The Competence-Confidence Loop
How to become great at anything
How do you get good at something?
Do you fake it till you make it? Or do you submit to learn from experts, absorb their knowledge and only then do it yourself?
The answer: it doesn’t really matter.
What’s more important is how your actions ignite and fuel your confidence-competence loop. Do they create a virtuous cycle?
Or a vicious one?
Igniting Your Action
Supportive spirals start with a spark of confidence.
They’re ignited by a belief in yourself or a belief in you by someone else.
And can be as simple as…
A kind word of encouragement.
A recognition of your enthusiasm.
Or an undying belief in your potential.
Each one powers you through what MJ DeMarco calls “the desert of desertion”, the stage of any project where you’re working without any feedback on your competence, relying solely on your confidence instead.
You’ll have no evidence to know you’re any good.
Only a belief that with enough practice you can get good.
And, in the beginning, that’s all you need.
Recording Your Results
Over time your initial confidence will run dry.
The fuel in the tank will go empty. The water will run out. And you’ll be thirsty to quench the demons of self-doubt that circle around you.
But, hang in there fellow adventurer.
Seek out the oasis of feedback on the horizon. And fast. Pitch your services to people. Ask for input on your article. Or sign yourself up for a race.
Then watch as your abilities become assessed.
If it’s negative, and it turns out you’re not as good as you thought, then sit with the words. Understand their lessons. And tweak your approach.
But, if it’s positive, and it turns out you are pretty good, then let it re-energise you. Stand a little taller. Speak a little louder. And smile a little wider.
In reality your feedback will be mixed.
You’ll be good at some things. And not so good at others.
Use the competence you’ve shown as a result that will be the ignition to spark the confidence to take on the one size bigger challenge ahead.
Then watch as your action drives the competence, which drives the results, which in turn drives the confidence.
Over and over again.
Until what was once hard is now easy.
And you have the confidence to take on more than you ever imagined was possible. And the competence to fuel it.
The Infinite Cycle
With enough practice you’ll realise that the confidence-competence loop isn’t finite. It’s infinite. And it isn’t limited to just one discipline.
For what was once a belief in your ability…
Will soon become a belief in your approach.
And you’ll realise that:
Your attitude is actually your competence.
Any skill can be learnt with enough time.
And your potential is limitless.
Which is one heck of a liberating realisation.
That will release you from an attachment to your existing achievements, instead instilling within you a confidence in your competency to become anything you desire.
Evolving you from a fragility for the past.
Into an antifragility for the future.
Which will make you unstoppable.
You so good Charlie!!