LIFE SKILLS

LIFE SKILLS

A skill is the ability that a person has to do something well.

Life skills are the abilities that a person has to live well in the society.

They enable a person to manage his or her life properly and make it better.

Life skills also enable a person to know what to do at certain  time and what not to do.

• These skills include the ability to
• Understand one self
• Building sound relationship with others
• Survive under difficult circumstances
• Act responsible and safe
• Solve problems.
  
  TYPES OF LIFE SKILLS

          There are  three major types of life skills. 
                                                       (i) Individual life skills

                                                       (ii) Social skills

                                                       (iii) Effective decision making skills
            

          
          1;INDIVIDUAL LIFE SKILLS           

        These skills enable individual to understand themselves in various ways. People are able to understand their strengths and weaknesses, how they think and feel, and how they express their thoughts and feelings.

1. Self – awareness

Is the ability of an individual to know himself or herself, his feeling, emotion, strength, weakness.

2. Coping with stress

Stress is mental, emotional or physical tension or pressure it cause by events as examination, death, devoice. A personal need to develop skills that will help a person to manager cope with stress.

3. Coping with emotion

Emotion is strong feeling such as fear, love anger, shyness e.t.c

The ability to cope with different emotion enables a person to control his or her strong feeling and action.

4. Assertiveness

Is the ability of a person to know what he or she want and why, and able to take necessary steps to achieve it. An assertive person able to express his or her opinion

    2;  SOCIAL SKILLS

5.   Is the ability to understand and live in peace and harmony with other. It gives individual knowledge,an a ability to live according to the standard of the society. Some aspects of social skills are forming health relationship, forming friendship, pear resistance, empathy, negotiation and effective communication

1. Forming health relationship

Relationship refers to the way people interact and behave to word each other. Relationship can be between children, neighbors, peers, students’ teachers and parents.

Health relationship enables one to know how to behave properly in each relationship.

2. Forming friendship

Is the ability of an individual to make friends with people who he/she can share activities,ideals, joy and sadness.

3. Peer resistance or peer pressure

Is when one friends influence him/her to do something e.g. our friend can influence to work harder in studies or can influence us doing wrong things such drugs taking, running away from school.

4. Empathy

Is the ability to understand other people feeling and to feel concerned about their problems. These enable us to share our friend’s problems.

5. Negotiation

Is the ability to agree on issue without undermining or going against one's principles it helps when disagreements occur.

6. Effective communication

Is the ability of a person to communicate with people according to their mood age and back ground. It includes speaking skills means saying what you want that can be easily understand, speaking, reading, writing and listening.

        3. EFFECTIVE DECISION MAKING SKILLS

            These skills enable a person to make good decisions. The following are aspects of effective decision making skills.

1. Critical thinking

Is the ability of a person to develop a deep understanding of something. It helps a person to understand his/her environment, problem in which present he/she has to  make decision that might consider the advantages and disadvantage of doing something.

2. Creative thinking

Is the ability to think and come up with new ideas and new ways of doing, things, and creative thinking helps individuals to come up with solutions.That other people hand never thought of .

3. Decision making

Is the ability to make the best choice out of many available options in life is important of think about consequences before making a decision.

4. Problem solving

Is the making choice and acting on it problem solving help individual to make decisions and implement them.

IMPORTANT OF LIFE SKILLS

Life skills are importance for making life better as following: -

• It helps to make proper decision in life e.g. choosing a friendship, subject’s e.t.c.
• It develops good behavior; a person is able to avoid bad things such as smoking, drug abuse, sexual relationship, taking alcohol.
• It increases love and understanding for other people.
• Respond effectively to different situation such divorce, death of relatives and friends, examination pressure, harassment.
• It maintains peace and order Negotiation help people to solve problem peaceful and helps to prevent conflict.
• It helps to understand environment and the way of fitting it.

HOW TO USE SOCIAL SKILLS

Social skills give person knowledge live with others peacefully in the society. We can use social skills in: -

1. Forming relationship with other people

This is enable how to behave in each relationship 

2.  Making good friend

Good friend are those who: -

>Respect and assist us, our parents, relatives and elders

>Go to school and respect school rules

>Assist each other when one misbehaves

3. Showing empathy- This is the ability to feel what others are going through, especially when they are experiencing problems.
4. Exhibiting peer resistance- A person who has proper social skills is able to resist bad influence from his or her peers and friend
5. Displaying effective communication- Proper communication can be used to establish good relationships with other people
6. Problem-solving- This is a social skill that enables a person to make proper decisions in difficult times.

CONSEQUENCES OF NOT APPLYING LIFE SKILLS

• Improper choice in the future careers develop
• Bad behavior, people may develop bad behavior. For example youth may not respect their parents, teachers and elders.
• Conflict can occur. Example conflict among student in the families due to luck negotiation skills.
• Poverty may occur, due to lack of proper decision making in the society country individuals.
• Poor leadership may occur due to lack communication between citizen and leaders.
• Lack of empathy leader to suffering for these who have problems

SOURCE OF LIFE SKILLS

People learn life skills from different source of following: -

1. FAMILY

Parent’s guardians and relatives are the source of life skills.

2. NEIGHBOURS

We learn different things from our neighbors.

3. FRIENDS

Friends enable us to acquire various life skills exchanging good idea.

4. SOCIETY

The way people live in the society allow individual to lean

5. SCHOOL:

The good education we get from school enables us to develop skills for life difference things e.g. how to behave.

6. RELIGION

Good religion teachings help us to get skills that help us to live harmoniously in society.