School is the place where we get the major chunk of our education. But unfortunately, there are certain essential skills that are not taught at school.
So, here is the cheat sheet to the five essential skills that your school missed teaching you that you can cultivate now.
Your Attitude Does Change Your Reality
We have all heard ‘You should keep a positive attitude.’ Definitely, a nice piece of advice but how many of us actually do that? It is always easier to continue using our old attitude but the thing I can tell from my own experience, is that changing attitude can really change your reality.
Just practice using a positive attitude instead of a negative one and you will begin to see things and viewpoints that you never thought existed!
Change what you focus on. But don’t just go analyzing this concept; try it for real.
Making Mistakes is OK
Remember the time when you were learning how to ride a bicycle? You bruised a knee and cried a bit but that didn’t stop you from riding the bicycle again.
But as you grow older, in the attempt to not make mistakes, you try lesser things and fall into the habit of being reactive. What if I tried something and failed? Won’t people laugh at me?
Maybe. But it is not the end of the world if you fail and most people don’t care that much. They usually have their own lives to worry about. Success in life comes from being persistent and not giving up despite mistakes and failure.
Giving Value Comes Before Getting Value
Wouldn’t it be nice to get something for nothing? Definitely. But that seldom happens.
We all have this strange idea that someone should give or do something for us before we give back. Do you know such people? I know several!
If you want to increase the value you receive, be it money, kindness, love, opportunities, or anything else, you have to give the value first.
Over time, you generally get what you give. I remember reading somewhere, I think it was on a wall of a library, ‘Give respect, get respect.’ Didn’t work every time but worked 9 times out of 10. Not bad.
Taking Care of Mental Health
At school, we are taught about physical health. And i believe it is really important to have a healthy body, but what about emotional health?
It was never touched upon during my school days, and i feel we all must devote some time to know about different mental illnesses. Learn ways to take care of our mental health, and how to deal with emotional trauma without totally crumbling.
Stress and emotional tumult, unfortunately, has become commonplace and we must know how and when to respond.
Time Management
The time we spend pursuing hobbies, self-development, and with family is crucial for a happy and healthy life. But we should reserve certain hours of the day to focus on our life goals and how we spend those hours is critical.
Say you like to code and want to make a ‘Time Management’ app to help people better manage their time. A really cool idea and we are talking about it here too.
But to make this app a reality, you need to manage your time effectively, remain focused, and self-disciplined.
Most of us come out of school knowing nothing about time management which happens to be a critical skill. I say, we still have time to better manage our time.
The Takeaway
I wish that schools take a holistic approach to what is required in our lives and incorporate teaching them in interesting ways.
I mean I am yet to come across any practical use of all those quadratic equations taught at school. We can do much more with some practical info that help us navigate through life smoothly.
I did my bit here by listing five things that we were not taught at school but should have been. What do you think we should have learned at school or maybe known a little earlier in life?