It’s Monday, we’ve all got lots to do today, and this is an
important – but lengthy message, so I’ll just get right to it.
In order to assist you in developing the habit of effectiveness
today, I’m going to teach you the way habits are formed and a
personal strategy of mine for installing new habits faster and
more certain to last than any other method or strategy that I
know.
But before I get way ahead of myself, Let me remind you about
timekeeper. Don’t forget to continue using timekeeper, And if
for some strange reason (like self-sabotage) you haven’t gone
to get it – please do so right now:
http://www.crypto-central.com/html/timekeeper.html
Some of you have already sent me your time logs – Very
Impressive! it’s really important to maintain your momentum
right now.
Here’s why:
It’s critical to remember that effectiveness is not inborn.
Just like each and every one of us had to learn to tie our
shoelaces, and there was no one born knowing how to do it -
Every effective entrepreneur had to learn to be effective.
And all of them had to practice the being effective until
it became a habit.
Along those lines… What is the #1 habit for effectiveness
that you must develop?
Here’s what Peter Drucker had to say:
"Effective entrepreneurs do not start with their tasks. They
start with their time. And they do not start out planning. THEY START BY FINDING OUT WHERE THEIR TIME ACTUALLY GOES. Then they attempt to manage their time and to cut back on unproductive usages of their time"
Don’t you see that you need a program like timekeeper to
follow Peter Drucker’s advice? So keep on it!
Alright, let’s get to the main point of today’s message.
I don’t talk about it much, but before I opened my chain
of hypnosis I traveled all over learning from the best
NLP and Hypnosis teachers in the world. I was certified
in NLP by Richard Bandler himself, the creator of NLP and
the man who taught it to Tony Robbins. I studied with
Robert Dilts, Michael Hall, and basically every big name
out there.
I am telling you this because I want you to
know that when I share my understandings with you it’s not
some crack pot idea I just developed, it actually was more
than likely a concept I was taught by a master.
Anyway, NLP has a great model on how learning a new skill
takes place. Once you understand the model, you can leverage
it to install new habits rapidly.
Pay careful attention here,
first I’ll explain it, then give you examples to make it
easier to understand, then I’ll show you how to use it for
your own advantage.
Learning a new skills is divided into four stages
Stage 1 – Unconscious Incompetence. This is where you don’t
know how to do something and you don’t even know that you don’t know.
Stage 2 – Conscious Incompetence. This is where you now
know all the different things you don’t know and
you begin to work on learning them.
Stage 3 – Conscious Competence. This is where you now know
what you need to know, you can do the skills
necessary, but it takes all of your concentration.
Stage 4 – Unconscious Competence. This is where you can now
do the skills necessary without thinking about it, it’s now a habit.
OK, now let me give you two examples of how this work in
your life.
First, learning the alphabet…
Stage 1 – There was a time when you were very little that you
didn’t even know that there was 26 letters in the alphabet.
Therefore, you didn’t know what you didn’t know – hence you are
unconsciously incompetent
Stage 2 – Next you learned there was an alphabet, that there
were 26 letters, but you didn’t know them all – therefore you
knew what you didn’t know – hence you are consciously incompetent.
Stage 3 – Then you finally learned the letters, you learned
the song too – but when you needed to write a word you had to
really concentrate on writing each letter hence you are consciously
competent.
Stage 4 – Now, when you write a word or a note, you don’t even
think about what the difference is between the letter
d and b, you can write without even thinking about it hence you
are unconsciously competent.
Just to make sure you really get it, let’s take a look at driving
a car, because I bet there still might be parts of the driving
skill set that you have not become consciously competent in.
Driving a car…
Stage 1 – There was a time that you were not aware of
everything that was involved in driving – you didn’t
know there was a gas pedal, break pedal and maybe
a clutch too, hence you were unconsciously incompetent.
Stage 2 – Next you started to learn about driving – you read
the book – your parents explained what they were doing
while they were driving, you asked questions and got
answers and you started trying to drive yourself
(supervised, of course) and you realized you had a lot
to learn, hence you were consciously incompetent.
Stage 3 – After practicing, studying, and really getting out
and driving, you could do it, but you had to really
concentrate when driving – you weren’t ready yet to
turn on the radio, talk on the cell phone and drive
all at the same time – you had to focus and
concentrate, hence you were consciously competent.
Stage 4 – Lastly you drove enough so that it became automatic,
you no longer really need to think about what you
needed to do, you just did it – you can have the
radio on and drive well automatically – you were now
unconsciously competent at driving.
But here’s the interesting part – are you unconsciously
competent at parallel parking?
In other words can you parallel park with the music on and
talking on the cell phone?
Most people cannot – they haven’t
parallel parked enough times in a condensed period of time to
have the skill become unconscious – therefore they are
consciously competent – they can parallel park but they have to
turn down the music, stop talking and start
concentrating on the parking job ahead.
It’s really important that you realize what the parallel parking
example means to your pursuit to become unconsciously competent
at being effective. It means simply being effective from time to
time won’t really help you in establishing the habit.
So, to install habits in the quickest manner – what you need to
do is to know which stage you are in and then focus on what you
need to do to move to the next stage.
Taking a look at effectiveness – understand that more than likely
right now you are unconsciously incompetent – that there is still
parts to being highly effective that you simply don’t know.
Therefore your initial goal is to become aware of what really
makes up effective behavior – (i.e. keep reading my messages).
This will help you transition to stage 2.
In stage 2 you now know the activities that make someone effective
but you don’t really know yet how to do it yourself – So you keep
learning and you apply what you learn in these messages.
Next stage 3, you’ve been keeping up with the recommended activities
and you now can be highly effective but you must consciously choose
the behavior and you must do so consistently and often (remember
the parallel parking example?).
If you practice all the effective behaviors consistently and work
on doing them without even thinking about it – you will pass on to
stage 4 where you are now unconsciously competent – your are
effective by habit, which should be your goal as an entrepreneur.
For now on, when you want to condition a new habit – understand
which stage you are in and what you’ll need to do to go to the
next stage – it’s simple, although not always easy.
With that – make sure you are keep current in reading these notes,
and make sure you keep tracking your time.
To Your Effectiveness,
Rich Schefren
Share this article
