“Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability. We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.” - Thomas Edison

We all know that life is full of uncertainties and we should be prepared for anything as you never know when things would change for you. Sometimes this change may bring new opportunities and sometimes it may bring new challenges to face. But we can sometimes feel unequipped to handle the situations in front of us. To prepare for a better future and to be able to handle the uncertainties of life, we all should practice and get equipped with basic life skills. UNICEF defines life skills as “psycho-social abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.” So basically, the skills you need to make the most out of life can be considered a life skill. These skills include planning, focus, self-control, awareness, adaptability, and flexibility towards the different situations in life. We can all learn these over time as no one is born with these. Although it’s much easier to learn core life skills when you start learning them at an early age, it’s also never too late. It can also be understood that everyone may potentially have a different list of the skills they consider as life skills but some basic skills are necessary for everyone and should be learnt by all. Some of the basic skills are as follows:

Self-management and discipline: In order to survive it is crucial to take care of yourself and manage things around you. Self-management is defined as the ability to successfully control one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviour. This allows us to effectively manage stress, show self-discipline, and take the initiative. It helps a person to set up goals and comes up with a plan of action for achieving those goals. With managing our emotions it is also essential that we take care of other aspects like our physical health. Taking care of yourself means making healthy choices, scheduling and keeping your health care appointments, eating healthily and exercise regularly. Getting enough sleep, eating well and living an active lifestyle can positively impact your mood and behaviour. By following some simple steps you can manage both your mental and physical health. This is one basic skill which all should learn and teach to your younger ones also.

Interpersonal skills: Aristotle the legendary Greek philosopher said, “Man is by nature a social animal.” The need to seek and maintain interpersonal relationships is a basic need of all human beings and for that, you need to learn and develop your interpersonal skills. Good interpersonal skills also allow us to have meaningful relationships with other people leading to greater self-confidence. It is important to keep interacting with people around us to understand them better and develop our social skills. It also helps you to learn other skills like conflict management, collaboration, etc. Communication skill is one of the key skills required to develop interpersonal relationships and make others understand you. You should learn how to communicate better to express yourself in front of others, listen to the thoughts and opinions of other people, try reaching out to people when they need support, etc. to develop interpersonal skills.

Cleaning and organizing home: Our living surroundings matter a lot as it impacts the quality of life and our immediate surroundings are our homes. There are a  lot of efforts that go into managing a home and at some point in our life, we all will realize this. It doesn’t matter what path you take in life, you will still need to know the basics of managing and organizing things at home. It might seem like a big task if you have never done it but you can start small by just keeping your room clean, making your bed, and making sure that everything is in its right place. You can keep a daily calendar which will help in managing time. Nowadays when everything is going online you also need to organize a lot of accounts, their passwords, and important documents in a safe place for reference.

Grocery shopping and cooking: While managing and organizing your life there is one more basic skill which everyone should know and that is getting groceries and cooking meals for yourself. Learning what to buy (essential commodities) and how to cook is a must. If you’re not a big fan of the kitchen, you should at least learn to cook a few dishes which require low efforts. One should also learn about the concept of comparative shopping where you compare the prices of products and choose cheaper options sometimes. This will help in the regulation of the budget as well. Also, while shopping is conscious of your needs and wants. 

Managing money: The ability to budget and be financially responsible is vital to survive and is quite a basic one among life skills.  It is crucial that you should have more money coming in than going out. Once you have some money coming in you start creating budgets for all your expenses. While managing finances you should be able to anticipate major costs in the near future and keep some finance aside as an emergency fund in order to be ready for any unexpected situation.  You should be careful about the money you are spending and respect its value.

The Good Life is about finding satisfaction and happiness. It’s about simplifying and focusing on the genuine and true things in life that make a person happy, including the most important: family, friends, and other relationships. For a happy life, we need to focus on developing basic life skills to prepare ourselves to face different situations and understand how to get the best from our life. Let’s focus on educating ourselves and consciously think about the steps we take. 

Small steps to a happy life!!