After 14 years of school and another 6 years of college, we become experts in subject matters, but are behind in basic life skills.
Here in my opinion are life skills that are most important, but never taught as part of formal educational. We learn them only through life experiences.
They are:
- Walk the talk: Always be impeccable with your word. When you commit to doing something, always deliver it on time. 12 noon means 12 noon. Each one of us are accountable to ourselves. When you walk the talk, and stick to your commitments, you become confident and it improves your self-efficacy.
- Don’t make assumptions: We make assumptions easily about things, circumstances, the world and about people. Never assume. Don’t make plans based on assumptions. Seek to clarify. If you don’t assume, then you don’t judge. Communicate your intentions clearly and compassionately. This will save you a lot of interpersonal trouble.
- Don’t take things personally: Everything is not about you. What others say or do is usually a reflection of their reality, not yours. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you will not be a victim of needless suffering. Sift through what people tell you. Take what you need and let go of the rest.
- Be willing to change your mind: The biggest problems we face are due to the beliefs that we have due to the assumptions that we have made. If you want different things, better things, be willing to change your point of view. For this, you need to be open to new ideas and willing to accept new realities. There is more than one truth out there for any particular situation.
- Learn to do your best without knowing the outcome. Focus on the efforts, the process and less on the result or outcome. No matter what your circumstances may be, always do your best. That way, you will avoid self-judgement and regret. The way to do this is to find that special ‘spark’ in the task that motivates you, gives you a reason to do a good job and complete what you began. Research proves happiness doesn’t necessarily come from positive results. It comes from positive effort. So don’t be so outcome-oriented that you forget to take joy in the process. Process is everything.
About Author
Sandhya Reddy is a PCC Accredited Executive Coach and Leadership coach based in Bangalore, India. She is the Founder and Principal Coach at Chapter Two Coaching, a coaching consultancy that specializes in leadership development. She is a Certified Hogan Assessor and Coach. She has over 750+ hours of experience with coaching senior professionals. She has enabled personal transformation for over 1500+ individuals through coaching interventions, workshops, webinars and mentoring.
Chapter Two helps leaders in middle levels and senior levels engage better with their teams, peers and senior stakeholders. We help teams develop a growth and performance mindset, align better with the organizational culture and values and function more cohesively. We are also passionate about women’s leadership development and have developed a practice around it. We enable leadership development through 1:1 coaching interventions and through a set of curated leadership and personal transformational workshops.