Hi! One of the key challenges we all face is recognising how our experiences are impacting us, particularly how they affect our capacity to develop capabilities and the new capabilities we are developing as a result.
After years of significant experiences as a student and then as a working professional, some of us could still end up not knowing what we are really good at.
Now think about this - as a kid, we can easily recognise how we were learning, growing and developing. Think about the difference between what a 6-year-old can do and achieve to what a 16-year-old can do and achieve. Then think about what was going on from when they were born till 16 years….
We see very clearly the relationship between increasing/expanding capacity to learn, grow and develop (e.g physical capacity - e.g. what you can carry, mental capacity - e.g. what you can understand, emotional capacity - e.g. how can control yourself)… and the new capabilities that can be developed as a result of the increased/expanded capacity.
We see how experiences are the root of capacity expansion. But we also see how capacity expansion doesn’t always mean new capabilities (i.e. what you now carry, what you now understand or how you now control yourself doesn't automatically change just because capacity expanded). It takes a specific way of engaging with experiences for those experiences to expand capacity and it takes conscious actions to turn the expanded capacity into new capabilities. The key mechanism at work is learning, growing and developing.
However, when I speak with employees, job holders or even students, I notice this dynamic expansion of capacity and new capabilities as a result of how we engage with experiences, how we are learning, growing and developing from them, is no longer so obvious. In some cases, the dynamic has slowed down to a point where years of experience can produce little or no new significant capabilities. This bothers me.
As long as you are experiencing life, you are able to continue learning, growing and developing.
I wrote a post about this a few weeks ago titled “development value of years of experience” and in that post, I shared a video.
What I tried to do in the post and video was to explain the different dimensions of experiences so that we can reinvigorate the capacity and capability impact of those experiences.
So, here are the questions for you:
Do you feel your capacity is increasing/expanding as much as it could and you are developing as many new capabilities (i.e. you are still learning, growing and developing as much as you could) from the types of experiences you are lucky enough to be having right now?
Do you even care about continued capacity expansion and new or enhanced capabilities?
Would love to hear your thoughts.