Definition Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour enabling you— as humans—to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of your daily life, in our constantly changing environment.

Life Skills Benefits For All Ages Life skills provide you with new ways of solving problems; help you to recognize the impact of your actions and teaches you to take responsibility for them rather than blame others. They build your confidence and group cooperation.

Most important life skills you need to teach/learn to pass on to the ones you love or care about. There are so many of these skills and many of us meaning—men and women, children from the time they walk to college/university to grandparents—do not even realise their importance and sometimes go through life without realizing their existence.

1. Basic housekeeping skills from making your bed to laundry basics, to keeping a tidy house ensuring the health of your family. Keeping organized to find quickly what you need and saving you money so you can all live a good life.
2. Home cooking rather than spending your money on restaurants and take outs while providing you with a healthier life.
3. Basic sewing, which take just minutes to learn. Skills like sewing on a button or fix a hem by hand that can extend the life of your clothes and saves you money.
4. Basic home repairs to help you save big time. You don’t have to shoot for pro-level electrician or plumber here. Just learn how to unclog a toilet or sink among other simple tasks.
5. Use of kitchen appliances, from knowing how to clean your fridge to the tricks to eliminate the need for a bunch of counter-clutter.
6. Use of a calendar and a schedule to organize your time efficiently and set up your priorities.
7. Communications skills. If you are brave, take the plunge and sign yourself up for a speaking opportunity, a talk in church, or an open forum. The more you practice, the better you will become at communicating effectively with everyone including spouse/partner, children and colleagues at work.
8. Use of all kind of technologies, e.g. backing up files, protecting passwords, doing a research using something other than Google and Wikepedia when you need more in-depth information and using Smartphones, etc.
9. Survival skills meaning how to keep yourself safe, e.g. learning about emergency preparedness, basic first aid, surviving without electricity and reading a map.
10. Basic car repair, including how to fix a flat tire.
11. Money management, i.e., learning to do a budget (managing financial records), investing, avoiding going into or getting out of debt, making major purchases and selecting a tax professional.
12. Self-awareness skills, meaning understanding your calling, purpose, mission and values in this life. How to focus and prioritize so you can consistently move forward.
13. Basic etiquette while travelling, during meetings and events, and how to accept compliments and criticism.
14. Self-care: sleep and hygiene. Bottom line The earliest you learn and share those skills, the easiest and prosper YOUR life will be while making your community a better place to live.

Editor’s Note: Marie Morrell’s advice comes from a life experience perspective and is in no way intended to replace professional psychological advice.