The 4 Stages of Learning (05.28.26)

Today we talked about the Four Stages of Learning — and why so many people are way too hard on themselves while they’re growing.

Whether it’s real estate, leadership, health, business, video, lead generation, or life in general… growth is usually uncomfortable before it becomes natural.

We walked through the 4 stages:

 Unconscious Incompetence“I don’t know what I don’t know.”The ignorance is bliss stage.

Conscious Incompetence“Wow… this is harder than I thought.”This is where struggle, awkwardness, and growth begin.

Conscious CompetenceYou can do it… but you still have to think about it, rehearse it, and intentionally practice it.

Unconscious CompetenceThis is mastery.The skill becomes natural because you’ve repeated it enough times.

One of the biggest reminders from today:

 Struggle does not mean failure. Awkward does not mean incapable. Discomfort often means you’re learning.

In real estate especially, we constantly compare our beginning to someone else’s mastery.

You see someone crushing video, handling objections smoothly, listing luxury homes, or leading a big team… but you don’t see the years of repetition, mistakes, practice, and uncomfortable growth that built those skills.

So if things feel uncomfortable right now…GOOD.

You are probably growing.

Give yourself some grace.Keep practicing.Keep repeating.Keep showing up.

One day the thing that feels awkward now will feel natural later.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

All right, good morning, everybody. It's 6 a.m. It's Thursday, May 28th, and welcome to the 6 a.m. call. It's your 6 a.m. call. And uh Robin and I are always just so thrilled that you're here with us at 6 a.m., developing a really healthy, good morning routine. And um we just appreciate the support and we hope that it helps you. We'd we'd love your feedback too. So please feel free to tell us what you want to hear about. So today I want to talk about something that I think can really help people stop being so hard on themselves, especially in business, um, but also in leadership, sales, and in life in general, because this applies to everyone. And I was actually reminded of this in a conversation I was having yesterday, and I got so excited about wanting to do the topic. So it's called the four stages of learning. Because so many people quit in the middle of growth simply because they misunderstand what learning is supposed to feel like. Um, so there are basically four stages that everyone goes through anytime they learn a new skill. And I don't care if it's a baby learning how to walk, if it's a fourth grader learning how to do some math, um, if it's an adult learning how to um do anything really. Um, but you know, especially sell real estate. So no matter, you know, if you're learning a new computer skill or learning a new software or learning how to sell real estate, it doesn't matter. We all go through the same four stages of learning. And the first stage is unconscious incompetence, and that means that you don't know that you don't know. You're unconscious about your incompetence. You don't know that you don't know. I call it the ignorance is bliss stage. Somebody may decide to get their license thinking, oh, real estate looks so easy, you make a ton of money, I love people, I love houses, I'm just gonna post on social media and everyone's gonna call me. It's gonna be great. In this stage, you're just unaware of the complexity yet. And honestly, sometimes ignorance is great because it gives people confidence in the beginning. So that's unconscious incompetence. Then you move into stage two, which is conscious incompetence. And this is where we now know that we don't know. And this is the hard stage. This is where you suddenly realize wow, this is harder than I thought. I don't know if I can actually do it. Um, you're aware of the gaps that you have, you're aware of what you can't do yet. Agents often feel awkward in this stage and very uncomfortable and sometimes kind of annoyed. Um, but they don't feel comfortable on phone calls, they don't know what to do, excuse me, don't know what to do on video, nervous in appointments, overwhelmed by systems, don't even know where to start, inconsistent with lead generation. And here's the important part this is completely normal. It's just a stage people move through. It's where you become aware that you don't know what's going on and what to do. And a lot of people think struggle means failure, and they often quit here, which is very sad. But struggle just means you're learning, and it's an important stage in learning anything, whether, like I said, it's a baby learning to walk or an adult learning real estate. So, stage three, you're gonna move from this stage of conscious and confidence into conscious competence. Now suddenly I'm aware of what I know and I have to pay attention to learn. So now you can finally do the thing, but you have to think about it. You have to ask somebody or look it up, but you do know the resources. Scripts work, but you still have to rehearse them. You can handle objections, but it does take focus. You're building habits intentionally. This is where consistency matters and follow-through and continuous learning, practicing, you know, connecting with the people that are your resources. This is where you start to regain control in the learning process. And a lot of us are here for a while. Um, or we may be here at different times for different skills within our real estate job. So the last stage is called unconscious competence, and this is where you don't have to think about it, but you know. You know it and you don't have to think about it. It's mastery. You've done it enough times that it becomes natural. Think about a baby learning to walk, you know, from the beginning stage to, you know, rocking back and forth on the floor, trying to crawl, can't crawl, can't stand up, to then um conscious competence is like holding onto a table, reaching for an adult's hands. And unconscious competence is the stage that I'm at now in walking, where I can walk from here to there without even thinking about it. So um you've done it enough that it becomes natural. Great agents often make difficult things look easy because they've repeated them so many times. But people watching them don't see the years of uncomfortable growth that came first. And I think this is especially important in real estate because we compare our beginnings to somebody else's mastery all the time. You see somebody crushing video, handling objections smoothly, listing luxury homes, running a team, and you think, why does this feel so hard for me and it's so easy for them? But it's because you're just learning and they've been working at it for years. And honestly, if you feel uncomfortable right now, good. It means you're growing. So today give yourself a little grace. Don't quit just because you're in the conscious incompetence stage. That stage is not permanent, it's the bridge to growth. So keep practicing, keep repeating, keep showing up, keep reaching out to your resources, your friends, your mentor, your coach. And one day, the thing that feels awkward now will feel natural later. So thanks for being here this morning, everybody. We'll see you tomorrow at 6 a.m. Robin has the mic. I hope everybody has a fabulous day. We love you guys.