What Are Life Skills?

Brigi Heaven's Daughter
Apr 16, 2023
3 min read

Updated: Aug 17, 2023

Life skills are flexibility, initiative, social skills, productivity, and leadership.

Flexibility

With the rapid rate of change in our world, we have the opportunity to learn and grow, which is critical to achieving success. Students have the opportunity to develop their ability to quickly analyze their surroundings

and make necessary adjustments while keeping their goals in mind. Flexibility is a strength that allows for adaptation and growth. It's great that the spine is naturally flexible, allowing us to move freely while maintaining good posture and focus on our goals.

The inquiry process offers great opportunities for growth and learning through its flexible nature. As students progress, they have the opportunity to make constant course corrections instead of being confined to a set course or rigid set of instructions.

Set Goals	Create Something
Seek Answer	Evaluate Their Work
Collaborate with Others	Improve It
Navigate Information	Share it With The World

Initiative

The entrepreneurial spirit is founded on initiative—the willingness to step forward with an idea and take the risk of bringing it to fruition. The changing economic landscape requires entrepreneurs. Students need to learn how to set goals for themselves, plan how they will reach their goals,

and enact their plans. Once students feel comfortable with charting their own course, they will readily launch into activity.

By teaching students the inquiry process, you equip them to take initiative. When you step back into a facilitating role, you require students to step forward. Students take the initiative when they.

Question	Create
Plan	Improve And
Research	Present

Social Skills

Human being have always been social creatures, connecting to and depending on a tribe of some hundred others. Technology now allows people to belong to multiple tribes—students at the same school, friends on Facebook, colleagues on LinkedIn, fans on fan sites, gamers on massively multiplayer online games. In all of these environments, social skills are critical. Whether students are having a face-to-face meeting or are tweeting with hundreds of strangers, there are real human beings with real thoughts, feelings, and needs on the other end. And, as work environments become more collaborative, social skills are a key to success.

The best way for students to develop social skills is to collaborate with others. When students work together on a project, they have common goals and interests, they are required to develop social skills such as these:

Cooperation	Using constructive criticism
Compromise	Trusting others
Decision making	Delivering on promises
Communicating	Using emotional intelligence
Coordinating work

Productivity

Despite the current economic downturn, the productivity of the American worker reached an all-time high! It's great to see that those who kept their jobs were able to produce more than they needed to before. The increase in productivity among workers in the U.S. shows that people are becoming more efficient and effective in

their work, which is a positive sign for the economy. Although the job market may be competitive, this also means that there are opportunities for those who are skilled and dedicated to succeed. Workers who increase their productivity have a better chance of moving forward.

Goal setting	Development
Planning	Evaluation
Time management	Revision
Research	Application

Leadership

Leadership is a collection of skills that bring together the other life skills. Effective leaders are proactive, have strong social skills, are flexible, and are productive. Additionally, they perform the following:

Identify goals
Inspire others to share those goals
Organize a group so that all members can contribute according to their abilities
Resolve conflicts among members
Encourage the group to reach their goals
Help group members solve problems and improve performance
Give credit where it is due