Conscious Incompetency to Unconscious Competency through Conscious Competency

Another year is wrapping up, and what a year it has been!  The past two years have been full of wonderful transition into an amazing and wonderful new life.  It seems that with the amazingly wonderful new events have come some horribly sad events as well.  2009 was my meeting Richard and moving to Evergreen (a great move!) yet the loss of both of my pets, Athena and Marshmallow, and a business I had set up for community acupuncture.

2010 brought our various wedding ceremonies which were all wonderful experiences, my oldest son happily graduating from college, and my youngest graduating from high school.  Both of these young men began the next steps of their paths at Harvard Grad School and Colorado State U., respectively.  My middle son continues on at CU- Boulder.  These are all very happy events.  Meanwhile I experienced some sad losses.  My cousin, Jenni, died on January 19, at the age of 37, after her five year battle with breast cancer.  A friend, Theresa, age 30 died at the end of September from a complicated recovery from eye surgery.  I admired both of these women immensely in how they lived their lives fully and seemingly fearlessly, as short as their lives were.  Any death that touches me, always reminds me to continue to live my life as fully as possible and to love as much as I can.

I've spent a good chunk of today going through this past semester of Pharmacy school's papers, organizing and storing, to clear the way for classes to begin again on January 10th.  Richard and I then treated ourselves to Raindrop Treatments and Aqua Chi Footbaths, as a spa day.  I am feeling greatly relaxed, encouraged and happy.

As I contemplate this new healthy endeavor and what I want to leave behind in 2010 (and earlier!), and what I want to bring with me and create in 2011, the concept that occurs to me most is Unconscious Competency.

In some class or possibly a service at Mile Hi Church, or maybe even a book I read 8 or 10 years ago, the presenter or author offered up a means of describing the process of changing behaviors and thought patterns.

First there is Unconscious Incompetency where a person is thinking unhealthy thoughts, living an unhealthy life, and is really not aware of it, or cares.

Then, there's the awareness that perhaps a change needs to take place, but the behaviors are still the same.  This is called Conscious Incompetency. This is the "unearthing" process of realizing the thoughts and behaviors that don't serve new and healthy habits.  

When we take the step to consciously change the behavior, we need to put a lot of effort and energy into ingraining the new information and behavior into our energetic, neurological, and physical system (like learning to drive a car, or learning tons of stuff in pharmacy school).  This is called the Consciously Competent stage, where one is doing the right things, but it takes conscious effort to remember to do them.

Finally, the ultimate goal is to become Unconsciously Competent in the newly desired behaviors. This means they are automatic, we don't have to think about them, they have become part of us, and they take far less mental effort to accomplish and are part of our daily living.

Over the years, I can see how I've eliminated many bad habits and dis-serving thought patterns with several means or processes through these four steps.  I hope to share these steps of awareness through this blog as the beliefs and habits are changed into even healthier beliefs and habits with resulting healthier mind, body and spirit.

The main thing I want to bring into 2011 from my past (in addition to all of the wonderful people in my life, and the path I've set forth career-wise) are the USE of the tools I have gathered over the years which are at the ready to help turn my health and body into an energized, flexible, ecstatic vessel for living the fullest life possible.

Goodbye, 2010, with the beautiful fond and sad memories, and wonderful things learned.

I am still here, living this life, so...

Hello, 2011, with a new endeavor and a new plan!