LifeSkills

Coaching & Personal Development

The term ‘lifeskills’ is described as a set of basic skills learned to deal with the demands and challenges of life, especially in social or emotional situations. There is not a definitive list of life skills to be learnt as everyone will potentially have a different list of the skills they consider important and others they consider not so important for their life.

While lifeskills may seem common to most people, often they are not learned correctly by individuals who have experienced distressing life events such as homelessness, neglect or addiction.

Learning new lifeskills should be a lifelong process that enhances your understanding of the world and help you to maintain a healthy mind and body.

The World Health Organisation identified six key areas of Lifeskills:

Communication and interpersonal skills. This broadly describes the skills needed to get on and work with other people, and particularly to transfer and receive messages either in writing or verbally.

Decision-making and problem-solving. This describes the skills required to understand problems, find solutions to them, alone or with others, and then take action to address them.

Creative thinking and critical thinking. This describes the ability to think in different and unusual ways about problems, and find new solutions, or generate new ideas, coupled with the ability to assess information carefully and understand its relevance.

Self-awareness and empathy. Are two key parts of emotional intelligence, they describe understanding yourself and being able to feel for other people as if their experiences were happening to you.

Assertiveness and equanimity, or self-control. These describe the skills needed to stand up for yourself and other people and remain calm even in the face of considerable provocation.

Resilience and the ability to cope with problems. Describes the ability to recover from setbacks, and to treat them as opportunities to learn, or simply experiences.

UNICEF listed similar skills and related categories in its 2012 report

UNESCO describes lifeskills as ‘psychosocial and interpersonal skills that help people make informed decisions, communicate effectively, and develop the coping and self-management skills needed for a healthy and productive life’.

"I recommended J to a friend and told them counselling will give you the tools to navigate through the hard times and uplift your outlook on life all around, It’s a good way of clearing your head."

So why are Lifeskills important …?

While everyday life skills may be acquired through experiences in the home or at work, they are generally not enough to equip us for the active roles we require in today’s complex and diverse societies. Let’s face it life can be tough at times and it is not easy being a grownup! Often, we can feel unprepared to handle the things that challenge us.

However, learning new life skills is necessary to increase your health and wellbeing and achieve your goals. It’s the development of skills that helps an individual to find new ways of thinking and problem-solving. Recognise the impact of their actions and teaches them to take responsibility for what they do rather than blame others.

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