Without a doubt, life skills help in the overall development of an individual, and to grow in life you must learn these 10 essential life skills which will help you immensely in your life.
Let us find out what those 10 essential life skills.
What are life skills?
Life skills are those skills that enable individuals to adapt and cope with the demands and challenges of life. Every individual may have a list of the skills they consider most essential in life and want to improve them for a better career.
The 10 essential life skills are:
- Coping with emotions.
- Communication skills.
- Creative thinking.
- Critical thinking.
- Decision-making skills.
- Empathy.
- Interpersonal skills.
- Problem-solving skills.
- Self-awareness.
- Stress management.
Why do you need to learn life skills?
Life skills are very important to all of us. Without it, we will fail in life. We cannot measure the significance of the below discussed 10 essential life skills for us in our life.
However, for your better understanding, I will put down a few key points which will help you understand why you need to learn life skills and why skills are the demand of future
- It helps you to develop self-confidence and successfully deal with significant life changes.
- It enables you to contribute positively to yours and others’ lives by developing expertise and experience.
- It will help you understand and analyze every situation and come up with the right solution.
- It will help you in your professional and personal growth
- Life skills are not just one skill, but a combination of several skills that are very important to us for our overall development.
10 Essential Life Skills You Need
There are many life skills an individual can have or learn, however, WHO has laid down the top 10 essential life skills which everyone must learn for their better life.
Also read- 7 Best Tips for Good Mental Health During COVID-19
I have listed down 10 essential life skills below:
1. Creative Thinking
Creative thinking means thinking outside the box. It is the ability to think realistically and understand the logic between ideas.
Learning how to be creative is very important, as critical thinking will help you identify, analyze, and systematically solve problems. This will also help individuals and organizations to be more productive.
In today’s era, Creative thinkers are highly valued and according to research The Creative Group revealed the top areas for creative hiring which are
- Creative development
- Digital marketing
- Social media marketing strategy
- User interface and interaction design
- Web and mobile development
- Visual design
2. Critical Thinking
Critical thinking skills are the ability to analyze information and experiences objectively. This skill can contribute to our personal development and growth by helping us identify and assess the factors that influence attitudes and behavior, such as values, peer pressure, and the media.
3. Decision Making
Decision-making is a life skill essential for making decisions in our lives. It teaches us how to make decisions depending on the situation and current conditions.
You can learn how to be good at decision-making skills and with the help of this skill you can make decisions effectively
Decision-making skills include creative thinking, focus, prioritization, and time-management.
There is a step-by-step decision-making process that can help you make more thoughtful and relevant decisions. This method increases the chances that you will make the right decision.
The steps are as follows:
- Identify the decision
- Gather relevant information
- Identify the alternatives
- Weigh the evidence
- Choose among alternatives
- Take action
- Review your decision and its consequences
4. Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand and care about other people’s needs, desires, and feelings. Empathy plays a very important role while we communicate with others, without empathy our communication will be one-way traffic.
Empathy can help us accept others, who may differ from ourselves. This life skill will help you improve social interactions, especially in situations of ethnic or cultural diversity.
5. Communication Skills
Among the 10 essential life skills, communication skill is the most important. It helps us to express ourselves, both verbally and non-verbally. These skills help us express our opinions and desires. The ability to communicate efficiently is vital in all areas of life.
You need to communicate not only verbally but also through writing and even body language. You need to improve communication skills which include:
- Active listening
- Public speaking
- Verbal communication
- Written communication
Your good communication skills will help you grow in life. And to be an excellent communicator, you don’t need to be excellent with your English speaking.
Because communication skills and English communication skills are different. And you can learn both these skills and improve with proper communication skills training.
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6. Stress Management
Wrong beliefs like “I am not good enough” or “Something is wrong with me” cause up to 90% of all illnesses and diseases.
Scientific studies have established that stress is the core factor in physical, mental, and emotional illnesses.
Effective stress management will help you to be more productive and happier. The goal is to have a balanced life, with time for work, relationships, and fun. And therefore learning how to manage stress is one of the key life skills which you need to learn.
7. Coping With Emotions
Our feelings are an indicator of our wellbeing. Developing this life skill will help you eliminate negative thinking and bring in positive vibes. This can be a dramatically life-changing skill, which you must learn.
8. Interpersonal Skills
Interpersonal skills are those skills we use every day when we interact with people. This skill helps us to connect with the people we interact with and also helps us in our day-to-day life.
Some people are born with such skills, however, every one of us can learn to improve and hone these skills with proper practice. Teamwork, Communication, empathy, Negotiation skills, and decision-making skills are part of interpersonal skills that are worth practicing.
9. Problem-Solving Skills
Problem-solving skills are a key life skill which helps us to deal with problems which we have in our lives quickly and effectively. Significant unresolved problems may cause mental stress and give rise to physical strain and depression.
There are 5 steps which we use in problem-solving and those are:
- Analyze the problem
- Generate Interventions
- Evaluate Solutions
- Implement a Plan
- Assess the Solution’s Effectiveness
10. Self-Awareness
Self-awareness or self-actualization is a skill that helps us to do self-analysis. It helps us find and know our strengths, weaknesses, and character.
Developing the last of 10 essential life skills will help us recognize when we are stressed or under pressure. It is often a prerequisite to effective communication and interpersonal relations, and for developing empathy with others.
Why teach life skills?
Life skills help us in many ways. We use different life skills every day like communication skills, teamwork, creativity, stress management, emotional intelligence, and many more. There are also a few life skills which help us earn money.
Life skills are important for the promotion of healthy life development; it also helps to prepare young people for the changing social circumstances.
In everyday life, the development of life skills helps individuals to:
- Develop a sense of self-awareness.
- Do the situational analysis and make decisions
- Find alternative ways of thinking and problem solving
- Build confidence
Conclusion
Along with soft skills and hard skills, life skills are very important and we cannot deny it. The impact of skill education on your life is immense. Life skills have several skills in it.
In the above article, I have mentioned 10 essential life skills which are very important and you must learn them.
I hope you liked the article. If I have missed an essential life skill? Just drop a comment and let us know what you feel is important for the development of an individual and which skills can be added to the list of 10 essential life skills.
