Intentionality is about making deliberate choices in how you live your life. It is about owning your time and actions and developing a purposeful plan. Whether building better relationships, prioritizing health, or becoming a lifelong learner, intentional living leads to positive outcomes. It is a lifestyle that encourages you to identify your priorities and values and live in alignment with them every day.
As a teacher, an artist, and a writer, my life’s purpose and work are built on my knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs). The three elements blend harmoniously to create competence – your ability to do something successfully or efficiently. Competence empowers you to exert control over your life, tackle challenges effectively, and change your behavior and environment. Competency is a key to opening opportunities in your personal and professional endeavors.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Defined
Knowledge
Knowledge is how well you know concepts and facts, the range of your information and understanding. It is information that you possess and can apply to perform a job, such as understanding policies and procedures or federal regulations. In an office, it might be knowing how to prepare a report. In an industry, you need more specific knowledge, such as in medicine, engineering, or aerospace. It is the process of gaining and incorporating new knowledge and information. It involved actively seeking knowledge through education, reading, research, training, and asking questions.
Bloom’s Taxonomy is a classification of the different levels of thinking or knowledge. It was developed to help teachers and students in the classroom. It is an excellent model for understanding how we think and acquire knowledge.
Bloom’s Taxonomy in education recognizes four types of knowledge: Factual Knowledge of terminology and details, Conceptual Knowledge of relationships among pieces of concepts or theories, Procedural Knowledge of processes and methods of theories and problems, and Metacognitive Knowledge of learning strategies and processes. There are six aspects of learning: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating.
Skills
Skills are proficiencies developed through practice and experience; knowing how to prepare a document professionally is a valuable skill. Examples of skills are public speaking, leadership, time management, and carpentry skills. Learning new skills requires deliberate practice and persistence. To master a skill, practice is critical. Experience builds competence. We also seek training and learning from others to develop our skills. Think of it as a commitment to lifelong learning.
The World Health Organization defines life skills as “the ability for adaptive and positive behavior that enables individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.” These include critical thinking, interpersonal/communication skills, and coping and self-management skills. Some skills, such as accounting, are complex, so identified as hard skills. They are specific and measurable and can be taught and assessed. Soft skills are difficult to measure, yet essential for a good life. Soft skills include a mix of social skills, interpersonal communication, know-how, and character traits that help one in their private, social, and professional lives.
These skills are usually clubbed into three major categories:
- Thinking skills (critical thinking, creative thinking, problem solving, decision making)
- Personal skills (self-awareness, self-management)
- Interpersonal skills (communication skills, empathy, cooperation)
101 Useful Skills to Develop and Why They’re Worth Knowing, by Indeed Editorial Team
Abilities
Where skills are learned, abilities represent your capacity to perform specific actions that enable you to express skills. Abilities are often innate or natural. For example, you may have a natural inclination to music. Playing an instrument might be your natural talent. Then a musician can set goals regarding this talent, to build on their skills. They practiced, studied, and practiced more. Examples of abilities are physical coordination, problem-solving, organization, adaptability, and emotional intelligence.
These three elements of knowledge, skills, and abilities work together to fully help us live our lives. Acquiring the proper blend of these elements is needed for success. As we determine our purpose, we need to set some goals for managing our KSAs and continuing growth.
Living intentionally requires slowing down, digging deep, and being mindful of your actions. The first step is to accept that life comprises choices. We can choose to connect with our beliefs, or we can choose to let others guide our decisions.
“It is never too late to be who you might have been.”
George Elliot
Being an intentional learner means investing time, energy, and maybe finances into skills and training that will create the future you desire.
As we go through life, we do not always know how to use the skills we are learning. Yet, we practice, practice, practice until we have mastered the skill. As we become adults, some skills are set on the back burner as we learn new skills. Life can take many paths, and we cannot predict which path we will end up on. We meet a new person, get a new job, and move to a new location, all change our trajectory.
My example is that as a child, I immersed myself in art. Art was a part of my everyday life; I drew or painted for hours and hours. I did not know that what I was doing was practicing, learning, and enforcing the skills. But I became exceptionally good at art. Practicing drawing and painting taught me patience, diligence, and clarity, which are the building blocks of vital skills as an artist. It all takes time.
The skills I cultivated as a young artist, evolved as I matured. I learned to plan, visualize outcomes, and mentally grasp three-dimensional spaces. Strategic thinking emerged – seeing patterns, envisioning flow. These skills seamlessly flowed into my work, hobbies, and adaptability to learn new ones.
Intentional living is about making conscious decisions about how you are living your life. Too often, people move through their days without a plan or being aware of the day. As in taking care of your body through exercise and nutrition, we must be mindful of our cognitive abilities. What goals can you set in your life? Improving your knowledge, skills, and abilities requires a proactive plan.
Strategies for Improving your KSAs
Read books, articles, and research materials related to your interest. We may do this for work, but do you study for your other life goals? The diversity of your sources will help you to gain a well-rounded perspective. Take a class or go to workshops or seminars; the internet provides classes and webinars. Or, as many of us know, you can learn just about anything from YouTube videos. We live in a culture where education is everywhere.
“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
Dr. Seuss
Practice deliberately. Consistent and deliberate practice is the cornerstone of skill improvement. Focus on mastering each step. The pattern of trying, failing, refining your approach, and trying again is the heart of building all behavior skills. Deliberate practice creates expertise.
Network and collaborate, interact with peers and mentors. Engage in discussions and attend conferences. Exposure to different viewpoints prompts idea exchange and can help you learn.
Practice regular reflection, which is a diagnostic skill that helps intentional learners evaluate themselves to determine their learning needs. It is a simple practice that can have a significant impact on your performance in many ways.
Mind the gap, take an inventory of your KSAs, who you are today, and what tools you need for tomorrow.
Conclusion
Being intentional means making deliberate choices to reflect on what is most important to us. These deliberate choices can help us maintain a positive outlook, reach goals, and experience more clarity. It also allows us to focus and commit to our lives, bringing us more purpose and meaning.
This is about resetting your perspective. When you live intentionally, you experience living in the moment; it is not about the past or necessarily the future; you are working on your life choices. Here and Now. You learn from the situations and experiences you are having now, knowing that you have the power to change. Yes, the future is important, but not Here and Now. We prepare for the future we want by being intentional Today.
Improvement takes time and effort. Perseverance and determination will get you there. There may be setbacks, but setting a goal and keeping your eye on the goal will help.
Being intentional is about adopting a mindset that you can deliberately enter into at any time. It creates an opportunity to live purposefully, guided by what is important to you. There is no one-size-fits-all.
Let’s set goals for knowledge, skills, and abilities.
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
Abraham Lincoln
Recommended Reading
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, by Carl Newport
Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, by Daniel Goleman
Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Kaniel Kahneman
Future Decider: 11 Ways On How To Improve Knowledge And Skills, by Sachin Ramdurg
What Are Skills? (With Tips on How to Improve Them), by Indeed Editorial Team
Citations
Photo by Manuel Nägeli on Unsplash
Photo by Jackson Films on Unsplash
Photo by Sean Oulashin on Unsplash