Skip to main content

BUILD CAPACITY

 

I started a mentoring session a few weeks back with one of my mentors who is studying with his family in the United States. In sharing his story with me, he said he graduated from secondary school in the northern part of Nigeria without knowing how to speak and express himself in English effectively and that was a great impediment to what he wanted to do with his life back then. 


On getting to Jos, he knew he had to catch up and build capacity in that regard if he is to further his studies. He started buying books, he cultivated the habit of reading not just for reading's sake but because he knew he needed to grow, be better and equip himself for what lies ahead of him and the kind of life he envisioned for himself. You can tell that his effort is paying off today.


What comes to your mind when you hear the word capacity building? A lady once told me she was about to start a movement that will advocate for women but had no idea how to go about it. I told her just two things: broaden your network intentionally and build capacity deliberately, and you will meet people who are doing similar things and you will learn from them. I believe to make your life count you need to be a man or woman who builds capacity daily.



To build capacity is to grow, is to improve, is to change, is to learn, is to hone your skills and abilities, and to deploy them strategically. To build capacity is to daily outsmart your performance of yesterday and become a better person than you were yesterday. Capacity building entails learning, relearning, and unlearning, it consists of personal development on all fronts. 


How then do we build capacity? 

We build capacity by going out of our way, by doing what we don't usually do, by stretching our comfort zone, and by being intentional. You need humility to build capacity, if not you will think you know it all, you need to swallow your pride to build capacity, and you need resilience to build capacity. Learn - read good books, watch documentaries and impactful movies, have mentors to share their experiences with you, take beneficial risks and learn from its success and failures, observe trends in life and learn from them, by all means, build capacity.


Building capacity is important in every aspect of life, from the individual to the family, the society, and every organized stratum of life. Building capacity doesn't come cheaply, it will cost you. It will cost you money, it will cost you time, it will cost you comfort, it will cost you convenience. 



Why do we need to build capacity?

The amount of capacity you build today is directly proportional to your effectiveness and relevance tomorrow. Hence, when you build capacity whether, in finance, academic, spiritual life, or whatever way, you are preparing yourself for what lies ahead, knowingly or unknowingly. What makes you relevant, useful, effective, needful, and valuable tomorrow is the capacity you are building today. When you build capacity, its ripping effects don't stop with you, many people will benefit from it as well.


A quick recap on the series so far

Life is short, so we have to live it right, live it well, live it with the right people and make it count. In making life count we have to count on God, have good relationships, develop a worthy-of-emulation character that will give us a good name, and by doing so, we become people of integrity. 


Thank you for reading

 You can leave comments




Comments

  1. Anonymous17 October 2021 at 10:23

    Building capacity for onself, one will have to be smart, resilient and humble. Thank you

    ReplyDelete
  2. James Jordan17 October 2021 at 11:54

    Building capacity is growth...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ezekiel Ibrahim17 October 2021 at 13:31

    Beautiful piece sir

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IF YOU WERE PHILIP

  Permit me to tell you a bit about Philip. I met Philip in our undergraduate days at the University of Jos. He was never late even though he usually comes from home. I tried several times to beat him in punctuality but I failed on several attempts. Philip was cheerful, full of life, and always the spark of the house.  Last week was a tough yet defining week for me, I lost Philip who has been a friend for 10 years. Did I see it coming? Certainly not. Was I anticipating it sooner? I doubt it. But will we all die? Of course yes.  This is not a tribute but be patient with me as I share with you the lessons I have learned at the cause of his demise this week. I have no doubt they will bless your heart. Philip lived well : I know people are often guilty of saying things about people who are gone that are not usually true, but with a deep sense of honesty, humility, and certitude, at 27, Philip lived well. This is no fallacy, this young man touched lives everywhere he went, if ...
15 comments
Read more

JUST A DAY OFF

  Disclaimer The message of this piece may or may not be for everybody, however I pray that somehow you relate with these few words and make sense out of it. O ne of the things I have been consistent with this year is “morning runs”; I exercise three times a week, alternating between the week days. The entire experience became more fun when one of my friends became my neighbour few months ago, and we began running together. Well, what we do every day we go running is adding upon the distance we covered previously and no matter how small the addition is, it gives us a sense of improvement. However, lately, we have been overwhelmed with life and personal struggles that we often skip our morning exercise, and prior to now that I am writing this piece, it has been almost two weeks that we have not gone running. W hat we discovered and even talked about while running this morning (5:27am, Saturday October 24 th , 2020)   was that in as much as our body systems have adopted ...
5 comments
Read more

DO YOUR THING - IN YOUR SKIN

This piece is from my archives but for the sake of this series, I had to dust it up. It is a bit long, but it is for you - yes you. So take a few minutes and go through this with an open mind, who knows, it just might change your life. One year ago I was having a conversation with this lady with whom we have been discussing life, she said to me: “Sir, I have something that is eating me deep inside and I will need help with it; people have been making fun of me because of my body structure, I have been working hard to add some flesh but it is not working, I hate being called a smally”.  I strongly believe that to make life count you honestly have to love yourself, love who you are now and are becoming, and constantly remind yourself that you are a masterpiece, God's work of art, one of a kind, custom-made limited edition person. What I am saying in essence is, to make life count, you have to be comfortable in your skin. In Your Own Skin To be comfortable in your skin is to be you an...
1 comment
Read more