**“I know how to do it, but I have to think about it.”** The learner can now perform the skill successfully, but doing so requires **conscious attention**. The skill has not yet become fully procedural or automatic. Consider somebody learning the Meta Model. They may consciously think: “That sounds like a universal quantifier.” “There’s a deletion there.” “What specifically?” “Compared with what?” “How do you know?” They can perform the process, but attention is heavily occupied by the mechanics of performing it. The same occurs when learning anchoring. At first the practitioner may consciously track: - the desired state, - intensity of the state, - timing, - uniqueness of the stimulus, - replication of the anchor, - testing, - calibration. Performance is possible, but it has a relatively **high conscious processing load**. This stage is therefore characterised by: **competence + conscious attention.** The person knows what they are doing and can usually explain **how** they are doing it. Practice, repetition, feedback, refinement, and contextual variation gradually allow portions of the behaviour to become automated.