Every day, mastery gets me up, puts my clothes on me, slips my shoes on my feet, brushes my teeth, washes my face, brews my hot cup of java, gets me to work, and etc.
I don’t have to focus on HOW to do these things – I just do them.
Let’s look at skill acquisition and consciousness. By consciousness, I mean conscious awareness. The following is based on the 4 levels of competence, generally attributed to Abraham Maslow to which we’ve added a fifth level:
I think that when I’m awake, I’m pretty much aware of my physical surroundings, the conversations I’m having with others, the temperature of the room I’m in, etc., in real time. Now. Yet…
Did you know that your brain will respond to the image of a person seconds before you are aware of the person? Sometimes your brain will respond to someone or something and you’ll never become aware of it. How can that be? It appears to me that I am seeing, hearing, and touching all that I am seeing, hearing, and touching right NOW.
I’ve learned, though, that my conscious awareness is not all that omniscient or present. There are huge time gaps between what is happening right now and my awareness of it. Science and my own experience agree with my assessment: conscious awareness of now may be an illusion. Read more Awareness of Now Illusion
