What Sparked the Idea

The idea of Interlogues first came to me as a thought provoking response to my unspoken question. Not a sophisticated question, but a sincere one. Well, not even a question, but an exclamation. Well not even an exclamation, but a diatribe. I’ll explain in a bit.

The Rant. “I am so sick of this. I am stuck in this place between Conscious Competency and Unconscious Competency and it’s driving me crazy. Seriously! I have the want and need for change, the knowledge of what I should do and say, am conscious of the reasons, am self-aware, and use my will power to try and wedge a new response into that infinitesimal moment between stimuli and response, but I am still not any closer to the Unconscious Competency state than I was before. It’s not only an exhausting procedure, the sheer number of misses makes me fall flat on my face. Dios mio! Can change be any more difficult! [Exhale loudly]

“Feeling drained, on top of feeling inept because the change doesn't stick, is a recipe for losing hope, and giving up. The state of Conscious Competency sucks! Absolutely.  It’s unnatural and requires a lot of concentration. Who can concentrate when there are so many things going on at the same time? [Exhale loudly] [Pause] [Sigh] [Pause again] But there is no giving up on this. For the life I want, the life I want for my kids, I have to change this habit; change my habitual response. And do it now, not when they’re adults. Unconscious Competency. I have to make that leap. I have to. But how?"

The Response. There was a long moment of silence after which I either heard, saw, or felt (all in my head – God I sound insane) the answer. I could see it, but couldn’t really describe it or tell you how it worked. But I knew that if I saw it, I’d recognize it instantly. Yes, it does sounds crazier than the diatribe.

So I set out to find the tool I had in mind. I searched and searched, but couldn’t find it. I looked at so many industries: Success Coach, Life Coach, Self-Help & e-Therapy, Personal Development, Professional Development, Leadership Development, Executive/Business Coach, and 1-to-1 Counseling. But this tool wasn’t shown anywhere. At first I was surprised. Surely somewhere out there, someone had created it – that thing that was in my head.

Not finding one to purchase, I set out to build it. That was in May of 2006. It's been a trek and it's not getting any easier, but I am getting much closer to having the proof of concept – at least for my test use.

What’s that Conscious Competency and Unconscious Competency thing? It’s a matrix used in the Training & Development industry, and other industries as well I assume, that works like this:

• Quadrant 1 – You don’t know that you don’t know.
• Quadrant 2 – You know that you don’t know.
• Quadrant 3 – You know what you need to know and do, but it takes effort and concentration. This quadrant is not a natural state of being.
• Quadrant 4 – You know and can do or say without thought, a natural state of being; an unconscious behavioral response to a given situation. A newly formed habit.

What was the habit I needed to change? Tone of voice. I am still stuck between quadrant 3 and 4.  Next post I’ll write about behavior and habits… those things that I love. Really, I do.