7 Life (changing) skills enabling infinite possibilities

Your age, profession, preference no longer matters. The Information Age at its onset brings the realm of new opportunities with a duality of challenges. After a lot of reading, experiences, discussions and more importantly introspection here is a compilation of 7 colors of your personality traits/skills which you need to rediscover/redefine to devise your X-factor.

1. Speed Reading-

Today’s newspaper, fortnightly niche magazines, company reports, online articles and the list is unending. So much to read and think, still lesser time. 250-300 words per minute is passé. The pre requisite is glancing through the text twice or thrice faster than your current speed to cope up with the overflowing information all around us notwithstanding the urge to read the PAGE 3 column.

2. Listening-

How can listening be a skill? You’re already hearing to the sounds in the vicinity. With all the neighboring noise and our habit of conveying our opinion, listening inclined in importance .If you still disagree, observe a senior manager/politician LIVE and check how much they listen. Lesson #1: Listen to your inner voice.

3. Walk the talk-

Approaching strangers can be difficult, let alone attempting business with them. To stand opportunistic enough, get out of that comfort zone and stop thinking ‘Why should I start talking to him?’ For practice try social places like the local club, dance classes, playgrounds etc. It is most useful when travelling and approaching people for directions.

4. KISS (Keep it Simple Silly) -

Whether it is an investor presentation, the first date or a child enquiring ‘why does something happen?’ What everyone wants is simplicity, a summary of the complex information. So, you continue the hard work, develop your logic but when you present- KISS.

5. Autodidactism (Self-learning) -

There is a system of formal education, technical courses, everyday skills and the list is unending. Whether it is cooking, how to tie a tie or how to do bhangra, thanks to www everything is available at the click of a mouse. It requires a bit of a research but a magnitude of discipline. With self-directed learning you can surely be a ‘Jack of all trade.’

6. Social media management -

With such an array of media available, it is strenuous to choose how to communicate and maintain contact, most importantly have a consistent message. All of us aware of their usage nevertheless it commands a lot of training and trial and error to harness them effectively and unleash their true potential.

7. Time management-

Ultimately, to grasp all these life skills, you need time and time management is itself a skill. The tenor can be sticky notes, to-do lists, pocket diary or cell phone reminders. Yet ,a new pedagogy is essential to enable a paradigm shift from focus on per minute productivity to a rostrum for self-awareness and leisure. It doesn’t matters how much you do in a day, but what you actually do. For starters, start with accomplishing one perfect thing in a day.