Dear Friend,
I must let you know about two essential ideas within the subject of NLP that you can use to think 10x bigger, and propel yourself towards becoming an extremely powerful person:
(1) The Conscious and Unconscious Mind
(2) The 4 Stage Learning Process
The above concepts serve as the starting point of everything within this website (tommyoffe.com), and possibly anything that you have learned to do excellently in your life.
So… let me explain how…
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What is NLP?
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) started in the 1970s.
It involves NLP practitioners attempting to find out how excellent achievers excel in any field by discovering and studying their patterns of behaviour.
Once discovered, these patterns are taught to others, who want to improve their own performance.
In NLP, this process is called modelling, and the patterns; skills; and techniques that are being discovered are, in turn, being used in counselling, education, business, personal-development, and accelerated learning – to also allow others to become excellent achievers.
In terms of methodology, NLP is both a science and an art.
It is a science in the respect that there is a method and a process used for discovering the patterns used by extraordinary achievers, to achieve their exceptional results.
On the other hand, NLP is an art, because everyone has a unique personality and style.
Therefore, the patterns of excellent achievers cannot be wholly captured in words or techniques, no matter what they do.
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Conscious & Unconscious Mind
In 1956, an American psychologist, George Miller, outlined the idea that our conscious minds are limited.
This is because it is believed that, consciously, we can only keep track of a maximum of seven pieces of information at any one time.
Something is conscious, in NLP, when we are aware of it in the present moment, whereas something is unconscious when we are not aware of it right now.
For example, the memory of seeing a sunset, or a blue sea, was probably part of your unconscious mind until you read this sentence.
Conversely, your unconscious mind stores all the things that you have learned in the past, and all your remote memories and experiences.
It is also responsible for conducting all the life-giving processes that take place in your body (e.g. heart beat, digestion system, immune system), and noticing what you may not be consciously focusing upon in any present moment.
Therefore, contrary to the popular belief that most of what we do, we do consciously; this idea reveals that most of the things that we do, we do unconsciously.
In support, the 4 stage learning process connects and expands this suggestion of the superior nature of our unconscious minds.
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The 4 Stage Learning Process
As the title suggests, The 4 Stage Learning Process divides learning into four different stages:
- Stage (1) Unconscious Incompetence
- Stage (2) Conscious Incompetence
- Stage (3) Conscious Competence
- Stage (4) Unconscious Competence
There is a presumption that no matter whatever you are trying to learn, you will be required to move through each stage of the learning process in order to perform well or achieve perfection.
To illustrate this point, learning how to drive serves as a good example of the idea in action:
- Stage (1): If you have never driven a car before, you will not actually know (unconscious) what it is like to drive (incompetence). This is the stage of unconscious incompetence
- Stage (2): If after attempting to drive, you discover that you cannot, this would now make you actually aware (conscious) of your incompetence
- Stage (3): If you then start to take driving lessons (i.e. train or practice consistently), these lessons will gradually teach you how to observe the road whilst using the steering wheel, the clutch; the gears; and the brake. After practicing for a sufficient length of time, you will be able to drive (i.e. perform that something) at least once; however, driving will still require your full concentration and attention. This is the stage of conscious competence. You have learned the skill (i.e. driving) but have not yet mastered it
- Stage (4): If you then practice driving consistently for long periods, eventually you will start to drive (or perform this something) automatically and without having to concentrate very hard. At this point, you will be driving (or performing the skill) unconsciously, as you now have gained unconscious competence. Moreover, your conscious mind will be free to focus on other things whilst you drive such as playing music, having a conversation, and enjoying any scenery. You can now, alternatively, use your conscious mind to enhance your performance, as driving from this moment has become an unconscious habit.
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Conclusion
By embracing the ideas of the (1) conscious and unconscious mind & (2) the 4 stage learning process you will be able to understand why most people will consistently fail to achieve some things, yet completely excel at others.
As for those things that you have failed, it is highly likely that you never trained, practiced, or studied long enough to move beyond the conscious competence stage (stage 3) in order to gain unconscious competence (stage 4).
In other words, you had not mastered those things that you had failed to achieve, and even worse, you may not have fully appreciated that your performance would be tested, judged, or compared to those who had.
The odds are that, like the majority of people, you believe that individuals become exceptional achievers primarily due to their ability to use their conscious minds.
Furthermore, you believe that their ability is determined by the nature of their DNA. However, the conscious and unconscious mind and the 4 stage learning process support the argument that this belief is false or far from the truth.
By observing others and yourself, you will discover that it is the things that we have learned to do unconsciously, which we do the best.
For instance, there was once a very angry boy from a bad neighbourhood, who was not academic and was accustomed to getting into fights.
After successfully channeling his anger towards becoming a professional soccer player, he played for England School boys before suffering a career-ending knee injury.
In spite of his misfortune, by using these powerful ideas from NLP, he went on to develop an unconscious competence (mastery) in regards to reading books and processing large volumes of information.
Today, this boy is a practicing lawyer, and most of the people who knew him in the past cannot understand how he managed to drastically re-invent himself.
Apply this story to yourself. By adopting these powerful ideas, potentially, you can achieve anything that you set your mind to as long as:
- You really want that something
- There is sufficient time and resources for you to achieve that something
- You are willing to put in whatever time and practice it takes to move through the 4 stages of the learning process
As partially shown within the story above, using these ideas, you can develop or master abilities that are completely different in nature, or totally opposite to your current habits or strengths.*
*For a further discussion, please see blog-post (tommyoffe.com): ‘Stop Others from Limiting Your 8 Intelligences Now!‘
It is also important to bear in mind that developing unconscious competence at one thing may prevent you from really mastering something else.**
**For further discussion of this aspect of the subject, please read blog-post (www.tommyoffe.com): ‘Why Talent with 10 Years Hard Work is Needed to be World-Class!‘
“Let’s do this!”
Tom