In India, a lot happens in a woman’s life immediately after marriage like moving from her parental home to her in-laws’, shifting from one city to another etc. etc… and similarly my world changed a lot too. I was working as an HR professional in Bangalore and moved to Jaipur after two months of my marriage. From staying single in a PG to a joint family, weekends with friends to family time and visiting relatives, from ordering food to learning new recipes – almost everything changed. The entire world changed for me. While juggling with this new change in life, somewhere I started losing myself. Whatever I was doing I was not feeling happy, despite the fact I was doing good. I was feeling overwhelmed.
Has that happened with you too?
And one day thought that this can’t continue for long and I wanted to do something for myself. I enrolled myself for a life coaching program. At first, I was hesitant but joined to explore what goes on there.
There I came across life skills. What are life skills and why I should learn life skills? They are the abilities, and behaviours that help individuals in dealing with the events and challenges of everyday life.
We all consciously or subconsciously learn some or other life skills in different stages of life. For example: learning native language is a subconscious life skill whereas learning foreign language is a conscious skill. It varies from person to person, with age, geography area. Then I realised that when I moved to Jaipur post marriage, I was lacking the life skills required for married life including self-awareness, coping with new emotions, creative thinking in the new environment etc. The main objectives of life skill trainings are to build self-confidence, encourage critical thinking, foster independence and help people to communicate more effectively.
Now I have acquired the new skills that allow me to handle everything from interactions with others to identifying and processing my own emotions and behaviours.
For me it is very important to know how to figure out when I need a new life skill or any other skill? My coach made it simple for me by giving a tool of asking myself a question. If you are trying to do something new and not getting the desired result, ask the question that it is something that I cannot do or will not do? If the answer is will not do, then a life skill is needed. Alternately, if the answer is cannot do, then a vocational skill is need. This works for me every time.
A simple suggestion, wherever you are stopped in life ask yourself that is it something
I cannot do or will not do?
And see what new thoughts and actions open up for you…