Life Skills for Personality Development

SKILLS ? What are skills? ? What is the difference between a skilled and unskilled person? ? Why is it necessary to have skills? ? How does one acquire skills? ? Why should the skills be enhanced? What are Skills? ? Skills are the learned capacity which helps us to do a task effectively. Skills are abilities to use know-how to complete tasks.

Skills are acquired through practice and patience A skilled person uses less time, energy and resources to do a job and produces quality results Skills are gained through school/college, work experiences, hobbies, books, elders, peers etc Skills can be improved if we could identify, analyze and practice them. What are Life Skills? Life Skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life (WHO) Adaptive means that a person should have the flexibility to adjust according to the situation.

For positive behavior, a person needs to have positive thinking and look at opportunities even in difficult situations, in order to cope with the situation. . 10 Core Life Skills (WHO) ? Self Awareness ? Effective Communication ? Critical thinking ? Decision Making ? Coping with emotion ? Empathy ? Interpersonal Relationship ? Creative thinking ? Problem Solving ? Coping with stress Self-Awareness •The ability to introspect, analyze and accept one’s thoughts actions and feelings; recognizing and acknowledging one’s needs and desires. •Ability to know our self: Our Character, desires, likes, dislikes and our strengths and weaknesses. Developing self-awareness can help us to recognize when we are stressed or feel under pressure. It is also often a prerequisite for effective communication and interpersonal relations, as well as for developing empathy for others. Empathy ? Empathy is the ability to accept and understand others who are different from you. ? Empathy encourages a positive behaviour towards people in need of care and assistance. ? This skill works wonders when we apply it to our relationships with our loved ones, classmates, parents, friends, cousins and colleagues ?

Finally it helps you to move closer to findings solutions, to resolve conflicts and enhance quality of life. Effective Communication ? Effective communication means that we are able to express ourselves, both verbally and nonverbally, in ways that are appropriate to our cultures and situations. ? Listening. ? Assertiveness. Interpersonal Relationship ? Initiate and maintain positive relationships and de -link unconstructive relationships. ? Interpersonal relationship skills help us to relate in positive ways with the people we interact with.. Critical thinking

Ability to analyze information, experiences, situations and circumstances etc in an objective manner and rationally. ? Recognizing and assessing factors influencing our attitude and behavior. ? It is not merely criticizing.? Making objective judgments about choices and risks. ? Critical thinking can contribute to health by helping us to recognize and assess the factors that influence attitudes and behaviour, such as values, peer pressure, and the media. Creative thinking Ability to; ? Think differently and out of the box ? Look beyond our direct experience? Respond adaptability ?

Having flexibility to situations in daily life? Achieving the objectives in daily life situations Creative Thinking ? Creative thinking contributes to both decision making and problem solving. ? It helps us to look beyond our direct experience, and even if no problem is identified, or no decision is to be made. ? can help us to respond adaptively and with flexibility to the situations of our daily lives. Problem Solving ? problem solving enables us to deal constructively with problems in our lives.? Significant problems that are left unresolved can cause mental stress and give rise to accompanying physical strain.

Decision-making Ability to; ? Choose the best amongst the various alternatives or options in many life situations ? Weigh the pros and cons of alternatives ? Accepting responsibility for consequences of the decision with confidence.? Decision making helps us to deal constructively with decisions about our lives. ? This can have consequences for health if young people actively make decisions about their actions in relation to health by assessing the different options, and what effects different decisions may have. Coping with Emotion ? Recognizing emotions in ourselves and others Being aware of how emotions influence behavior, ? Being able to respond to emotions appropriately. ? Intense emotions, like anger or sorrow can have negative effects on our health if we do not react appropriately. Coping with Stress ? Coping with stress is about recognizing the sources of stress in our lives, ? Recognizing how this affects us, & ? Acting in ways that help to control our levels of stress by changing our environment or life style and learning how to relax so that tensions created by unavoidable stress do not give rise to health problems.