Have you ever had the wonderful experience of trying something relatively new to you and learning very quickly how inadequate you feel? 

I did recently when I went to  Get Air Trampoline Park  with my kids over spring break.

Who knew that playing dodge ball or dunking a basketball on a series of trampolines could be so incredibly challenging?!

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time that, as I try to use a new skill, I am clearly starting at the very bottom rung of The Conscious Competence Ladder - sometimes called the 4 stages of Learning Model. As coaches we often used this model to support leaders as they acquire new skills.

In psychology, the four stages of competence relate to the psychological states involved in the process of progressing from incompetence to competence in a skill. As I was reminded at the trampoline park, it's happening to us and around us all the time. In other words, we all end up on the ladder periodically.