The Secret to Unconscious Competence
Transcriber: Minh Trung Dang
Reviewer: Hani Eldalees
Have you ever experienced being
in the state that there is
a sense of fluidity between
your body and mind?
Time feels like it has slowed down.
Some people describe this feeling
as being in the zone,
and it’s a wonderful place to be in.
Now, entering into the fluid state
does not happen by chance.
It is the result of being
unconsciously competent.
Hello, my name is Gotlieb Court,
and today I want to share with you all
the secret to unconscious competence.
But lets first understand
what is unconscious competence.
It is when we perform a skill
on autopilot without consciously
thinking about it.
For an example, if you have been driving
for quite some time now,
you may have experienced reaching to a
destination, but not quite remembering,
crossing that flyover or driving
past that post office. Why?
Because you were thinking something else
while driving and you drove on autopilot.
Unconscious competence
is that autopilot mode.
It is effortless.
It is like a second nature.
Now, the unconscious competence
is not just for
the skills that we perform mentally,
but it is for life skills as well.
We can
become unconsciously competent at having
more patience, being more resilient,
having growth mindset and so on.
The list is inexhaustible.
The beauty of being unconsciously
competent is that we experience magical
moments because we feel intuitive,
creative and we tend to
think outside the box.
Now how can we become more
unconsciously competent?
The one and only answer
to that is practice.
Practice is the repetition
of an action with
the goal of improvement.
Science tells us
that effective practice increases
the speed by which our brain communicates
with the muscles which is believed to be
the reason behind unconscious competence.
The legendary martial artist
Bruce Lee fully understood
the power of unconscious competence,
which is why he said that he fears not
the men who has practice
ten thousand kicks once,
but he fears the man who has practice
one kick 10000 times.
Now talking about practice,
practice is majorly the reason behind
unconscious competence,
but there is something more to that.
There are quite a few stages that cannot
be skipped if you are trying to become
unconsciously competent. The very first
state is called unconscious incompetence.
It is where we do not know
what we do not know.
So we must first figure out what
is that we want to master.
Is that playing the piano, riding a bike,
or being more emotionally intelligent
being resilient? It can be anything.
Once we have figured that out,
we reach to the second stage,
which is called conscious incompetence.
Where we know what we do not know.
Now, the third stage is called
conscious confidence.
This is where we start learning new skills
new behaviors and put them in use.
At this stage, we are very
conscious at every step.
For example, when you start
learning driving,
you perform each step consciously,
one after another.
So this stage requires a lot of attention,
a lot of concentration,
because the skill has not
yet become automatic.
But after this phase, the magic happens.
Then we effectively do
the repetition of the skill that we want
to master, we reach to the final stage,
which is called unconscious competence.
So effective practice is what takes us to
the magic world of unconscious competence.
Now, can we only practice physically?
Of course not.
That is a pinnacle practicing
in mind or visualization,
which is not fully backed up by science
and recognized by the researchers at
the University of California, Los Angeles.
Visualization is the practice of
repeatedly imagining what we want to
achieve in order to create it
or master it.
It is the method used by twenty three
time gold medalist Michael Phelps,
phenom Katie Ledecky and the business
titans like Oprah Winfrey, Sara Blakely.
It is a bit surprising, but a number
of researchers say that once
a physical motion has been established,
it can be reinforced just by imagining it.
In one study, a hundred and forty four
basketball players
were divided into different groups.
Group A practiced physically,
while group B only practiced mentally.
After two weeks,
at the end of the experiment, when
both the groups were tested,
it was found that both the groups had
improved by nearly the same amount.
That’s how effective visualization is.
If you want to master unconscious
competence in any skill you like,
make visualization that part
of your practice routine,
and it would surely expedite the process
of you becoming unconsciously competent.
When we perform any skill with
unconscious competence,
we perform at the best of
our abilities and ease.
You know, in my late adolescence, I used
to struggle with low self-esteem.
I was perceived as an introvert who
likes to stay in her own cocoon.
But I had a secret habit of dreaming big.
I would visualize myself being a great
communicator, a confident, fearless,
courageous, and it all
worked out wonderfully.
Today, I am exactly the same person
I once visualized for,
and it would have been a shame
if I would not have shared
the secret with you all.
Unconscious competencies is available
for each one of us to create the best
version of ourselves and our lives.
If I can do it, then you can too
All the best and thank you.