Developing Core Life Skills
In life we are often asked to use, implement and exhibit many different types of skills and abilities, where I thought that it would be useful to compose a list of the most useful and versatile skills which anyone can learn and benefit from implementing into their life.
These skills are designed to be applicable and supportive to many aspects of your daily life and implementing these one by one is an assured way to get step by step closer to your idea of success. These skills do not only improve you as an individual, but also improve the effectiveness of your work abilities and quality of your relationships.
Happy reading :)
10 ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION:
Here “communication” here refers to both verbal and non verbal means of expressing yourself and your thoughts where communication as a skills allows for many other advantages:
Improved interpersonal relationships by showing trust and authenticity (Both private and work related relationships)
Improved time management by vocalizing your boundaries
Building more cohesive family connections
Improved organization within your personal life
Getting better at asking for help when you need it
Supporting a healthy self esteem
PROBLEM SOLVING ABILITIES
In life, there will always be problems and obstacles to overcome and provide solutions for. Because of this, the skill of problem solving and coming up with innovative solutions is a highly prized skill. The process of problem solving and understand the root cause of an issue or a potential solution is a highly rewarding and satisfying accomplishment, which is why developing this skill also enhances our self esteem.
Furthermore you are strengthening your intelligence and mental abilities by analyzing different points of information to see how they connect and effect each other, which further helps with the solving and understanding of a problem.
SELF AWARENESS
Self awareness is the process and ability to be aware of your own self, your character and personality, your strengths and weakness, your wants, desires and dislikes as well as your emotions and various behaviors you perform.
In this way, being good at self awareness means you have a good general overview of who you are as an individual and it allows you to continue assessing where you currently are and what you have to do in order to get to who your truly want to be.
Furthermore, people who are highly self aware are also better communicators, have a greater tendency to be natural leaders, have more adept listening skills and generally have been shown to have a higher level of emotional intelligence
DECISION MAKING
I have talked before about the importance of effective decision making and how to become better at this skill here. Good decision making has the ability to positively impact all aspects of your life: Ranging from your personal relationships, your health, your finances, your mindset, working abilities and many more
One of the main reasons why effective decision making is becoming harder and harder to practice is because we are living in a world with more possibilities and opportunities than ever which causes us “decision fatigue”. Additionally, the added factor of living in highly stimulating enviments filled with technology, makes it even harder to focus on the decision we want to make and properly evaluate it.
TIME MANAGEMENT
It is no surprise that time management has made it on to this list of top life skills, as time management is essential for anyone who wants to make the most out of their days and weeks and creating a life that is full of meaning to them.
The beauty of time management is that we all have the same amount of time to work with however most, if not all of this time is within our personal control to decide how to spend and use. In this way, becoming better at time management means that you are better suited to handle your most important and non negotiable deadline bound daily/ weekly/ monthly tasks while also finding time for yourself, for your friends and for your family - all of which are essential components of a fulfilling life.
Additionally, effective time management also means that in turn your stress levels are lower since you know that the way that you are currently spending your time is in line with your greater goals so there is no need to feel guilt or shame for any activity.
I have previously talked about time management and this blog post can be found here
STRESS MANAGEMENT
Life is also inevitably filled with stressful moment, some more, some less, but either way, we all experience stress in some form at some point in our lives. Being able to effectively cope with stress can be the difference of defeating your obstacles or giving up at your first challenge already.
This is why stress management is so important: Because it is inevitable and it allows us to endure during the hard moments which are most important for defining who we are.
If you are able to overcome those hard, stressful moments, then you have the ability to over come challenges, setbacks and ultimately be much more equipped for reaching your personal goals.
Being good at stress management also means being good at managing your emotions as the two are highly inner connected.
If you want to learn more about how to effectively combat stressful emotions, I have written about this topic previously here
CREATIVITY
Creativity is a skill that is becoming ever more appreciated and searched for as being creative differentiates you and makes you unique from others which makes any of your work infinitely more valuable and original to you.
Creativity in this sense does not only refer to creative subjects such as art, music, poetry etc. but is also referring to creative and different ways of thinking, posing new perspectives and questions, finding new ways of doing things and becoming more flexible with a hobby or occupation.
Furthermore creativity also greatly helps with developing problem solving abilities by encouraging “out of the box” thinking, which we have discussed before.
CULTIVATING EMPATHY
Empathy is another essential life skill, although sometimes its power is under appreciated. Being empathetical means that you are good at empathizing with others, meaning that you excel at showing compassion and feelings of understanding to others. Empathy means you show support to anyone who is struggling with something or going through a difficult time and checking in with the people in your life.
A skill such as empathy is not only limited to close personal relationships but is also worthwhile to pursue in the case of people we may not necessarily be very close to or other colleagues at work, as showing empathy is a great way to make new social connections.
In order to be empathetical you have to first have a desire for wanting to care about the emotions and well being of others around you. Empathy has to be genuine as other wise it is much harder to build general trust with the person and in turn makes it harder for them to open up - Overall limiting you from building a healthy relationship.
LEADERSHIP
Leadership is another skill which tends to be under appreciated and also under practiced because a lot of people believe that some people are just natural leaders and others are more suited as followers. I think this thinking is false because your leadership skills can be developed as long as you have the desire to improve on them and also put in the work.
Leadership is not just about leading and learning to take control but is also heavily based on motivating, inspiring and empowering the lives and mindsets of others. As a leader it is your responsibility to see the good in the people around you and encouraging them to realize that part of themselves and in that way becoming the best version of themselves.
Leadership abilities additionally help with boosting your confidence, clarifying your communication with others and building a strong sense of character and trust with those around you.
CRITICAL THINKING
Critical thinking is about learning to think for yourself, instead of always following what everyone else says. It is about assessing your beliefs and your understanding of the workings of this world and seeing how this understanding could be flawed or made more objectively close to the real correct truth.
Critical thinking is not only essential for analyzing your thoughts, emotions and behaviors but is also a key component of making good decisions, taking control of your mood and emotions as well as becoming a generally well informed individual among such a variety of available information.
🧠 KEY IDEAS
The 10 key life skills which we have discussed today include:
Communication
Problem solving
Self awareness
Decision making
Time management
Stress management
Creativity
Empathy
Leadership
Critical thinking
✏️ REFERENCES
Copyright skillsyouneed.com 2011-2023. (n.d.). 10 Core Life Skills to Learn and Master | SkillsYouNeed. https://www.skillsyouneed.com/rhubarb/core-life-skills.html
Vij, R. (2022). WHO’s 10 Core Life Skills & Why We Teach Them. NutSpace. https://nutspace.in/10-core-life-skills/
