Have You Reached Your Level Of Incompetency Yet?

Everyone reaches their very own level of incompetency, though most avoid it at all cost. They try to ignore it, maneuver around it, keep under its radar, or just deny it altogether. But what happens if you embrace it?

Who doesn’t like safety zones? You know, those places where you can function perfectly just with your own abilities, never thinking of stepping one foot out of, or being faced with any challenges?

They’re great, aren’t they?

This is especially true if you’ve set up a tidy little business for yourself that’s seeing some generated income. You can control it with what you know, and it provides for you rather nicely.

The problem is, most safety zones are static while the rest of the world is moving forward. So inevitably, you’ll have to move out of your zone just to keep up.

This means you’ll have a real chance of coming face to face with your level of incompetency, because while you may have had an easy go of it with your business endeavors up to now, lunging forward into the dark regions of newness could mean you’ll find you’re faced with things hard to figure out.

What It Is And What It Isn’t

Now being incompetent doesn’t mean you’re incapable. It just means you’ve reached the point where you simply don’t know.

For example, I could probably figure out how to make just about any WordPress plugin work on this blog, but as you can see in “Low Tech People Using High Tech WordPress Plugins,” I’ve never taken the time to learn much php, so I find myself incompetent at the moment.

It doesn’t mean I couldn’t learn enough to “get ‘er done” though, if I just worked at it.

And I probably should’ve by now, but I’ve found a safety zone in using only activate-and-use plugins, and so I’ve felt satisfied with my level of incompetency in this regard.

However, the other day I was trying to do some Google+ incorporation, and found myself at a loss. So I’ll have to move out of my safety zone sooner than I expected.

Does it scare me? Sure, because when I first tried it, it created a parse error in the functions.php file that shut down the entire site until I realized I needed to uploaded the file again to fix it.

Talk about panic!

Anyway, the point is, you never know when you’ll meet a challenge that’ll drag you out of your safety zone and prop you up face to face with your level of incompetency.

It’s gonna happen, and could happen in a number of different areas. In fact, it could happen in a number of different areas all at once.

But remember, being incompetent doesn’t mean you can’t. It simply indicates you’ve reached the point where you need to get more information before you can proceed.

Fight Or Flight?

The big question then is, when you do reach your level of incompetency, will you be up to the challenge?

Or will you sink back into your safety zone, hoping it’ll all go away?

Well before you decide the course of least resistance is better, think of this . . .

Every time you reach your level of incompetency, you’re being given an opportunity.

You can use it to expand your knowledge base, or you can shy away from it.

If you hide, you won’t go beyond the point you’re at now. If you accept the opportunity, who knows how far you can go?

It all depends on how you see it when you get there.

Reaching your level of incompetency is not failure, unless you choose to do nothing about it. But if you move forward, even taking baby steps, you’ll see the opportunity behind it.

In any event, with all the changes going on in business, your competition, and the world, your safety zone won’t prove to be all that safe no matter what.

And you’ve no doubt reached it many times in your life without even knowing it, so there’s no point in fearing it. Rather, embrace your level of incompetency, push it beyond its boundaries, and reach for the stars!