Often when people hear the word ‘competence’ there is a connotation of achieving something according to set standards in a work environment. ‘Competence’ means task completion, productivity, and professionalism.
There is truth in this, however, when we return to the core meaning of the word, we need to keep in mind that competence is a combination of:
- using your innate abilities,
- implementing your experience and knowledge to
- cultivate skills,
- which you demonstrate proficiently.
Nowhere in this definition do we see words such as ‘work’ or ‘company’. Some of us will seek to be deemed competent in a certain role, in a specific domain, or profession. Yet, ‘competence’ is not a term reserved for the boardroom. It is an ambition that we work towards and when we master it, we don’t only know that we are competent – we feel it!
Since feeling competent is an emotion, it is intrinsically interlinked with various aspects of our personality and the numerous factors making us human.
One of these individual components is how we chose to live our lives. This is an extremely personal decision based on more criterion than we can mention. What we do know is that competence is a way of life. And you can be competent in leading a balanced life.
To each one of us, leading a balanced life means something different, depending on our values and belief system. Yet one thing remains unchanged: Implementing a balanced life is a competence which some of us do naturally and others cultivate and work on over time.
Regardless of our benefits and restraints, each person has the right, the power, and the capabilities to become competent in numerous aspects of their world – including in how balanced their chosen life is!
