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Life Skills Checklists

Developing essential life skills can improve your overall well-being and quality of life. Basic life skills are necessary to live a healthy lifestyle, manage your finances, get a job and communicate effectively with other individuals. A life skills checklist empowers an individual to follow an organized plan for enhancing and strengthening important abilities. Life skills checklists can encompass many topics, but there are crucial areas necessary for the development of successful life skills.

  1. Coping Skills

    • Resilience is the ability to cope with changes in everyday life. According to the Mayo Clinic, having resilience helps protect your mental health from conditions such as depression and anxiety. Resilience enables you to continue on when adversity strikes. You still feel the emotions of anger, sadness and pain, but you are able to remain optimistic and continue on with daily tasks. Stress management is an important coping skill for dealing with daily pressures. Stress management skills involve managing your emotions to avoid conflict and disruptions in your daily life. Some people use exercise, relaxation techniques and talk therapy to deal with stress in a healthy, beneficial way.

    Communication Skills

    • Communication skills are essential for forming personal and social relationships. Communication checklists commonly include the ability to communicate our needs to others, understanding other people's views, and developing intimate relationships with other people. Lack of communication skills can even affect your ability to get a job. According to the New York State Governor's Office of Employee Relationships, good communication skills are critical for effective team work. It is also important to watch and listen for nonverbal gestures. People often communicate their true feelings through nonverbal signals, especially in social situations where voicing your true feelings could be uncomfortable. Effective communication is one of the most important life skills you can develop.

    Health Skills

    • Developing important health skills can increase longevity and quality of life. According to Everyday Health, maintaining a healthy body weight is one of the most important habits you can develop at any stage in life. Enforcing healthy habits can happen at any age, but it is best to instill these values throughout the childhood years of development. Fitness and exercise are also important health skills to learn, resulting in health benefits such as better sleeping habits, toned muscles, increased physical endurance and stress reduction. Caring for your body, inside and out, is a big part of developing good health skills. Take the time to care for your body to reap the many benefits of good health.

    Financial Skills

    • Managing your finances can affect many other areas of your life. Basic money management checklists include managing a budget, using credit cards responsibly and understanding the importance of saving for a rainy day. It is best to develop money management skills early in life to avoid bad spending habits as an adult. Financial skills checklists help individuals identify and achieve future financial goals. Distinguishing between a person's needs and wants is the key to financial success.

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