What are the barriers that stop us from learning new things and growing?

Take a look at Noel Burch’s Learning Stages Model below to see if he can help us unravel this mystery. Just think back to how you started learning to ride a bicycle or drive a car.

His model is simple and breaks the learning process into 4 stages. I have taken the liberty to add my own interpretation of these 4 stages as follows:

I. Unconscious incompetence

 

 

Blind spots

 

You don’t see because you simply don’t know or think you know but don’t.

 

Your EGO prevents you from SEEING

When you think you know everything, you are filled up with pride and this creates “blind spots” in your life that simply stops you from seeing what is right in front of you.

II. Conscious incompetence

The first step is to acknowledge that you are not the “centre of the universe” and you don’t know everything. Yes, I know that can be a hard and humbling experience.

We grow up convincing ourselves that we must know everything, well almost everything. But sooner or later something happens in your life and you come to the realisation of how much you actually don’t know.

This is the critical step in the journey where you finally wake up and realise that you are not in control and don’t know everything.

This is known as beginner’s mind.

III. Conscious competence

Practice makes perfect. 10,000 hours or 10 years of deliberate and sustained practice will make you an expert according to Malcolm Gladwell.

IV. Unconscious competence

This is where you reach mastery of your art and has been described as being “in the zone” or “flow”. Flow is defined as:

Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost. – Mihály Csíkszentmihályi

How far you decide to take your learning is entirely up to you but remember to always have a beginner’s mind.