10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything

re: 10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything

Mamachibi — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:49:57 GMT

Sounds just like our homeschool course of study! I would add one more, related to Critical Thinking: Worldview Studies. Everyone speaks and listens through the veil of their preconceived notions, many of which are religiously derived. Knowing what you believe and why, and the basis for others' beliefs helps you understand fears, prejudices and motivations. It's easy to be tossed around by the newest thing out there, but if you are firm in what you believe and why, it is much easier to make sense of the world around you.

re: 10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything

Merkey — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:19:52 GMT

I have to agree with this list. A person who masters all the skills listed will be able to do anything they desire.

re: 10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything

Perka — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:38:20 GMT

Would somebody please explain the little colored ruler? I don't so any connection to the thumbs up or down.

re: 10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything

ExJohnson — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:05:47 GMT

I think there are certain words that are dangerous. reading some comments from above, I see that nobody wanted to define 'success.' I think these types of words lead to moral ambiguity, only because we allow them to have value, and then let that value be decided randomly according to what people want. Patriotism is another word that is morally ambiguous in my opinion. To have a sustainable homestead, raise chemical free children, and love your family probably doesn't require good public speaking skills. Being the CEO of a large company that reports positive earnings (a success, if you will) probably does require it. To be honest, I don't think anyone could tell me the difference between the two.

re: 10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything

jonallen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:39:49 GMT

I find it interesting that public speaking was listed first. It's not that I don't appreciate it, but as life skills go, there are many others that need to be refined before you can effectively refine that one, and jumping over the more basic skills can prove dangerous. "I know just enough to make myself dangerous" is too often the case.

To know oneself, with full acceptance of limitations, weaknesses, and blindspots, is an essential prerequisite to becoming an engaging public speaker with the ability to truly connect, relate, and communicate complex ideas. Yes, you can justifiably put it first of the top ten life skills, but it is not going to be the first that is acquired.

re: 10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything

TiaIsWorried — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:02:56 GMT

Wow, great list.

I would add one more, impecable manners, desire to work hard and ability to hear no.

These "soft" skills can make up for part of the important skills. If you are likeable and easy going, people will usually be happy to help train you, thus overcoming the lack of skill.

I have to add something that I notice that baffles me. In this day and age, parents and schools have taught children to be fearful of strangers and this is creating a generation of anti-social children. The funny thing is, the bulk of these childrens future jobs will have to be in some form of service industry. In order for them to get ahead in their future careers, they will have to have the best & most friendly personas and attitudes to succeed.

re: 10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything

dee beatty — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:44:16 GMT

The wisest person there has ever been, they say, was Solomon, responsible for Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. What a blessing to read them.

re: 10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything

ccm_3 — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:54:20 GMT

I think someone forgot to mention good mental health? Without that it doesn't matter how much money you have, how many people you know, whether you can budget or not, etc. If you aren't happy, have peace, within your own mind you missed the boat. Good mental health isn't always something that is passed down generationally. Many people avoid it and no isn't fun to 'work on ourselves' and take responsibility for our choices in life.

re: 10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything

fingurl — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 09:12:27 GMT

There are points that should be taken from each of those listed here that we utilize each and every day, in today's society.

My parents did not care enough for me to provide me a college education. I therefore had to develop and create my own set of unique skills that, to this day, give me a little more edge over most in the same field that I work in. Most of what I learned is indeed from the skool of hard nocks, and yes, $#!+ does indeed happen. But it is how we deal with it, and how much cleansing that we can do afterwards that is a real trick.

As someone whose nervous system was mostly destroyed through taking Synthroid for more than 3 years, I am very prone to panic attacks and nervous-ness in the most basic of situations. Even though I have been 100% prescription free for almost 3 and a half years now, I still suffer those side effects. When I feel it coming on, I take some extra B's and get some extra sunshine and that seems to help a bit.

I truly believe that the list that was provided in this article is very basic, and we can and should continue to keep an open mind to even the old school of doing things. It leads me to wonder that if all of our gadgets were taken away, and we had to revert back to 1975 how well we would handle things. No: cell, GPS, laptop, Playstation, flat screen, dvd, sirius, etc. Instead: gas $0.38 per gallon; GMO free food; (GMO what???); half of the neighborhood kids playing at one house; the other half playing after-school activities; very few people are overweight; still taking summer vacations at the beach; camping; hiking; fishing; relaxing on the porch after our whole foods dinner.

Actually it is not how well we would handle things, how many would survive?

re: 10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything

Miss Bliss — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 23:35:58 GMT

stoic, thanks for the link. It worked that time! Lovely poem....I have heard it before.

I think what it says is what I was attempting to relay my simple sort of way...? If what you are trying to say is that the elephant is a metaphor for success, then what I read is that you are stating that no one can define the elephant/success if they have individual experiences that only give a partial sense of the 'whole'. So then that leads to 'what is the whole'...? That will take , in my humble opinion, an epiphany of Enlightenment....:)

...all roads do indeed eventually lead to Rome, n'est pas?

re: 10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything

BeeGirl — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:54:43 GMT

Just a word from the wise, applicable to all areas of your life - The taste of success based on skill, without accompanying passion, truly is bittersweet.

re: 10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything

mama bear — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:20:35 GMT

Wow! This is awesome. I just emailed this link to my 14 and 11 year old daughters. It is why we are paying for private school. They are teaching this. My 11 year old is giving a speech today.