The Four Levels of Metamorphosys
Unconscious Incompetence
At this level you are blissfully ignorant: You have a complete lack of knowledge and skills in the subject in question. On top of this, you are unaware of this lack of skill, and your confidence may therefore far exceed your abilities.
Conscious Incompetence
At this level you find that there are skills you need to learn, and you may be shocked to discover that there are others who are much more competent than you. The awareness is the first step towards learning the skills or gaining the experience to improve. As you realize that your ability is limited, your confidence drops. You go through an uncomfortable period as you learn these new skills when others are much more competent and successful than you are. At this stage, we know we are no good at something, but are making progress towards mastery.
Conscious Competence
At this level you acquire the new skills and knowledge. You put your learning into practice and you gain confidence in carrying out the tasks or jobs involved. You are aware of your new skills and work on refining them. At this point, you have acquired the skills necessary for success, but it still takes a good bit of concentration to perform adequately.
Unconscious Competence
At this level your new skills become habits, and you perform the task without conscious effort and with automatic ease. This is the peak of your confidence and ability. By this point, skill level has proceeded to mastery, and we no longer give much thought to what or how we do things anymore.