Should Life Skills Be Taught At School? 10 Ignored Life Lessons
Should life skills be taught at school? Here are 10 life lessons that they never teach our kids at school.
Let’s chat about should life skills be taught at school.
Let’s be honest for a sec. High school is sort of good preparation for college and college can be a good preparation for finding a job.
Yet neither is great at preparing you for general success in life and teaching you the essential life skills you need to survive.
If only we knew in advance: the real world doesn’t always great you with a warm welcome!
FYI: the most important ideas and skills for successful living aren’t always taught in school.
Sure they teach you math and English, science, history and geography but they don’t always tackle the other important transferable life skills that you can take wherever you go in life, no matter what we do.
Unless you have an appropriate mentor, this critical part of your education is your responsibility to learn.
So let’s give it a go. Here are 10 life secrets to living a successful and enjoyable life (that you probably didn’t learn in your classroom):
SHOULD LIFE SKILLS BE TAUGHT AT SCHOOL?
LESSON # 1 – Persistence is the ultimate power.
Did you know that having a high IQ isn’t always the strongest indicator of success?
There are plenty of highly intelligent and talented people who are right now living on the streets.
And just the same there are plenty of people with little education who have achieved great success in their life.
In the end it isn’t intelligence that matters but how much you PERSIST at chasing your goals that counts. All you really need in life is the quality of persistence.
The ability to persevere can overcome almost any obstacle.
When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you till it seems as if you couldn’t hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that’s just the place and time that the tide’ll turn. Harriet Beecher Stowe
Let me tell you the secret that has led to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity. Louis Pasteur
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. Calvin Coolidge
Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before. Jacob A. Riis
Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way.
The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere. Barack Obama
SHOULD LIFE SKILLS BE TAUGHT AT SCHOOL?
LESSON # 2 – You can’t control other people.
Yes it’s true – you can’t control other people.
It takes some people a long while to work that one out!
However when you appreciate how challenging it is to control yourself, you’ll realize how futile it is to attempt to control others.
The moment you stop expecting the people in your life to change, and start accepting them for who they are UNCONDITIONALLY, that is definitely a step up the ladder of adulthood to more peace and maturity.
You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside. Wayne Dyer
When you let go of control and commit yourself to happiness, it is so easy to offer compassion and forgiveness. This propels you from the past, into the present.
People that are negative, spend so much time trying to control situations and blame others for their problems. Committing yourself to staying positive is a daily mantra that states, “I have control over how I plan to react, feel, think and believe in the present. No one guides the tone of my life, except me! Shannon L. Alder
I don’t have any control over what actually happens except for that I have full control over my will for myself, my intention, and why I’m here. That’s all that matters. Sza
SHOULD LIFE SKILLS BE TAUGHT AT SCHOOL?
LESSON # 3 – The best investment is the investment you make in yourself.
This is definitely that little secret that will make a big difference in your life.
You need to make yourself a priority because at the end of the day, you’re your longest commitment.
So it’s a good move to spend money to enhance your skills and abilities.
Invest in your career, invest in your health and invest in your personal development.
A gym membership and the right books can be little things but at the same time the best money you’ll ever spend.
Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make. It will not only improve your life, it will improve the lives of all those around you. Robin Sharma
SHOULD LIFE SKILLS BE TAUGHT AT SCHOOL?
LESSON # 4 – Failing is an essential part of success.
Those that ultimately succeed are those that failed the most.
When you are older you finally get that FAILURE IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR JOURNEY TO SELF UNDERSTANDING AND PERSONAL GROWTH.
But back at school…yeah, nay, failure was not encouraged.
A big fat F was not something you ever wanted to see scribbled on your essay paper.
Now I say: Fail quickly, learn, adjust your process, have another go and never give up.
I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying. Michael Jordan
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default. J. K. Rowling
If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost. Zig Ziglar
The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure. John C. Maxwell
SHOULD LIFE SKILLS BE TAUGHT AT SCHOOL?
