As you make your way through life, you start to realise just how little you actually know. You’re taught basic things in school, but many of the skills that will help you in life have to be discovered by yourself. This is usually something you don’t realise until you’re thrown out in the big world all on your own. For instance, when you go off to university, you no longer have the safety net of your family around you. All of a sudden, you have to cook for yourself, clean, wash your clothes, and so much more.
In short, you need to learn a lot of life skills if you want to survive your time in university. The same applies to all adult life in general – if you lack certain skills, you’ll find everything much harder. So, here are a few important skills that every single person should strive to learn for a more independent life:
Cooking
It’s such a basic skill, yet one that most people don’t learn until they’re adults. This stems from the fact that we rely on our parents for food. It’s only when your parents aren’t around that you realise you have no cooking skills whatsoever. What do you end up doing? You order takeaway food and buy ready meals from shops. Basically, your lack of cooking skills can lead to an unhealthy lifestyle!
The thing is, it’s very easy to learn how to cook. Just Google recipes and follow all the instructions. In fact, YouTube is the best resource for this as you can specifically search for videos on different aspects of cooking. E.g. you can look up how to chop an onion or how to bring things to the boil. There are so many cooking tutorials out there to watch, so there’s no excuse for not learning this skill! The more time you spend in the kitchen, the better you’ll get at cooking.
Feel free to check out the video below to get started with some basic cooking skills today:
Washing clothes
Is this a skill? That’s up for debate, but everyone should learn how to wash and dry their clothes without ruining the materials. Firstly, learn the basics of operating washing machines and dryers. Understand what the buttons mean, learn how many items you should put in at once, figure out how to wash specific colours, etc.
Then, learn how to wash your clothes by hand. Those of you that are studying full-time in university will know that washing machines aren’t always available. As such, you may have to wash things by hand or risk going without clean clothes. Therefore, you need to learn how to wash clothes in a sink or tub, ensuring they’re as clean as they would be in a washing machine. This will mean you never have dirty clothes – and you can save money by not paying for washing machines!
Car maintenance
It’s extremely beneficial to learn a few basic skills relating to car maintenance. In all honesty, the whole article could be filled up with different points on this topic! To save this turning into a car post, all the main ideas are grouped under this heading. The most important skill is definitely learning how to change a tyre. You will probably have a punctured tyre at some point in your life, and it’s very useful to know how to change it.
Similarly, there are other skills to learn that relate to both wheels and tyres. Learning how to check your tyre pressure and fill them up with air is also vital. Knowing how to check the tyre tread for signs of wear and tear is also key. Then, you have other car maintenance tasks – like changing the oil and refilling the washer fluid. You become far more independent when you can do all of these things by yourself. Plus, you should keep your car in the best condition possible for longer.
Saving money
Yes, saving money is a skill that people should learn. You’ve got to understand how to create a budget and stick to it. You should also look into learning about investments and different savings accounts. It sounds boring, but it helps you take better care of your money. For some bizarre reason, schools never seem to teach kids this. You learn about all aspects of maths – including the never used Pythagoras theorem – but rarely delve into things like economics. Unless you study this specifically at university, you won’t have a clue.
Again, the internet is your best friend as you can find loads of guides out there teaching you how to save money. Try to find ones that are written by genuine financial experts, rather than just any old blogger. Of course, if you need actual financial advice, you should only receive it from a licensed financial advisor.
First aid
Finally, you should think about learning some first aid skills. Why? Well, you never know when they’ll come in handy. What if you cut yourself at home and need to learn how to stop the bleeding? What if someone around you gets hurt and needs immediate attention? There’s no downside to having first aid skills as you can literally save someone’s life with them.
Speaking of which, you could go one step further and learn CPR. It’s one of those skills that, when you think about, everyone should really know. Again, what’s the downside to knowing this? You never know when it might come in handy, possibly helping you save a stranger’s life on the street.
Some of you might argue that a few of these skills aren’t ‘essential.’ Technically…you’re right. You can live your life without learning any of the skills on this list, and you might be fine. However, there’s no denying that your life will be so much easier when you know all of them. You can help others, but most importantly, you require less help. This means that you no longer depend on other people to help with certain things. Life is so much more relaxing when you know you can rely on your own skills to get by.
