Author: József Marton, adult education expert

The term “life skills” refers to any skill that is useful in life. Based on individual life situations, everyone may have a different list of skills that they consider most important in their life. However, the 10 essential life skills identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) are necessary to cope efficiently with the challenges of life in all life situations: self-awareness, empathy, critical thinking, creative thinking, decision-making, problem solving, efficient communication and the ability to manage interpersonal relationships, stress and emotions. These skills are presented in this article in more detail, so that by consciously developing our basic life skills, we can better understand the world around us and equip ourselves with the tools that are needed to live a more productive and complete life. 

It is not possible to prepare a definitive list of life skills. Certain skills may be more important to us depending on our life circumstances, culture, beliefs, age, geographical location. When we go to school, learning skills will be the most needed. These may include skills to organise learning, but we will also need literacy and numeracy skills more than in other life situations. Our employability skills are more important when we are looking for a job. Moreover, we also need to think about how to apply for a job and how best to perform in a job interview. If we are given a leadership role at work, we may also need to develop our leadership skills. When we start a family, our parenting skills will be needed to a greater extent. However, the basic life skills identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) are needed in all life situations so as to be able to cope well and efficiently with the challenges of adult life. 

Decision-making 

Decision-making and problem solving are key activities in our daily lives. Whatever we do and wherever we are, we face countless decisions and problems, big and small, every day. By developing the skills to make the best decisions in different situations, we can avoid decision situations becoming overwhelming. 

Creative thinking 

This ability allows us to think about problems in innovative and unusual ways, and to find new solutions or generate new ideas. A close link can be identified with the ability to properly assess information and understand its relevance.

Communication 

Throughout our lives, we need to communicate and interact with other people on a regular basis. Effective communication is unconceivable without careful attention and appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication. In any communication situation, there are many barriers to effective communication. These can lead to misunderstanding or even conflict. 

We often communicate in writing – through letters, emails, reports, text messages, social networking channels. The ability to write in a comprehensible and concise manner is a very effective way to communicate. It is also important to pay attention to improving our written communication skills. 

Self-awareness 

Self-awareness includes emotional awareness, realistic self-assessment and adequate self-confidence. Effective self-assessment of our emotions helps to improve our self-confidence and self-esteem.

Emotion management

It is a manifestation of emotional intelligence. Conscious emotion management is the ability to be aware of and understand our emotions as they emerge and develop. It is wrong to think of emotions as positive or negative. Instead, we should think of them as appropriate or inappropriate. Related skills are assertiveness and self-command or self-control. These are the skills needed to stand up for ourselves and others, and to remain calm even in the face of significant provocation.

Problem solving 

In our lives, we often encounter situations and tasks for which we do not know the solution immediately. We have to constantly adapt to new situations, different alternatives come to the fore, and we have to reflect on the option to choose as a solution. Skills related to problem solving include risk-taking, reasoning and choosing the best option, but also resilience and the ability to recover from failure. It is important to see problem management as an opportunity to learn and gain experience.

Critical thinking 

Critical thinking can be a great help in everyday life when we need to process a lot of information as efficiently as possible when making a major decision. Critical thinking is the ability to analyse and assess information related to a given topic, trying to clarify the veracity of the information and possible external biases.

Interpersonal skills 

Good interpersonal skills “lubricate” interactions between people, making them more pleasant for all concerned, so that we can build better and more lasting relationships at home and at work. These include the ability to communicate, understand emotions, manage one's own and others' emotions, as well as the ability to manage conflicts, persuade and cooperate. Good interpersonal skills are the basis for developing good working and social relationships, as well as many other skills areas. 

These are the skills we use to interact with other people and therefore constitute an important part of our everyday lives. 

Empathy

Empathy is understanding the needs and feelings of others. Empathy helps us to better understand the situation of others. To develop empathy, we need to learn to understand the verbal and non-verbal messages of others, including body language, gestures and signs of emotional expression. We need to ask good questions to learn more about others and how they feel, and to request feedback in order to clarify whether they have understood our feelings properly. We must respect the feelings of others, even if we disagree with them, just as we must avoid making judgmental, dismissive comments or statements.

Stress management 

The ability to manage stress must also be considered as a basic life skill. Understanding stress, identifying the potential root causes (in ourselves and others), symptoms and methods for managing these emotions may greatly improve the quality of our lives. 

It is generally accepted that a small amount of stress may help us to act efficiently and generates a kind of motivation. However, when most people talk about stress, they mean “excessive stress”. Stress triggers a number of hormonal responses in the body, including a rise in adrenaline levels. It also affects how we react to other people and therefore our interpersonal relationships. It is important to learn to identify the root causes of stress and to find efficient methods for managing it.

By learning and developing life skills, we can better understand the world around us and can more easily find ways to cope with the challenges that life inevitably brings. Most of us associate learning with formal education, but learning is and should be a lifelong process that improves our understanding of the world and the quality of our lives.

Life skills development is part of formal, informal and non-formal education of adults. The development of life skills is based on a learner-centred, activity-oriented methodology; it is about modelling the use of skills in the context of the activities of adults. The methods used in practising activities and skills include group work, brainstorming, roleplay and discussions. The pedagogy of life skills education is therefore based on cooperative learning, participatory activities and experiential learning. 

Life skills development should be addressed in the context of holistic health and social issues. Understanding relationships, social influences on behaviour, rights and responsibilities, as well as the interconnection of health problems should be examined together. 

More information: 

https://www.skillsyouneed.com/general/life-skills.html