There’s a concept in Zen Buddhism called Shoshin (初心).

It means - ‘Beginners Mind’.

It’s the concept that - no matter how good you are at something - that you always need to approach it with fresh eyes. As though you’ve never done it before.

If you’re not careful, you let your ego get in the way, your eyes become dull, and you start to wonder why other (younger or stupider people) start to overtake you.

Today we’ll look at why this happens, and what you can do to make sure you’re always one step ahead.

When I started working in tech ~10 years ago, the MD (my boss) used a great concept.

It explained why salespeople would start a job, and smash target. But, after a few years, they’d drop down the leader board, throw in the towel, blame the solution, and move to another company.

It’s called ‘The Cycle of Competence’. And it applies to everything:

Starting a new relationship
↳ Then arguing, or taking them for granted after 2-years

Getting good traction with a new product
↳ Then watching customers leave after 12-months

Smashing it on social media with great content
↳ Then wondering why impressions tank after 12-weeks

You see, when you start something new, you’re super focused, attentive, and don’t want to miss anything.

You have ‘Beginners Eyes’ and you are ‘Consciously Competent’. Either through fear of looking foolish (or failing).

Then, as you get some wins under your belt, you become ‘Unconsciously Competent’.

Until one day, the situation or the market changes.

But you don’t update your skills.

And you become ‘Unconsciously Incompetent’.

You start falling behind. Or worse, become obsolete.

When you’re having a tough time, it’s hard to see the wood for the trees.

Plus, it’s really hard to admit when you’re missing a skill, or doing things wrong.

To break the cycle, you have to be willing to say:

“OK, I have become ‘Unconsciously Incompetent’ at this. What do I do next?”

Example:

Right now, part of my time is managing brand partnerships.

The process is roughly:

I’ve spent 16+ years in sales & marketing, which means I am ‘highly skilled’.

But it also puts me at a high-risk of falling into the ‘Unconsciously Incompetent’ range.

I was working on a deal, and putting our standard package options together, when I thought:

“Is there true value in this proposal? Have I actually listened to this prospect? Am I giving them what they need?"

In that instance, I used AI to look at what I’d put together hyper-critically.

By the way, I mention this method in my previous newsletter “This 5-min AI trick will help you better than a $100 hour per coach” which you can read here.

Long story short. The proposal wasn’t a true reflection of what they needed.

But, with a few tweaks, and a couple of conversations later we’d negotiated a $50,000 deal.

I’d consciously recognised my incompetence in that moment.

And moved myself to conscious competence (with a bit of help).

But, remaining permanently competent is more than just a clever AI prompt.

Here’s a step by step of how to always remain competent (and stay ahead).

1/ Framing

“Is this the best way I can be doing this?”

“How would I re-learn this if I was starting from scratch?”

You need to get in the habit of asking critical questions.

But the important thing to remember here is by asking this, you are not telling yourself you are ‘bad’ or ‘not good enough’ (that could end up being a mental health disaster).

A better frame is "sharpening the saw", which is an analogy by Stephen Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

It highlights the importance of taking time for self-renewal and maintenance. So that you can sustain long-term effectiveness and avoid burnout

More effective > Less Rubbish

2/ Learn from others

Check out the Dream 100 section of this newsletter for inspiration on finding other people you can learn from.

Information is abundant.

But true experts are not.

The best sources of education are books, because they take so much time to write, and cram so much knowledge into a condensed format.

Look for books that are old, and have stood the test of time.

Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins was written over 100 years ago, but people still reference it today.

Pro Tip - Ask AI this:

3/ Learn from yourself

Every day you are producing data.

An easy example is social media content as you can see performance.

Look back over your impressions and find the top performers.

What did you do differently then, that you’re not doing now?

Likewise, was there a time in your career you were growing super fast?

What were you doing then that was different?

4/ Use AI to keep you sharp

You don’t have to over-complicate this.

Very simply, just explain to AI what you’re doing and ask:

“Is there anything I’m missing? Is there a better way of doing this”

This is literally what the bulk of my writing has been about recently.

You can begin anything at any time.

No matter how experienced or inexperienced you are.

So, the next time you feel a performance dip, deploy one of the 4 steps above.

You’re never obsolete.

You just need a beginners mindset.

Until next time.

Adam