Importance of Life Skills

Every person in this world must have a skill and by using that skill he/she is living. To become successful we need some life skills, without skills we are able to live. God has gifted one skill to every person living in this world. In this article, I will tell you how much skills are important and why?

What is Life?

If we are asked what life is, we could not easily give a good definition. For thousands of years, people have been trying to provide a comprehensive answer to this question. The discovery made by NASA, a life form based on arsenic, could extend the concept of life.

“We don’t have a perfect definition of life,” says researcher John Voigt of the University of California, quoted by Live Science. He works in the field of synthetic biology.

“What we call life is too abstract, and we cannot say exactly what is the demarcation line between life and its absence, regarding the presence of the necessary elements,” he added.

The first who tried to define life is the ancient philosopher Aristotle. He states that life is something that appears, develops itself, and reproduces itself. In 1944, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger defined life as something that resists degradation.

It is a definition that is related to the second law of thermodynamics, which states that closed systems naturally acquire entropy or disorder over time. For example, a young man’s room would become dirtier and dirtier if his mother did not regularly clean it.

We absorb nutrients and metabolizing them; living beings can counteract this tendency of degradation. But how could we say that, for example, crystals are alive? Because they take energy and create order when developing specific particle structures.

Can we say that life is what can be reproduced? Then, from this point of view, the cats, which are born sterile, do not represent life. Also, from this point of view, a fire would be defined as life. If we say that life is what can metabolize, then machines can be considered alive, because they also develop a similar process.

More and more researchers say that we need a solid definition of life. Until we find a good description of the experience, we will not be able to define even the presence of extraterrestrial origin.

In 2004, Chris McKay, a NASA researcher, wrote that “The simplest list of what life needs is composed of energy, carbon, liquid water and a few other elements such as nitrogen and phosphorus.”

What are Life Skills?

What are life skills? The term is defined individually. According to WHO, these are skills that enable a person to have positive adaptive behaviors, thanks to which they can adequately cope with tasks (requirements) and difficulties of everyday life. This term refers to psychosocial skills (competencies). It does not include expertise in the “physical” aspect of human functioning as well as trained and living skills that complement life skills.

There is also a difference between talents and social characteristics. Features include, for example, self-esteem, responsibility, honesty. These features can be developed or established in the process of getting life skills.

In the world, there are around 7,000 million people, each one of them with their essential characteristics and particularities, with their opinions and feelings. There is no one person equal to another. Therefore, it would be logical to think that, given the variety of population that exists, if we were not endowed with a series of skills that enable us to relate to others, the confusion in our society would dominate.

Types of life skills

The types of skills required for a person to function well in life and the authority of their importance depend on many demographic, social, and cultural factors. For health promotion and primary prevention, WHO distinguishes two skill groups:

Basic skills for everyday life, allowing well-being, interpersonal relations, and health-promoting behaviors. Among them are ten skills, combined in 5 categories containing many “specific” skills:

Decision making and problem-solving (including searching for alternatives, risk assessment, obtaining and assessing information, assessing the consequences of actions and behavior, setting goals, etc.). Creative thinking and critical thinking. Effective communication and maintaining good interpersonal relations (e.g. active listening, transferring and receiving feedback, verbal and non-verbal communication, assertiveness, ability to negotiate, conflict resolution, cooperation, teamwork). Self-awareness and empathy (e.g. self-assessment, identification of own strengths and weaknesses, positive thinking, building self-image and body image, self-education). Coping with emotions, and managing stress (including self-control, dealing with pressure, anxiety, stressful situations, seeking help, managing time).

Specific skills are enabling coping with threats, e.g., assertive refusal of drug use, sexual intercourse, participation in acts of violence, vandalism, etc. They are developed in conjunction with the abovementioned basic skills.

There are other ideas for sharing life skills (e.g., social, cognitive, and emotional coping skills). Regardless of the adopted division criterion, all abilities are interrelated, and it is difficult to classify them into a given category.

Why is it important to develop life skills?

People need different skills in all periods of their lives to meet the many trials and difficulties in a rapidly changing world. Developing these skills is especially important in childhood and youth because it promotes:

proper psychosocial development, implementation of development tasks, and meeting needs;

preparation for life, dealing with difficulties;

primary prevention of many health and social problems.

The need to shape these skills in children and adolescents is justified, among others, by the vast dynamics of political, demographic, social, and economic changes in the modern world (also hindering the growing up of young people). And the persistent increase in the frequency of problem behaviors (smoking, drinking alcohol, using other psychoactive substances, early sexual initiation and risky sexual behavior, violence) and their coexistence (risky behavior syndrome).

An approach focused on developing life skills

The need to shape life skills in children and young people is not something new, because “parents” always “taught” life “to their offspring and supported them in this school.

