The key to success is competence! To put it simply, nearly everything. It is without a doubt the reason why, in the field of Neuro-Semantics, we conduct training, coaching, and consulting sessions, as well as create articles, run practice groups, and host conferences. We act in this manner in order to pave the way for others and ourselves to become proficient in a wide range of activities. Our goal is to become competent in everything from self-management to parenting, money creation to leadership, health and wellbeing to eating right and sleeping peacefully, and everything else in between. We want people to have the capacity for self-determination and the self-efficacy to be competent in the areas of life that are important to them.
The basis for self-assurance is found in one’s level of competence. To be competent is to have confidence, and this is something that almost everyone strives to achieve; after all, who wouldn’t want to feel confident in what they do and how they live their life? Take into consideration the opposite: If you don’t have the talents to back up your confidence, you’re just trying to trick yourself and others into believing that you have capabilities that you don’t actually possess. Learning the skills necessary to do anything well is the one and only method to experience genuine and complete self-assurance. However, the majority of people tend to underestimate how difficult and involved that actually is.
Competence is the foundation for expertise. Let’s imagine you have the goal of becoming an expert in your field. What are the prerequisites for doing that? To put it simply, first cultivate your fundamental level of competence, then add ten years (or 10,000 hours) of focused practice, and only then will you achieve expert level performance. This is the conclusion that Anders Ericsson came to after doing longitudinal research on expert knowledge. This also underscores the fact that simply having some talents is not sufficient to qualify as competent. Indeed, the acquisition of skills is necessary for competency, which in turn is built upon the growth of skills. However, it is possible to have some talents while yet not being competent, as was mentioned in the first article.
Competence is the foundation for self-trust. Once you have developed a skill, it does not always follow that you will always be able to display that expertise. This is true of any skill. The level of one’s skill and competency fluctuate. They are dependent on a variety of factors, such as how you are now feeling, the amount of sleep you received the previous night, how things are going in your life, etc. The line that represents one’s level of competency is wavy; it goes up and down, on and off, and has both good days and poor days. However, after you have mastered the ability to the level of competence, you will have developed a fundamental consistency that will provide you with a great deal of control over the ability.
Competence is the basis for self-efficacy, which is the basis for business and pretty much everything else, like making money, taking risks, leading, managing, being resilient, and so on. I hope you get the point—competence is pretty much everything in life, so go for it! Try to get good at what you do. Don’t be happy with just being average or getting by.
How to Develop Competency
#1. Be Patience
You will need a lot of patience because the skills you need to be competent have to be learned one at a time. That means you have to stop being impatient. People who don’t want to wait and want to get good at something overnight or in a weekend course will never get good at it. As you learn, there will be times when your skills are good and times when they are not. It’s just the way things are. Why? Because you are putting what you know about ideas into your brain. And this process of coming together takes time.
#2. The Right Attitude
Along with patience, you need a powerful robust attitude toward mistakes and error messages. This is because the feedback process speeds up the process of learning. In other words, you must be willing to listen to error reports. If you make the deadly mistake of confusing yourself (your ego, your worth as a person) with what you do and how you act, you will not learn very well and it will take you a lot longer to become competent. So, release your ego! Don’t judge a person by what they do. Stop making that terrible mistake. What you’re doing is exactly what it sounds like: behavior.
#3. One At a Time
Next, practice one piece at a time. Stop trying to do the whole competence or skill; instead, focus on the smaller parts. Focus on each one when you practice so that your cells fire together and you build a neural pattern in your brain. Once you do that, you’ll be able to depend on your dependability. This is the way to get good at something. Every book we have on Neuro-Semantics was written just for this purpose. Open your guidebook, find the subskills for the skill you want, and practice them over and over again. That’s important.
#4. Set Goal
Set your goal to improve the competency to keep yourself inspired and, as a result, driven. Give yourself a big “why,” and then use that big “why” to explain everything you do in your focused practice. Every time you practice, think about why you do it. Don’t worry about how you did. You’re right! Don’t worry about the results. If you do the process, the results will come. So put all of your attention on the process. And how does it work? Putting thought into practicing the subskills!
Conclusion
To become competent in a skill, it’s essential to be patient and understand that learning takes time. Trying to rush the process will hinder progress. Embrace a positive attitude towards mistakes and feedback, detaching your ego from your performance. Focus on mastering one component at a time, building neural patterns in your brain for better retention. Set clear goals to stay motivated and driven during practice sessions. Instead of obsessing over immediate results, concentrate on the process and consistently practice the subskills required for the desired competency.
Curated by Danielle Tan.
Reference:
- [Meta-Coaches] 2023 Morpheus #29 HOW CAN I BECOME TRULY COMPETENT? by L. Michael Hall, Ph.D. Executive Director, ISNS.
