Unconscious Competence Quotes

We know more than we can tell.

Everybody is I, you all know you are you. And wheresoever's beings exist throughout all galaxies it doesn't any difference. You are all of them, and when they come into being that's you coming into being, you know that very well. Only you don't have to remember the past in the same way you don't have to think about how you work your thyroid gland. You don't have to know how to shine the sun, you just do it, like you breathe. Doesn't it really astonish you that you are this fantastically complex thing, and that you're doing all of this and you never had any education on how to do it.

We accepted a definition of ourselves which confined the self to the source and to the limitations of conscious attention. This definition is miserably insufficient, for in fact we know how to grow brains and eyes, ears and fingers, hearts and bones, in just the same way that we know how to walk and breathe, talk and think - only we can't put it into words. Words are too slow and too clumsy for describing such things, and conscious attention is too narrow for keeping track of all their details.

There are things you don't want to know you can do

In any sport, you're at your best when you're playing without thinking too much.

Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recaptured at will.

When I'm in my groove there is no thinking. Everything just happens.

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success. What we do best or most perfectly is what we have most thoroughly learned by the longest practice, and at length it falls from us without our notice, as a leaf from a tree.

We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it.

When the writer (or the artist in general) says he has worked without giving any thought to the rules of the process, he simply means he was working without realizing he knew the rules.

I've always had an aptitude for wrestling. I can't explain it - it's like a gift. To this day, I don't always know how or why I do certain things.

I guess the way I describe it is when basketball players talk about being in the zone and they feel like they can't miss. That's the way a running back feels when the game is in slow-motion. It feels like every cut is right, every run is going to be at least 10 yards. You see what the defense is doing. You know what they're trying to do to you. It's awesome.

When I was small I didn't really know what i was doing. I just sang and it came out sounding pretty good. I just do it and it happens.

As an athlete there are times in your career where, during a game, any decision you make seems to be the right one. The bowler bowls where you want, you don't have to think and you are so 'in the zone' that you are not aware of anything else around you.

He who is harmony with Nature hits the mark without effort and apprehends the truth without thinking.

Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.

A man doesn't know what he knows until he knows what he doesn't know.

I attribute all my success to ignorance. If you don't ever think about not getting where you want to be, I think it helps you out.

It's all complete instinct and intuition, and that's extremely difficult to teach.

Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it.

It follows that at the beginning of his life the individual can accomplish wonders without effort and quite unconsciously.

I do stuff that I don't even know I can do sometimes.

When we're playing, when we're really, really going... you're just in the moment. You're not thinking about yesterday, tomorrow, or anything else. The brain gets out of the way. Your body just does what it knows how to do, and it's just... it's like a religion.

I got on a horse when I was about 12 years of age, and started galloping around. my mother came up said "where did you learn to ride a horse?" I said "this is the first time I've ever been on a horse" I just knew, I just felt the horse.

You do your best work when you're not conscious of yourself.