BUILDING YOUR NICHE CAPACITIES
By Seun Adeogun

At creation, God created man as a whole and an indivisible creature. In this sense, man is wired connectively with the whole part of him functioning with effort from the different parts that makes him. By nature, man’s effectiveness arises from the unified function of the different but indivisible part he is made of.

This piece x-rays the fragmented but indivisible parts of human and how they all have to function effectively to helping you to becoming the best of what makes you unique amongst other fellow men, standing-out from the crowd.

One of the most influential leaders ever existed by name Mahatma Gandhi once said “one man can’t do right in one department of life while he is occupied in doing wrong in every other department, life is one indivisible whole”. Developing your niche capacities is an antidote to living a balance and effective life. Life itself is an indivisible whole; you don’t expect living the most of a particular aspect of your life at the detriment of the other equally cogent areas of your life. Every areas of your life go hand in hand. You can’t be a champion outside while being a looser at home front. You can’t excel spiritually without it reflecting in other Areas of your being.

Man is said to have been made up of three essential elements: Spirit, Soul and Body. You can put simply man is a spirit that owns a mind (soul) that lives in a body. How else can we describe how we are made? Philosophers, scientist and theologians have proven this to be a concise definition of man. It should be equally noted that God created man’s whole system to harmonize the divisible parts towards an effective functioning of the whole.

 SPIRIT
Spiritual Competence: man’s spirit is the site of his supernatural consciousness. It is where his, moral boundaries and authority lies.in the words of George Lovimer, “at the back of every noble life there are principles that have fashioned it”. The spiritual nature of man is a long standing discourse that has attracted positions from scientist, philosopher, theologians and psychologist all over the world.

Your spiritual competency is the central and the most underlying of all other human competencies. It guides and supervises the others. In it resides the power and ability to connect with the world beyond, the controlling forces, the supernatural and the metaphysical realm. The mystery of existence is hunched on the spiritual competency. It is somewhat superior to the other three competencies. Herein lays your ability to discover yourself, understand the essence of life, develop a meaningful character trait, and expose to supernatural inspiration, live a life of contribution guided with principles, conscience and moral values.

 SOUL
Man’s soul has two basic parts which are the Mind and The Heart.
Mental Competence: The most essential of all gifts of man is the ability of the mind to comprehend process and reassess thoughts. The mind is the centre of thinking and rationality. Great inventions and developments and ideas came from the man’s mind. The Mind is the seat of Mental Intelligence. It has the power to envision, be curiosity and acquire Knowledge.

Your niche value is either energized or paralyze by what you allow in your mind. It is said that life moves in the direction of our greatest thoughts. Just as it were: Bad thoughts produces bad fruit and vice versa. Your mind is like the motherboard of a computer. Information is exchange herein. You develop your mind by making necessary efforts in accessing the right information that has the potency to help you experience transformation when applied. Remember you are what you think. You have to feed your meaningful information and knowledge. In this regard you will have to keep learning and updating your mind from time to time. The degree of a man’s development of his mind determines the value placed on it. If you will have to go thus ahead with your niche then you will have to stretch your mind and use your imagination to pace your destination.

Emotional Competency: The Heart is the seat of Emotional Intelligence. In it lies Passion, Empathy and sympathy. It’s often said that there is no success without relationships. Your ability to build up positive relationships is largely determined by your understanding of how people feel. The heart is the center of our emotions. It’s where true love resides. It is emotional love that makes you respond when you come in contact with the hungry, less privilege, the poor and feel their plights. Emotions is derived from the Latin word ‘Movere’ meaning – to be moved or move. It is an action word’. You can either be moved by something positively or negatively. Negative emotions can lead to lust and hate while positive can lead to compassion and love selfishly or selflessly. The degree of love, understanding and respect you place on yourself relatively determines the amount of love, understanding and respect you show to others.

One of my teachers observes that the biggest of all regrets people have are often the mistake made while dealing with people and in relationships. Emotional competency has been said to be the more accurate determinant of successful communications, relationship and leadership than the widely believe mental competency. The commitment to other people needs with love makes world a better place to live. Social and emotional sensitivity is cogent to riding high with your niche.

 BODY
Physical Competence: Your physical capacity has to do with your well-being (health) meaningful survival, personal discipline and financial management skills. This is centered on managing yourself efficiently and effectively. The body reflects all other competencies. It is the center of activity. All what goes around in the other three competencies is fully executed by the body. An author once said “the body is a good servant but a bad master”. According to the Greek self-mastery formula, a man should know himself, control himself and give himself. It is also said that the greatest victory of man is the victory over oneself. Your ability to control and discipline your body is a priority that should not be traded for anything else. Your appetites, passions and desires must align with your spirit (conscience), soul (mental and emotional activities) to create a balance when all goes on well the first three competencies it reflects in the body. A sound body is said to be an evidence of a sound mind.

In the words of Don Childe and Bruce Cryer, “the inability to manage one efficiently leads to premature aging, diminished mental capacity and even blocks access to our innate intelligences. The converse is also true. Increasing internal coherence leads to more efficiency in all physiological systems and greater creativity, adaptability and flexibility”. Likewise Dr. Stephen covey in one of his bestseller posits that three main components need to be developed in line with man’s physical intelligence: 1. Wise Nutrition 2. Consistent balance & exercise 3. Proper rest, relaxation, stress management and prevention thinking.

Ill health can disturb you from enjoying the fruition of your niche efforts. The earlier you start bringing your body to constant check the better for you. Work kills and work heals. What you do with your body either prevent it or expose it to diseases and illness. When a terminal infection strikes, all purpose and vision would reduce to nothing. Your body is your passport and visa for existence amongst men, therefore watch your habits.

Making every meaningful and legitimate effort to build your niche capacities is very essential and paramount to becoming the best of you. The identified competencies are our native intelligences that require our effort to develop.

One interesting view about the aforementioned competencies is that one (without the others) alone can’t determine our route to successful living. All the four work interdependently. Harnessing this overlapping four basic competences that emanate from the three basic dimension of man as identified in this piece leads to a more balanced and integrated life. May I conclude with the words of Mother Theresa which states, “The fruit of silence is prayer (spirit).the fruit of prayer is faith (soul-mind). The fruit of faith is love (soul-emotion). The fruit of love is service (body) and the fruit of service is peace (spirit, soul & body).



Seun is a PR/ strategic communications analyst. He is a blogger and he has written a number of reflective articles on PR, Personality Branding, Political communications and Human Capacity Development. He resides in Lagos, Nigeria. For comments, leave comments on space provided or send a mail to: luseunbravura@gmail.com . Please visit www.reputationalmatters.blospot.com for more articles.