1. DEFINITION AND IMPORTANCE OF LIFE SKILLS
Definition of life skills
“Skill” refers to experience and expertise on something. A person can have skill by learning it such as a skill in your career, in sports, in working with others, reading, teaching, management, mathematics, language, technology, etc. All of which can clearly be seen from the outside by doing or practicing. The aforesaid skills are essential to people ‘s ways of living, and those skillful persons have a better life than those who lack skills. These skills are called “Livelihood Skills” or “Skills for Living” which differs from “Life Skill”.
“Life Skill” refers to any characteristic or “Psychosocial Competence” which is an inner skill helping people efficiently face daily life situations and to be well prepared for the future taking care of their health, aids, drugs, safety, environment, morality, ethics, etc. in order to happily live in the society.
To make it simple, “Life Skill” is the ability to solve the problems people face in daily life and how to live with others and prepare themselves for the future.
The importance of life skills
Nowadays, due to the complexity of modern society, it is very difficult for people to maintain their traditional way of life because of rapid changes in the economy, society, information, and technology which causes conflict and competition. Hence, people have to adjust themselves in order to compete with others and to reasonably handle any crisis and to use new technology to develop themselves and their careers. In addition, they have to be able to control their emotions and manage any conflicts which occur. Being qualified to live with others can help one stay happily in society.
Essential Life Skills
A set of life skills differs according to culture and environment. The common essential life skills that everyone should possess, the heart of living itself according to the World Health Organization (WHO) are:
1. Decision making is the ability to make life-related decisions systematically. For example, if individuals are skilled at evaluating alternatives, outcomes and consequences related to health and safety, they will be able to make a reasonable decision
about their health and safety and thus have good physical and mental health.
2. Problem solving is the ability to systematically deal with problems in life without causing stress to the body and mind which can lead to even worse problems.
3. Creative thinking is the ability to think creatively and beneficial to decision making and problem solving through determination of alternative solutions and their outcomes. It also enables individuals to apply gained experience to daily life appropriately.
4. Critical thinking is the ability to analyze information and assess problems and circumstances around us that might affect our lives.
5. Effective communication is the ability to use verbal and non-verbal language to express our opinions, ideas, needs, admiration, requests, negotiations, warnings, help offers, refusals, etc. in a manner which is suitable to the situation and the culture.
6. Interpersonal relationships are the ability to build and maintain a good relationship with other people.
7. Self-awareness is the ability to know and to understand ourselves in relation, for example, to our own strengths and weaknesses, what we want and what we do not want. Self-awareness is important and beneficial for handling stress or difficult situations. It is also the foundation for the development of other skills such as communication, interpersonal relationships, decision making, and empathy.
8. Empathy is the ability to understand similarities and differences of people in terms of ability, gender, age, education, religion, belief, skin color, occupation, etc. This will help us to accept people who are different from us and to be willing to help those who are in need or in trouble such as drug addicts, AIDS victims, etc.
9. Coping with emotion is the ability to recognize our own emotions as well as those of others, know how emotions affect behaviors and understand how to appropriately deal with anger as well as grief that have a negative impact on the body and the mind.
10. Coping with stress is the ability to recognize the causes of stress, know how to reduce stress and practical ways to control stress levels in order to direct our behaviors in the right direction and prevent health problems.
How to Create Life Skills
The above 10 skills can be divided into 2 main groups in order to develop the life skills:
1. General life skills: The basic ability to deal with everyday challenges such as stress, health, friendship, adjustment to changes, a broken family, food consumption, etc.
2. Specific life skills: The ability to cope with particular or specific challenges such as drug addiction, AIDS, fire, flood, sexual harassment, etc.