A new element of the concept proposed by WHO is the inclusion of life skills education in the essential tasks of the school as an essential element of its entire program, linked to the everyday life of the school. This is defined as an approach aimed at developing a life skills approach). It means an interactive process of teaching and learning, which consists in acquiring knowledge, shaping attitudes and skills.

Thanks to which a young person takes greater liability for his life by making healthy life choices, higher resistance to adverse impacts and pressure from others, and avoiding behavior risky to health. This approach can be described as an excellent educational methodology, not limited to providing information, but maintaining a balance between the three components: knowledge – attitudes and values ​​- skills.

The results of many studies indicate that the effect of life skills improvement programs is better functioning of children and young people at school. It was found, among others improving student-teacher relationships, reducing school desertion, increasing students’ confidence in themselves, greater student satisfaction from school, and teachers from work. It has also been shown that the implementation of these programs and the use of materials prepared by teachers for them has a positive effect on changing their teaching style.

Prevention of health and social problems

It is assumed that thanks to life skills, a person can more easily “translate” knowledge, attitudes, and values ​​into action (i.e. “knows what to do and how to do it”) and can behave in a way that improves health. However, it should be emphasized that these skills are not a cure for a healthy lifestyle. Whether a person uses these skills depends on many other factors (such as social support, cultural, and environmental circumstances) that affect motivation and the ability to behave in a way that prevents health problems.

The theoretical model of the effects of education in the field of life skills assumes that the main impact of this education should be pro-health and pro-social behavior. Achieving this effect is preceded by developing psychological well-being and the emergence of new skills and behavioral intentions (and Behavioral preparedness ).

Achieving a given level of impact depends on the duration of education (intervention). With short-term programs (several weeks), you can perform a temporary improvement in mental well-being. The response of several months usually leads to the second level of effects. Significant and relatively lasting, beneficial changes in health and social behavior can be expected when the intervention lasts for many years.

Shaping life skills is the basis for many school prevention programs, including the use of psychoactive substances, HIV / AIDS, violence, suicide, and accidents. However, there are clear differences between these programs and the overall approach aimed at developing life skills at school, as illustrated in the table below.

Life skills for adults are assumed to fuel that powers life; without the ability to endure and rise, it would be difficult to lead a fruitful life. Everyday living requires people to complete specific tasks; it is a real character, rational, and they are related to a person’s quality of life.

People with disabilities learn, from the time when they are younger, a way to work within their natural and highbrow talents. This means two conditions that many people of different levels of ability to learn to understand: Requite and change. When this is achieved, this is the beginning of the transformation from childhood to adulthood.

A skill that is essential or desirable for full assistance in everyday life. Parting with a sibling can help kids learn valuable life skills.

Honestly, life is what we make of it. We all wish to live our lives without any regulations. But we have carried off with experience. Stability can be a significant part of being an individual being. It defines who you are, and you’re capable of carrying yourself. So, if you are at beck and call to make your life values everything that you had intended for, then miss out on considerate and significant life skills?

There is a much more apt notion of “life skills” in English. We can interpret them as life skills. All of these are the skills that help us cope and live a fuller, more fruitful life. The term”life skills” is apt, simple, and more transparent for those who don’t know the distinction between soft and hard skills.

The list includes many skills like Empathy, Emotional intelligence, Introspection, Concentration, Creativity and creative thinking, Critical Thinking, Meditation, etc.

There are some skills in life that everyone seems to know. But, at what point did they learn how to do that? Trust me; you’re not alone people weren’t born knowing how to take care of themselves. Some of these may seem crazy or straightforward, but you’d be astonished by how many students need help with the most basic life skills. I’m not trying to insult your mentality – you’re a smart, proficient student.

However, it’s lightly distressing how many students leave the nest without the most basic facts of day-to-day life because they’ve always relied on parents to take care of things.

Life skills activities are the activities that are usually carried out at home, such as: Helps put dirty clothes in the laundry basket/washing machine, remove clothes from the washing machine, separate clothes according to color, help to dry clothes, help cooking, help weed vegetables, wear clothes, socks, shoes, sandals themselves, etc.

Just because the teenager is 18 doesn’t mean he’s ready to move out of the house and live alone. If you have not learned the skills you need to live in the real world, there is an excellent opportunity you will try to be independent.

Many teenagers become “ boomerang children ” because they have no essential life skills. They are trying to pass without the economic, physical, and emotional support of their parents.

Knowledge and Essential Skills are critical because they are the very skills that are used in the workplace and everyday life. By evaluating your abilities and matching them to the skills needed in a particular job, you can recognize your level of “job readiness” and what you need to do to ready yourself for your job goal.

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