LESSON # 5 – It’s important to forgive easily.
News alert: When you forgive others, you set yourself free.
Forgiveness doesn’t always mean you give the other person a second chance.
It means that you’re choosing not to suffer any longer.
Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning. Desmond Tutu
To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. Lewis B. Smedes
I think the first step is to understand that forgiveness does not exonerate the perpetrator. Forgiveness liberates the victim. It’s a gift you give yourself. T.D. Jakes
When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.— Katherine Ponder
SHOULD LIFE SKILLS BE TAUGHT AT SCHOOL?
LESSON # 6 – Most of the things you worry about will never happen.
Here’s a strange truth: we’re all experts at creating imaginary challenges.
We worry and expect the worst.
Take a moment now to think about the biggest worries you’ve had. Most of them never happened, right?
When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened. Winston Churchill
Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy. Leo F. Buscaglia
Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere. Erma Bombeck
If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today. E. Joseph Cossman
There is a great difference between worry and concern. A worried person sees a problem, and a concerned person solves a problem. Harold Stephen
SHOULD LIFE SKILLS BE TAUGHT AT SCHOOL?
LESSON # 7 – You only need a couple of good friends.
You seriously don’t need a million friends to be happy.
A couple of good friends – and I mean true, good friends – are hard to find but when you do make them, they are worth their weight in gold.
Focus on making quality relationships in your life.
You don’t have enough time to take care of more than a couple of super close friends anyway so let go of the feeling that you need to have dozens to feel at peace.
A good friend is like a four-leaf clover; hard to find and lucky to have. Irish Proverb
My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me. Henry Ford
A true friend is someone who sees the pain in your eyes while everyone else believes the smile on your face.
One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood. Lucius Annaeus Seneca
There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship. Thomas Aquinas
SHOULD LIFE SKILLS BE TAUGHT AT SCHOOL?
LESSON # 8 – Find a partner that fits into your life, rather than trying to build a life around your partner.
Suppose you have the life-long dream of spending your winters in New York and your summers in the south of France.
It doesn’t make sense to become romantically involved with someone that insists on living near their family in California.
Build a life you love and then find someone that fits into your lifestyle.
This is ultimately easier than sacrificing your dreams for someone else.
THINGS THEY DON’T TEACH YOU AT SCHOOL
LESSON # 9 – Find your purpose.
They don’t speak a lot at school about finding your purpose.
Back then an education is valued but little thought is giving to helping you find a job that you truly love.
I mean, what is the point of being smart enough to be a doctor, and to have good enough grades to be a doctor, if that is a job you actually would despise?
You’ll spend a lot of time at work. Please do your best to find something you would sincerely enjoy.
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. Steve Jobs
I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Steve Jobs
You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you. Maya Angelou
The people who make it to the top – whether they’re musicians, or great chefs, or corporate honchos – are addicted to their calling … [they] are the ones who’d be doing whatever it is they love, even if they weren’t being paid. Quincy Jones
If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, go out and sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Sweep streets like Handel and Beethoven composed music. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. Martin Luther King, Jr.
People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost. Dalai Lama
SHOULD LIFE SKILLS BE TAUGHT AT SCHOOL?
LESSON # 10 – Stay in shape.
While they may have touched upon fitness during Physical Education at school, they still do not give health and fitness the same priority in school as one must do in the real world.
In the real world, health is everything – your greatest wealth!
If you didn’t learn it at school, now is the time to develop an exercise routine and diet plan you can follow for a lifetime.
So there you have it.
Now you know the truth – which is it’s possible to do well in school but still struggle with life because many of the most important life lessons are glossed over in your school lessons.
Hopefully you have already noted these 10 life secrets but if not, better late than never right?
And it needs to be said: life is much easier once you understand these secrets that were skipped over in school.
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I’m Frances Vidakovic – a mindset & action coach for quietly ambitious women who want to stop overthinking and finally take aligned action. I help women achieve their goals and follow through on what matters, without sacrificing their sanity or soul.