watch tHe skies

Learning stuff is great fun for many people, and a complete pain for others, and most would agree that there is never enough time to learn all the stuff that you want for that new job, or promotion, career change or just to be so damn good at something that everyone is prepared to pay you a tonne of cash just to get your thoughts on something.

And the reason for this is a good old thing called the competency model. No-one for sure knows where it comes from and it suggests that there are four stages of competency that we all go through”

1. Unconscious incompetence
You don’t know that a skill exists and therefore you don’t have it!
2. Conscious incompetence
You are aware of the existence of a skill but its something that you fail at or have to be very careful at doing successfully.
3. Conscious competence
You can successfully deploy the skill, although it takes conscious attention and concentration to do so.
4. Unconscious competence
You can do it in your sleep, the skill is “in the muscle” and requires no conscious processing power, it’s an automatic skill.

The idea is that to adopt a new skill you need to consciously work it out to the point that it becomes repetitive, at which point your unconscious says “hey I get it, it works like that, right?” and takes over. Learning to drive a car is a great example of these steps, if you are a driver, if not then consider walking. Our little man Ben has only recently moved to unconscious competence with walking, as he now happily eats, drinks and talks whilst walking, whereas a few weeks ago he would fall over if someone called his name whilst he was concentrating on putting one foot in front of another without losing balance.

So it works, as a model of learning it is very useful. It does, however, underestimate the power and intelligence of the unconscious mind. After all, does everything have to go through the conscious mind to be learnt? Can you think of examples of learning directly by the unconscious? How about music… do you consciously analyse the notes of a tune and go through the 4 stages to be able to hum something? The unconscious mind is very, very smart, and it can learn stuff all by itself and put you straight to step 4, if you let it. And if you would like to know how, read on. (more…)

Recently I’ve been reading a little about EFT - Emotional Freedom Techniques. I’m still learning what it’s all about and the basic premise as far as I see is that the body’s energy system that is treated through acupuncture can be similarly balanced by tapping meridian points in certain combinations.  MS, Asthma, allergies and phobias have all been seemingly cured through its application.

Sounds like bobbins eh? Well I’ve used a couple of techniques with some people I’ve helped to quit smoking - to help them alleviate their cravings and they certainly seem to help them, so whether it’s real or a placebo, well I don’t have enough evidence either way.

Gary Craig, the founder of EFT, has a refreshing approach to spreading the word, as a full training course is available for free on his website www.emofree.com, and there’s a good introductory video that can be found at www.emofree.com/splash/video_popup.asp, so you can make up your own mind! There’s also lots more free information and videos on how to do it, over at www.tapping.com. I’ll write more about it once I’ve read through the stuff and given it a go.

Well after much deliberation I’ve decided to ditch my course due to an increasing lack of time available. Preparing house for baby and keeping mum 2 be happy and comfortable is a fair job and it means that I don’t have the time for copious amounts of study. Better to drop it now than in six months, at least I don’t have to worry about finding the time. Don’t get me £500 back but hey at least I can watch a DVD or two in my spare time now…

Well yesterday’s enjoyment of the Winter Olympics was cut short when I witnessed the uber-nasty fall of Zhang Dan in the ice skating. For those of you who missed it, imagine skidding over the ice whilst landing doing the splits the hard way. Hard to watch and even tougher, I would imagine, to get up and finish your routine, which is what she did, and so I was pleased to see that such perseverence earnt them a silver medal. We Brits have a soft spot for people who are crap at sport, what other country would make a hero out of Eddie The Eagle Edwards? (more…)