Four Life Skills You Won’t Learn in School
We learn many skills in life. Skills can be academic, vocational, or physical. However, some skills are learned through personal experience. Below are four life skills I learned over the course of my life. For better or worse they are a part of who I am today.
1) Speak Less and Say Less when Speaking
On my first military deployment I worked with a Marine who introduced me to the book The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. One of my favorite laws from that book is: “Always say less then necessary”. When you speak less and use less words it has a greater impact. (Of course, what you say should be coherent.) People that speak too long or too much sound like they do not know what they are talking about or like babbling idiots. When I was younger, I always wanted to give everyone my opinion, but over the course of my life I have learned to speak less and say less when speaking.
2) Read the room
Learn to have situational awareness. It is very important to understand the dynamics of a social environment whether it is at work or in the community. Most people are completely unaware of their social environment. The ability to read the room and adjust yourself to it is one of the most important life skills. Doing this gives you an idea of when you should speak, listen, leave, etc. Know the situation you are in, and it will help you immensely.
3) It is okay to not be genuine all the time
People say that we must always be genuine. However, the real world teaches us that we must put on different personas based on the situation we find ourselves in. We do this to get what we want out of a situation. There are times when we must be genuine, and we all must determine that for ourselves. However, in most situations we must play along so we can get on with our lives.
4) Think for yourself and take control of your life
There will come a day when we must take control of our own life. We must decide our career, who we will marry, what is right and wrong, or where we will live. We must do this regardless of the people trying to influence our life. For example, to follow the guidance/direction of our parents our entire lives is absurd. Yes, they mean well, but we should listen with a grain of salt. Even our parents made their own decisions at some point that went against their parent’s influence. We are not them and they are not us. Expecting everyone to be exactly the same is unrealistic and unfair. Learn to take control of your life and do what you know is best for yourself.
I am sure there are more skills I learned in my life, but this is what I can remember for now. I will share more when I remember.
