Unconscious Competence
About a month ago, one of my Mindful Music piano students was choosing her next song and project that she wanted to learn. Like many cases I have with my students, she offered up some songs that I didn’t know and got to learn.
She narrowed her choice down and one of the final options was “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back” by Olivia Rodrigo. It was new to me!
One of my favorite parts about what I do is that I not only get to know each individual student well, I get to know the whole family. It’s something special that happens when you go to someone’s home each week.
In our post-lesson conversation, I accidentally said “3 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back” when talking about the song. We all laughed and noticed how even when I’m not trying to be, I’m automatically positive.
It was a funny moment! It’s also something I’ve thought about a lot since then.
How much do our habits rule our lives and how we experience each day? How many of our habits are consciously cultivated and leveraged toward what we want? And how many are secretly standing in the way of what longs to be experienced?
This and more is what fascinates me in the realm of habits, mindfulness and all things about being human.
In terms of my mindset and positivity, I have done years of conscious choice in the way I think, speak and believe. I have done deep and intense work on my heart, mind and soul habits. So much so, that a lot of it runs on autopilot for me. This is what happened in the fun example with my student’s song.
Will Durant famously said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Not only do I agree with Durant’s statement, it’s what I experience in my life that leads to success - whether my own, my students’ at the piano, yogis’ on their mat or coaching clients’ on a call.
For me, it really boils down to a mantra that I’ve used for years.
I’ve scribbled it at the top of so many pieces of music, I’m sure it tops 50. I’ve written it in my journal on repeat.
As I write this blog, I look up at my inspiration wall above my desk. It’s written in big bold letters with a “Work it!” pink sticker underneath.
When it comes to habits and excellence in any realm, my anchor is:
Until conscious incompetence becomes unconscious competence.
I have no idea where I first heard this. I’m guessing in a book or on a podcast. All I know is that it struck a chord and I ran with it.
(Upon a light google search, I learned that it’s a step in the Four Stages of Competence.)
It answers the question, “How many reps?”
Until conscious incompetence becomes unconscious competence.
It answers the question, “How long will it take?
Until conscious incompetence becomes unconscious competence.
It answers the age old question, “When will it happen?”
Until conscious incompetence becomes unconscious competence.
It’s about habits, it’s about excellence and it’s about making success automatic through leveraging one’s auto-pilot state.
In a piece of music, I begin being acutely aware of certain areas that I’m incompetent at. I’m not good at them yet. At this stage, I cannot play it correctly or well. Let alone, do it correctly and well consistently.
This is why having a teacher or coach is so important in any realm. They can be a mirror to heighten awareness. Many times a mirror is needed to become conscious of incompetence! I am forever grateful to my plethora of teachers and coaches over the years and their willingness to be a mirror for me.
From there, it’s quality reps and fine tuning until conscious incompetence becomes unconscious competence.
This mantra and skill of creating excellence as my natural state is a necessity as a musician. I once had a teacher describe it as “You need to be able to play this falling out of a plane.”
While I’ve never been thrown out of a plane, I have played for the best musicians in the world for the sole purpose of being judged on a 30 second clip of my playing. In fact, I’ve put myself in this position hundreds of times.
Without unconscious competence, flow state cannot be accessed and fight or flight takes over. Not to mention, deep down, I know I don’t have it on lock in autopilot. So, when my mind doles out disempowering thoughts - they actually have some truth to them.
Yikes! That’s an ecosystem for a face plant, bruised heart and tearful plane-ride home.
The cool thing? There is another ecosystem that can be created.
Until conscious incompetence becomes unconscious competence is something I embody as a musician and copied and pasted into all aspects of my life in terms of habits giving life to excellence.
I did this with my mind, meditation and mindfulness. How am I so positive automatically? I trained myself to be that way through habit building.
It’s almost paradoxical because, to me, mindfulness is awareness. So to have something being “unconscious” as a goal seems a bit odd.
However, the bedrock is incredibly conscious. It’s purposefully curating which thoughts, thought patterns and beliefs I want to operate from and from there, making it automatic.
When I became a yoga teacher, I underwent (and am still undergoing) this process. With music and meditation, I have years and decades under my belt. I can play the piano and my body just goes. I can meditate and choose my thoughts as a natural part of living. This is unconscious competence.
With teaching yoga, I began at the beginning. It was humbling especially as being already high performing and specialized in other realms. I have done a huge amount of quality repetition.
*Key word: quality*
Only now, one year after beginning my yoga training, do I feel I can teach and move on the fly within a class, not unconsciously competent, but with conscious competence.
Slowly and surely, I am getting there. All using the mantra “Until conscious incompetence becomes unconscious competence.”
So many times people see the final product of someone’s process. People see a ballerina on stage, a world class athlete, a calm meditation teacher or an inspirational speaker and think they’ve just “got it”.
It’s so easy to fall into that and as a result, believe that it’s not possible for those who don’t “have it”.
The truth is, no one has it.
Either they’ve put in the work or they haven’t.
Either they’ve put in the time or they haven’t.
Whatever the craft, the skillset or outcome - some people create unconscious competence in their zone of genius and others do not.
It’s consistency, devotion and leveraging habits for excellence!
So, I was not born with the skills I have today. I was not born with the automatic thought of “3 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back”. I trained myself to operate and live this way.
All through, until conscious incompetence becomes unconscious competence.
This is available to you too. It’s not a matter of “having it” or not. It’s about creating it.
So the next time someone blows you away with their skills and you hear that voice saying “If only…”
Stop. Re-route.
Until conscious incompetence becomes unconscious competence.
Then, go start building that for yourself!
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Creating and leveraging habits for excellence is an integral part of all of my work. This is a skill I seek to equip my Mindful Music students with at the piano, my yoga students with on the mat and my coaching clients with in any part of their lives. It’s a crucial skill and having accountability, support and mindfulness tools truly move the needle!
If you’d like to access this skillset through 1:1 yoga or coaching, reach out to me here! I currently have spaces for 1:1 coaching and yoga available. In person private yoga is available for those fully vaccinated and masked in Chicago.
Interested in Mindful Music piano for you or a kid in your life? Add your name to the waitlist here.
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Whatever you love, desire or believe in in your life, what would it be like to make excellence in that a habit?
What is possible from that place and state of being?
Here’s to creating unconscious competence in ways that up-level lives, releases dreams, expands potential and pushes humanity forward.
In love, habits and excellence on autopilot,
⭐️ Adrienne