Do you remember a time when you were first learning something new?

Do you recall how frustrated you felt when you didn’t know something? 

Do you remember feeling useless, incompetent and stupid when you made mistakes? 

Well that’s exactly how Ross and I have felt this past week, as we learned to how live in an RV. 

We left a hose fitting on a tap in a caravan park which meant we couldn’t hook up to water in the next one. 

The water tap blew off a few times sending water everywhere. 

We didn’t realise we had to turn our water pump off when we were hooked up to water and so used our 100 litres in a day and a half. 

So many lessons, so much to learn; like the difference between grey and black water and where it can and can’t be dumped. 

On so many occasions both Ross and I started to beat up on ourselves for not knowing stuff and then we remember The 4 Stages or Steps to Learning: 

1. Unconsciously Incompetent – You don’t know what you don’t know 

2. Consciously Incompetent – Now I know I don’t know 

3. Consciously Competent – Practising and thinking about what I am doing 

4. Unconsciously Competent – I don’t have to think about it; it’s now become a habit or I do it unconsciously. 

We moved very quickly from Stage 1 to Stage 2. We now know how much we don’t know. Fortunately there are many experienced people who are happy to teach and share what they know and we are keen students. 

It has been a great reminder to be patient when learning something new. 

We will master this. 

This part of the learning process and it’s an adventure and like any journey, it’s not reaching the destination, but the journey to get there that we remember and recount. 

How about you? 

Can you relate to this at work or personally, or perhaps you’re training your team and you are all feeling frustrated. 

It’s all part of the journey and the process. 

Persevere and you will surely get there. 

There is always so much to learn.