One of the ways that I give back is to mentor “coaches in training”. I love doing this and each time I mentor one of these new coaches, I can visibly see and hear how they grow from month to month on our coaching calls. These highly trained coaches are “Growing Forward” if you will in their ability to help others who will cross their life path in the near future. Every decision that I make, that these new coaches make and the decisions that you make today will impact you in some way in your own ability to “grow forward”. After all that is what we are all striving for; isn’t it? We want to move forward in our lives.
All of us know for sure that there will be days when we stump our big toe or we have a face plant and depending on your outlook on life you either jump back up and dust yourself off or you may lay there and let others stomp you into the dirt for some time.
So how does a person really “grow forward”?
That’s a great question. This example that I am about to give you is by no means new, and when I first was exposed to it, I only got a part of it. Several years later when I came across it again, I was amazed at what I had learned and how NOW, I could understand the entire diagram. See where you fall on this staircase and what you know and what you do not know.
Think of a staircase with four big stairs and each one is marked with a phase of learning awareness that can “grow you forward”:
First stair is: “Unconscious Incompetence”, in other words you are essentially: “Blissfully Ignorant” of even being aware that you don’t know something.
Second stair is: “Conscious Incompetence”, in other words you aware that you do not know something and you know you are incompetent in that knowledge which makes you feel frustrated, angry and confused.
Third stair is: “Conscious Competence”, in other words you know what you know and you are competent in achieving your goal.
Fourth stair is: “Unconscious Competence”, in other words you can have a repeat success over and over again without even thinking about what you need to do to get to that point. You are intuitive and proficient.
I am sure that each of us is on one of those four stairs in multiple areas of our lives.
What is the area of your life which is causing you to be stuck on stair number 2?
