Promotion Of Life Skills

The Meaning and Types of Life Skills

Meaning of Life Skills

A skill is the ability of an individual to apply his/her mental and physical power to control the environment. Life skills involve thinking, playing, and implementation to solve social, political, economic, and cultural problems. These skills enable individuals to understand themselves, build sound relationships with others, survive under difficult circumstances, act responsibly and safely, and solve problems. They address the balance between knowledge, attitude, and skills.

Need for Life Skills

As children develop, their lives change. Adolescents need to develop a variety of life skills to face challenges, take on family responsibilities, make decisions, and think about their future. Life skills education addresses these issues for the benefit of the individual and society at large. Life skills equip adolescents with the knowledge and attitudes needed for desirable behavior. They reduce health risks and raise awareness of health-related behaviors such as sexual abuse, drug abuse, violence, drunkenness, unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and HIV/AIDS. Life skills play a decisive role in preventing these behaviors and enlightening teenagers about these challenges so they can protect themselves.

Types of Life Skills

There are three major types of life skills: individual life skills, social skills, and effective decision-making skills.

Individual Life Skills

Individual life skills involve a person’s ability to understand personal feelings, emotions, strengths, weaknesses, and their position in life and society. It also includes having a clear vision of self-identity and understanding one’s cultural background.

Importance of Individual Life Skills

Individual life skills are crucial for building self-esteem and self-confidence. Being aware of personal capabilities allows a person to use these skills effectively and make choices consistent with societal opportunities. Individual life skills include self-awareness, the ability to cope with stress and emotions, and assertiveness.

1. Self-awareness: This is the ability to know oneself, including feelings, emotions, strengths, and weaknesses. Self-awareness helps individuals ask important questions about themselves.
2. Coping with Stress: Stress is mental, emotional, or physical tension or pressure caused by events like examinations, divorce, or family problems. Developing skills to cope with stress is essential.
3. Coping with Emotions: Emotions are strong feelings such as love, fear, anger, and shyness. The ability to handle emotions enables a person to control their feelings and actions.
4. Assertiveness: This is the ability to know what one wants and take necessary steps to achieve it while considering others’ rights. Assertive people express their opinions or desires confidently and respectfully.

Social Skills

Social skills involve the ability to understand and live in peace and harmony with others, developing positive interpersonal relationships with friends, family, peers, people in authority, and adults.

1. Building Positive Relationships: This skill involves meeting and relating with others in various settings, such as schools, social gatherings, and playing fields. Healthy relationships help individuals behave properly in different contexts.
2. Peer Resistance: This is the ability to resist negative influences from peers. Positive peer pressure can lead to good behavior, while negative peer pressure can lead to undesirable activities like drug abuse.
3. Empathy: Empathy is the ability to understand and feel concerned about others’ problems. It involves imagining oneself in another’s situation.
4. Negotiation: This skill helps individuals agree on issues without compromising their principles. It is important in resolving disagreements.
5. Effective Communication: Effective communication involves speaking, reading, listening, and writing skills. It is essential for maintaining good relationships with others.

Effective Decision-Making Skills

Effective decision-making skills enable individuals to make good decisions through critical thinking, creative thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making.

1. Critical Thinking: This is the ability to develop a deep understanding of something. It helps individuals understand their environment and solve problems by considering the pros and cons of various options.
2. Creative Thinking: Creative thinking involves coming up with new ideas and ways of doing things. It helps individuals find unique solutions to problems.
3. Decision-Making: This skill involves making the best choice from many available options after considering the consequences.

Sources of Life Skills

People learn life skills from various sources, including:

• Family: Parents, guardians, and other relatives.
• Neighbors: Observing the different ways people live.
• Friends: Exchanging ideas and learning from each other.
• Schools: Education provides essential life skills.
• Society: Social interactions teach expected behaviors.
• Religion: Religious teachings promote harmonious living.

Importance of Life Skills

Life skills are essential because they help develop abilities necessary for improving life quality. They enable individuals to:

• Make proper decisions about friendships, education, and careers.
• Develop good behavior and avoid negative influences.
• Increase love and understanding for others.
• Respond effectively to different situations.
• Maintain peace and order through negotiation.
• Understand and adapt to the environment.

How to Use Social Skills

Social skills help individuals live better lives by forming good relationships, making good friends, showing empathy, resisting peer pressure, communicating effectively, and solving problems.

Consequences of Not Applying Social Skills

Failure to apply life skills can lead to problems such as:

• Improper choices in education and careers.
• Development of bad behavior and negative influences.
• Conflicts due to lack of negotiation skills.
• Increased poverty due to poor decision-making.
• Poor leadership due to lack of communication.
• Lack of empathy leading to increased suffering.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Write ‘T’ for true statements and ‘F’ for false statements:

1. Life skills enable a person to know what to do at certain times and what not to do. ( )
2. Individual life skill is the ability of an individual to know himself or herself. ( )
3. Self-awareness enables a person to understand others in various circumstances. ( )
4. The ability to handle emotions, which enables a person to control his or her feelings, is among individual life skills. ( )
5. Social skills give an individual the knowledge and ability to live according to the needs of society. ( )

Exercise 2

Fill in the blanks:

1. The ability of a person to communicate with others while considering their mood, age, and background is called —————————–.
2. —————–, ——————–, and —————— are the primary sources from whom we learn different life skills.
3. ———————- is the ability to make the best choice out of many available options.
4. The ability of a person to resist negative influences from others is called ——————–.