In Just about any skill we develop, we start with unconscious incompetence. We actually don’t Know what we don’t know. In fact, we may even start blogging thinking we know exactly what we’re doing. I remember the first website I created in the 90’s. I had a goal of monetizing my site.
Unconscious Incompetence
I introduced my product right in the beginning of my introduction in the first paragraph and waited for a customer. And of course, I was not at all successful. At that point, I had a lot to learn about internet marketing. But…I didn’t know it. I was truly incompetent. But also unconsciously incompetent. I did not know I didn’t know.
This is the condition most people start out in when they blog. They feel they can just write about anything to anyone who will listen. They may not even be aware of the need to define exactly who they are writing to. They may not even have a clue about how to optimize their site or use keyword optimization.
Conscious Incompetence
But, in time they start to see there is something missing. Something they are doing needs to change. This is when they become consciously incompetent. This is when we are aware of the problem. We’re searching through different programs. We’re enrolling in classes and webinars. We’re reading books, trying to fill in the missing pieces.
There is so much noise and confusion on the internet. Often times people will give up before reaching the next step. But if they are fortunate enough to find the right training, they learn to market online and to be a successful blogger. They become Competent in working online.
Conscious Competence
Conscious competence is a great place to be. You know how to work online. You know how to keep your blog monetized and optimized. You become well versed in your copywriting abilities. Online work becomes normal to you.
But what separates the true expert is the next phase. That is unconscious competence…
Unconscious Competence
I have to admit. I still haven’t reached this point yet. But I’m working on it. Unconscious Competence is when you unknowingly are competent in your work.
Let me illustrate. Have you ever driven somewhere so many times, you don’t even have to think about it? In fact, you may
arrive there and not even give any thought to how you got there.
Now, during the trip, while driving, you made hundreds of choices, when to stop, when to change lanes, when to turn. But, most of these decisions were made by your subconscious. All these decisions were made subconsciously to get you to where you needed to go. This happened even though you were unconscious of it.
In that illustration we could say you were unconsciously competent. You will find some bloggers and internet marketers that are at that level. They are consistently successful because even on a subconscious level, they’re making decisions that will bring them to their successful goals.
This process applies to any skills we may wish to learn. But when it comes to blogging. The goal we all want to reach is unconscious competence.
However, along the way, you want to have the best of training. You can get this training with “Wealthy Affiliate”. Click here to read my review of this program…
I found your article about unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence very interesting.
When I was in a Science teacher workshops, our instructors always mentioned the term; awareness. This is to be aware of everything in a classroom.
The transition to unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence takes time. In my case is a reward from students who passed by long time ago, and when I have walked looking for something in a mall, I will cross into a former student and he or she would thanked about a class or just said a remark about me that fulfill my spirit. I never thought that a specific lesson or an guidance would be so important to a student.
I am retired now as a former teacher, and finding my way to another field, and surely I will make mistakes unconsciously, I hope the transition won´t take too long.
Thank you Miselis. I like your analogy. I’m with you on that one. I’m still working on unconscious competence too. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Thank you very much for writing about this information. I think I’m still in the level of conscious incompetence. I know that I lack some skills to do proper internet marketing. I feel there’s something missing that caused my conversion rate never went up. I just wish that I know what to do to achieve the next step (conscious competence). Any tips to advance the level? Thank you.
Alblue,
I found that a very effective way to build my writing skills was to sign up on the email lists of some of the well known marketers. In this way, I receive emails every day from the best copywriters in the industry. I study those emails. I analyze their technique. I also Keep a special file of various techniques and examples I can use for reference and ideas.
If you do this, your conversion rate will increase as your copywriting skills grow.
I definitely remember the first two stages clearly! I think I am finally at “Conscious Competence”. There are some things I do now that are “Unconscious” but I still could not say I am there completely. It is interesting to see the learning process broken down like this. Thanks for an interesting read!
Your welcome Brianna.
I am definitely still at that level of conscious competence but it’s a good way for me to stay happy because whenever I am able to learn something new,it gives me joy. I will have to share this with others so that they too can learn about the unconscious and the conscuous competence. This is good stuff. Thanks
Thanks Jay
It is very good to read about this amazing article, I’ve learned a lot and I so much agree that all you’ve written here is very realistic, I’d like to get to the point of unconscious competence, it makes it very easy to do some things that are liable to be seen as hard or not possible, I’ll bookmark this website as it is very good to read through this again
Thanks so much.