Skills everyone should learn for a better quality of life

Skills everyone should learn for a better quality of life

As you navigate through life, there are things you need to be able to do by yourself in order to have a better quality of life. This is why we are sent to school; to learn those skills and lessons that will help us through life.

However, there are a number of people who do very well at school, but fail at life because they learnt to read and understand but didn't learn the skills needed to be street smart and to survive in this jungle we call our world.

Your education isn't complete if you are studying only to get degrees and be able to speak good grammar. Education is inclusive of learning the skills needed to make it through life.

Some of these skills can be learnt in the classroom but some are learnt through experience.

Below are some skills every human needs to learn in order to do well on their own.

1. Survival skills.

Survival skills consists of a number of sub-skills. These are all skills that equip you to stay alive and safe. Some survival skills we all need to learn are:

a. Cooking skills: Food remains one of our basic needs and it's imperative that everyone knows how to feed themselves to an extent. Sure, we have restaurants everywhere but it's important to learn this skill in case you find yourself in a situation where you have no other option but to feed yourself.

b. Swimming: Learning to swim is a survival skill that could come in handy and help save one's life.

c. Driving: You don't have to wait until you have a car or until you want to get a job as a driver to learn to drive. Driving is a survival skill that could save a life in an emergency.

Imagine you're in a car with someone else driving and the person suffers a heart attack in the middle of nowhere and needs to be rushed to the hospital. Or you're in a car driven by someone else and you're attacked and the person gets shot. Now, it's your responsibility to drive the car to escape your attackers, but you can't drive. I know, I watch lots of movies. But driving is an important skill everyone should learn.

d. First aid, CPR, and care for a sick or injured person: Most Nigerians do not know how to perform CPR. Most don't know what to do when a person is dying, choking, suffering a heart attack, convulsing, e.t.c.

People have died because those around them lacked the skills to help them when they were at their most vulnerable. It is important to learn these skills, if not for ourselves, then for those around us.

e. Wilderness survival skills: Read up on wilderness survival skills. Learn all you can about how to stay alive if you find yourself in the middle of nowhere with no immediate help. Learn how to make a fire without matches, how to stay safe till help comes, how to spot danger and avoid it, e.t.c.

2. Communication skills

No man is an island. You must relate with people around you for personal or professional reasons. To forge meaningful relationships and to manage conflicts in relationships, learning to communicate well is important.

The ability to communicate what you want out of life and out of relationships puts you one step closer to getting what you want. The ability to communicate properly also helps you avoid and resolve conflicts.

Knowing what to say and when to say it has helped save lives.

3. Interpersonal skills.

Interpersonal skills is all about learning how to relate with other humans.

When you have a good relationship with people around you, the quality of your life improves and doors are opened for you. We all need people, so we need to learn to relate well with the people around us.

4. Negotiation skills

Pretty much every aspect of life involves negotiation, even though most people don't notice. As children, we negotiate with our parents to get what we want. As students, we negotiate with our teachers. We negotiate with friends and then with business partners.

The ability to negotiate allows you get the best out of every situation. It allows you get what you want.

Some people dread negotiations and leave those negotiations feeling cheated, like they've shortchanged themselves. This is why it's important to learn negotiation skills.

5. At least one money-making skill

To be independent we must all learn at least one money making skill. It could be anything: Sewing, coding, flying a plane, whatever. Just learn a money-making skill, be the best you can be at it, then monetize it.

6. Finance skills.

Too many adults do not know how to manage their finances and that is something that needs to change.

This is why you see some celebrities and formerly rich people coming out years later to ask for help from the public, having lost all their wealth. We all need to learn about money and how to make the most of it.

Learn about investments, how to make your money work for you. Also learn about budgeting; what to spend, what to save, how to manage the money you have, how to make plans for future needs. e.t.c.

Do not forget to learn about taxing so you're not being taxed more than necessary.

Thanks to the internet, most skills can be learnt online. We live in a time where you can pay someone to do almost everything for you. You can pay for a cook, a driver, a personal nurse, a brand manager who handles your negotiations, PR who handles personal and corporate communications, a financial adviser e.t.c. But humans can fail you at any time. Therefore, it is important to learn these skills so that even when people fail, you can fall back on yourself.