Be Consistently Sh*t at Something
You don’t want to know how many attempts this took!
We spend our lives celebrating and watching excellence. We watch elite athletes, celebrate exceptional intellect, and have unfettered access to the top performers in any discipline through social media. We are constantly exposed to unreal talent. I follow no fewer than 15 circus level hand balancers, 20+ performing contortionists, and goodness knows how many pole dancers, yogi’s, dancers, gymnasts and even some stunt riders.
I can see so much talent just by scrolling, so it’s no wonder that our perspectives end up skewed. None of us are gawping at Dave down the street who finally did a squat, and Wendy up the road has 120 followers on The Gram for her couch to 5k.
Logically, we are going to be grabbed by the exceptional, but how does that skew what we are exposed to? For this, we need a graph!
Woo! Graph! But what is it telling us?
Well, let’s start with the smallest number of people. The GOATs. The Greatest of all Time. These people go to the Olympics, they capture the hearts of amateurs and professionals. They perform truly otherworldly feats in their chosen field. They are the Simone Biles, the Charlotte Dujardin’s, the Serena & Venus Williams of the world. Why wouldn’t we want to follow these exceptional people?
There are relatively small numbers of these people, and they are professionals. They have coaching, nutrition, physiotherapy, and mindset support all around them. They really do raise the bar and transform their field.
As we work our way down the skill levels, we start to enjoy the point where amateur and professional start to cross. Here we’ll have instructors, passionate and dedicated amateurs, and those in ‘collateral’ industries who dedicate their life to their specialty but not in quite the same way as the GOATs. We are likely to follow our local superheroes in this category.
Then we have the greats, you’ll see them in advanced classes and they likely do some mad sh*t, but may not push the boundaries of their sport.
As we get towards average skill levels the numbers jump up. This is where you and I are likely to live. There are awesome achievements happening here all the time, so to follow everyone at this stage would be overwhelming. You’re going to follow your friends and classmates at this level.
For our beginners and improvers, you may find some accounts with high follower numbers who have expertly documented their progress in this stage. We will follow these accounts for inspiration at the beginning of our own journeys, and watch as they move up the skill ranks.
Here’s the real kicker though. People at all of these stages think they suck at something.
Everyone always has something they are working on, or not content with, or that just downright sucks.
This is in part because of four stages we go through as we learn. We’re going to need another diagram…
No matter where we are with our skills, we are going to cycle through these four stages, which we can bluntly break down as…
You don’t you’re sh*t
You know you’re sh*t
You need to concentrate not to be sh*t
You don’t need to concentrate not to be sh*t (AKA, You’re sh!t hot).
BONUS! Go back to the beginning with a new element or skill.
As you learn a new skill you’re going to spend most of your time in stages 2 and 3. Here’s why…
1. Unconscious Incompetence
It’s impossible to be aware of everything all at once, so we all have layers of theory, technique, and nuance that we are not aware of. This is absolutely normal, and why I’d always recommend asking who your coach’s coach is.
We all need other’s who can hold the future layers we need to understand in mind as we learn.
2. Conscious Incompetence
Woo! Your understanding has improved!
Whether your coach has pointed out something to work on, or you discovered something solo, this is an awesome step. To improve we need to know what we are working to improve.
Entering this stage means…
Your knowledge has increased,
Your awareness has increased,
Your skill level hasn’t changed.
It might feel like a step back in your skill levels, but in reality, that’s the only thing that hasn’t changed yet. In this one stage, you have learned more about your sport and your body. How cool is that??
3. Conscious Competence
Now, this is where your skill level has changed. Here you are thinking about how to bridge the gap you noticed in your skills. It probably feels like you have got worse here, but really you are layering new skills on top of the ones you already have. This might knock you off slightly as you work in new movement patterns and timings. That’s all normal and part of leveling up how you move your body.
The result during this stage is actual, real progress! Woo! You are thinking hard, but you are moving better. This is great!
4. Unconscious Competence
You’ve put the hours in. You’ve focused hard. Now that gap in your knowledge is filled in and forming the foundations for new discoveries and improvements. You have altered how you move and it has become second nature.
This stage is quiet and unassuming. We only really notice this stage when we take the time to reflect. It’s a huge milestone for new technique to be automatic!
Because of the nature of improvement, once you get here you’re going to go right back to the beginning with another element. Quite possibly bypassing stage 1 altogether and jumping right back into conscious incompetence (you know you’re sh*t). This means you are always focusing on something you an improving, and being consistently sh!t or trying not to be!
So what does all this have to do with being consistently sh*t at something?
First, we need to recognise our easy access to exceptional performers. We often assume these people are the norm. They are not. They are exceptional, and it’s OK not to keep up with them.
Second, we have to understand how we improve and how it feels for everyone. We are all repeating the competence cycle. We can assume everyone else is just finding everything easy, they are not. They are working on their own layer and in their own stage of the competence cycle!
Third, knowing all of this increases our knowledge of how we learn and our awareness of where we are in the competence cycle. It can make it more comfortable being uncomfortable or confused when we know it feeds into a bigger picture of progress.
Sometimes I am really bad at walking up hills. 😂
So if I can’t use not being sh*t as a definitive measure of progress what can I use?
There are several signs you are making progress that have nothing to do with being aware of something hard, some of them may feel counterintuitive:
You are finding things you’d like to work on (stage 2 - conscious incompetence!)
You are getting confused and asking questions about your sport or practice (you need someone else to move you from stage 1 - unconscious incompetence - fully into stage 2).
You are focusing on things you find tough when you practice (stage 3, conscious competence, is here for you!).
There are a few things you want to work on and you can’t decide which. This likely means you have had a leap in understanding and are in multiple cycles at once. Woo for understanding gains!
Your coach is picking out details in your old fave tricks. You are finding a new layer!
Big wins aren’t coming as often - you are leaving the land of beginner gains, and new big wins take more skill and technique to achieve. This means more nuanced cycles, this is an awesome place to be!
So you’ve got new knowledge about being bad at stuff, how are you going to embrace being consistently sh*t at something?
Be perfectly imperfect and embrace the layers of discovery and practice that are going to help you get better by being sh*t!
This year I am absolutely obsessed with the reasons people miss workouts. So obsessed that I’d love to find out why you’ve skipped workouts this year, tell me all right here!
