decent shot. But I have to be concentrating on a number of aspects of the swing.

We continue to gain experience as well as confidence in this stage.   We still need to give our attention to the task, but we usually see good results when we really try. That's consciously competent. 

What we need to do in this phase is just keep working.  Competence will come from repetition.  After a while you will move into the fourth stage. Often times people don’t even realize this transition has occurred.

Stage 4: Unconsciously Competent

We’ve now reached the other end of the spectrum.  Not only are we competent at something, we perform it so well we don’t even give it much thought. 

We do something so easily that we don't even realize we’re doing it. So many times I'll talk to people who will say, "Oh yeah, you know I do this well but everybody can do that." 

And it's usually some very specific skill that not many people can do well at all! These individuals just don't realize their talents because it comes so easy to them.  

You have skills that are operating in the background and you don’t even realize you are using them.  It just happens because they've become second nature to you.  Those are your superpowers!  Lean into your strengths.  Leverage them whenever you can.  

Self awareness goes both ways

Remember self awareness means you are paying attention to both your strengths and your weaknesses.  Basically your whole you.  That isn’t always easy.  It means thinking about the things we aren’t good at. Nobody feels good thinking about their failures. It can be helpful though.

I ask myself questions like, "Where have I fallen down? What limited me from being successful in a specific situation?"  I might not be able to figure it out, but I at least remind myself there are pieces to the puzzle that I'm not fully comprehending, and I need to be open to that.

I might also ask questions like, "What are the things I need to get better at?"  I make a list sometimes.  Then I can break it down by asking, " what specific steps do I need to take to get better at X?" It feels good to just have it down on paper.

And then the last part is one that can be hard for people.  We don’t like to talk about our strengths.  Bragging can be distasteful to some people. It is important though to ask, "What am I really good at? What is it that I excel at because it's something that's of interest to me and lines up with my natural abilities?”  That helps us develop our superpowers.  But you might not ever discover them if you don’t ask yourself the tough questions! 

So spend some time thinking about this spectrum of self awareness, and where you might be able to apply it in your life. You might be surprised at what you find out about yourself.