Tag Archives: personal development

TRANSITIONING THROUGH THE FOUR LEVELS OF COMPETENCES

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Hi there! Have you observed that whenever you are trying to do something for the first time – something as routine as trying to tie your shoelace, walking for the first time or other things like starting out on a new project, learning a new skill, starting a new business and so on- there are four stages that you go through. These stages are also called the four levels of competences and they apply consciously or unconsciously.

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The first stage is the stage of UNCONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE. At this stage, you are not even aware that the skill you are trying to learn or the activity you are trying to do exists. You don’t know anything about it yet.

The next stage is the stage of CONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE. At this stage, you are now aware that the skill you are trying to learn exists but you still have not mastered it yet. Here, you only suddenly realize that there is indeed something you do not know or something that you have not mastered.

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At the next stage which is called the stage of CONSCIOUS COMPETENCE, you have submitted yourself to the demands of learning that skill and you are beginning to get familiar with it. The draw back however is that you still require a lot of time and attention to operate the skill or to do the activity.

The final stage is the stage of UNCONSCIOUS COMPETENCE. At this stage, you have attained mastery and you do the activity without conscious thought. It does not take you so much time and attention, compared to what it took you before, to get the activity done.

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Sometimes, the transition through the four stages may feel like a demanding process but you just have to stick it out. Do not forget that in the race between the stream and the rock, the stream wins not because of strength but because of persistence.

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MY IDENTITY YOUR IDENTITY

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I have spent the year 2020 asking myself who I really am, who I want to be and understanding my Identiy. At some point in my life I felt very confused and distressed, not finding my thing in life, not understanding my hobbies. Life was super exhausting. I asked myself questions like; who am I? what do I want? what do I enjoy doing? At crucial times in our lives, it is normal to ask ourselves who we really are.

We all have different identities. Sometimes, this identity does not fit into what friends, family and colleague are comfortable with but guess what, it is your Identity. I believe it should be accepted my whomever is interested in associating themselves with you . Sometimes we fail to accept who we really are, however, coming to terms with oneself starts from understanding your identity and believing in your Identity.

The next question is what is my identity and what is your identity ?

Identities are our unique character traits which includes our individuality, beliefs, expressions, qualities, gender, ethnicity, and so on. I believe we all have mutiple identities, my personal identity is how I relate with the world, my capabilities and my reputation. Personal identities are modelled according to our vision and mission, how the mind directs us and our perspectives towards certain issues. Moreso, most people have a different identity at work and struggle with fitting into certain categories or people either because they want to impress or they feel intimidated. Using myself as an example, I used to struggle with similar situation when i moved to the United Kingdom for my masters degree, I tried communicating with a british accent and sometimes I did not ask questions in the presence of my colleagues. Instead, I send an email to the lecturer to ask my questions. This is because I was skeptical about the lecturer not understanding my english properly.

Honestly, we just have to be confident with our identity, stay true to who we are and change will always take place when necessary as life is not static. Another example is at the work place, I remember a friend of mine whom I worked with in Nigeria, she was a totally dfferent person at work , extremely nice and polite but outside of work she was a nasty rude lady who did not care about what people think about her. Her person at work was completely differentt from that outside of work. It was almost like she was pretending at work to not be the rude person she always was. Clearly by switching personas, it was evident that she was not true too her identity. There was never a claim that one’s identity (mostly character here) would always be positive. A person can also have an identity which is more on the negative side but that is a topic for another time.

A lot of people have conflict in identifying their identity thereby having multiple identities but I presume we should be able to fill the gap at least to a reasonabe extent and come to terms with who we are. Allowing people to accept you and believe you for whom you are, allowing yourself grow and pursuing your dreams.

HOW TO IDENTIFY YOURSELF

  • Reflect on opinions and views from family, friends, colleagues and any other persons you believe will have a valid contribution or feedback about yourself. This reflection process will help you understand your personality better.
  • Identifyinig where you want to be can be a key to identifying who you are. I once felt that when I have a family, a house and a car then I would be fulfilled. I did not realise I was only deceiving myself with those thoughts as Identifying what more I could achieve for myself and do for the world made me realize that much more about myself.
  • Understand/Identify your personality and interests, especially the ones you really want to develop. Also, identify new interests that you do not know how to start but are interested in.
  • Know your place in the world. Your identity can be defined by things you have been subjected to such as loss, oppresssion, violence or the likes. You should have a way to come out of that situation to remove negative impacts and stand up for people in such situations.
  • Embrace rejections. People may not accept you for who you are. Be ready to face this in life. This should not sway you from being the person you want to be. Be ready to face rejections but always remember to persevere.

Accepting my identity is one thing I am glad about. I feel like I have understood a bit more of who I really am and what I really want.

You can bury your identity deep down but its never really gone. Lost identities can and will always resurface.

Feel free to share your thoughts about your identity and you can get in touch with me here.

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