Life skills refer to a behavior development or behavior change intended to address a balance of attitude, knowledge, and skills. The skills enable one to deal effectively with life challenges, whether, at work, school or in your personal life thus deriving maximum benefits from life. They are normally associated with realizing and leading an improved quality of
life. Life skills help you to accomplish your ambitions and live your life to the fullest. Consequently, any useful skill qualifies to be a life skill.
Examples of life skills
- Money management skills; to manage money the right way, you must learn how to prepare and stick to a budget. This way, you will spend your money prudently.
- Professional etiquette; this involves knowing how to write good emails and conduct yourself in a professional setting. You should also know how to communicate appropriately.
- Time management; good time management is vital. This does nonetheless mean you need to work all the time. Set aside some time for leisure activities.
Importance of life skills
- Life skills help individuals recognize the effect of their actions. The skills enable people to take responsibility for their actions and desist from blaming others.
- They enable workers to come up with new ways of solving analyzing and problems. They then improve their workmanship and save time.
- Development of life skills promotes a greater sense of self-awareness as well as an appreciation of self and other people in the community.
- Self-awareness leads to high self-esteem because as people become aware of their potential and position in the community, they develop high self-respect.
- Life skills promote assertiveness (knowing what you need and taking the necessary steps to get it within a specific context). Listening to and valuing the opinion of others is a vital part of this quality.
- The skills empower individuals on how to cope with emotions like love, anger, fear, disgust, and desire to be accepted which are usually subjective and repulsive reactions to a situation.
- Promotes non-violent conflict resolution. Conflicts are inevitable and sometimes necessary. However, life skills ensure that the conflicts do not degenerate into violence.
- Build peer resistance, ability to stand up for your personal beliefs and values. When friends come up with undesirable suggestions, life skills enable an individual to stand firm.
- The skills ready one to cope with life stresses. Stress is unavoidable in life. Family problems, examination pressures and the demise of a loved one are all inevitable sources of stress.
- Facilitate effective communication. The skills impart people with listening skills and how to communicate in different ways.
- Life skills improve interpersonal relationships. As children grow up, they develop relationships with various people and it is prudent that they know how to react properly to different relationships.
- The skills enhance negotiation, which involves having the capacity to deal with the potential risk or life-threatening situations. One is able to state their position and develop mutual understanding.
- Life skills enable people to think critically. They teach children how to analyze critically their surroundings and the very many messages that come their way.
- Promote sound decision making. Every day we are confronted with situations that require us to make decisions. Life skills teach us how to weigh the consequences of the many options.
- The skills foster feelings of empathy. The feelings enable individuals to support people faced with severe problems to help them recover as soon as possible.
Conclusion
The fact human beings are a complex blend of skills, knowledge, power, and attitude means the right knowledge, attitude and skills are essential. People constantly interact with others, with the environment and as well as with their inner selves. As kids grow up and develop into adolescent and adulthood, they need life skills to enable them to handle themselves and the
environment appropriately.
By: Joni Kim
EdgeArticles 