There exists a learning model in psychology that consists of four stages, built in a “pyramid” from the ground up, called the “Hierarchy of Competence.”

It is a model that showcases how we go about learning skills.Here is a great statement someone once shared with us…“You need to learn how to play the instrument before you can compose beautiful music.”So many of us want to rush to the “beautiful music” part, whether we’re looking to improve our cooking, our physical training, learning a language, learning how to manage our emotions, giving a speech, or even teaching our kid something.

We forget that it starts with learning foundational principles and skills first, then layering those skills as we get better. We don’t run a marathon without putting a few training miles in first. We can’t write sentences until we learn words and it’s hard to learn words without learning the alphabet. There is an order of operations. It’s not overnight success.

Most of us get really frustrated when we’re stuck in the “conscious incompetence” section; we now know we’re bad at something and we’re having a hard time fixing it. We see this on a weekly basis with our health coaching clients. Sometimes it’s difficult to progress without direction. Good coaching, and finding a good mentor, helps us progress through learning the proper skills until we’re “consciously competent,” then over the long term the same tasks become muscle memory.

So how does this apply to your health?

Your goal should be to (re)enter this model as many times as possible! Be willing to be a beginner. Be willing to try things you don’t even know you’re missing out on by putting yourself in new situations with new people with new challenges. Commit to the process of learning, get better, master the skill, add it to your “toolbox”, and do it all over again.

Pretty soon, your ability to synthesize challenges in your life will become easier because you have more tools to apply, regardless of whether we’re talking about your training, sleep, nutrition, stress management, professional life, etc.

The question is, are you willing to be incompetent in order to get better, or will you just sit on the sidelines because you’re too scared to commit?

Today is the best day ever because we’re willing to make it one.