For the purpose of upholding a standard across society, a set of qualifications is often established. If you want to obtain qualified status, you must successfully complete each of the verifiable tasks and those are then validated for you. If you don’t meet the standards, you don’t qualify.

Not to diminish the importance of established standards, but being qualified doesn’t inherently equate with being fully competent. The person with the lowest passing grade holds the same standard qualification as the one with the highest grade.

Beyond established qualifications are the real experiences and lessons to be learned in order to grow the level of competence. These experiences are largely applied learning opportunities for the qualified to again improve and to evolve on their way to excellence.

A problem is that these applied experiences and lessons learned are largely unmeasurable. Competence beyond the fixed standards is complicated to grade. The doctor with the lowest passing grade may have become the best possible surgeon for your specific surgery. They may have moved well beyond the standardized acquisition of knowledge to have applied it to their craft with greater mastery than any other.

Be cautious of evaluating by qualifications only. Focus to discover more of established and earned competencies. Also, evaluate and discover for yourself in your endeavors to apply knowledge to attain excellence rather than simply settle with being qualified. This is why we continue to learn as individuals with others for our life’s purpose, all is not attained in the standard qualifications set and approved for the masses.

“In action, a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.” — Arthur Schopenhauer —

MITM #944