We live in a world of skills. Skills are endorsed, encouraged and praised. What's not to like?
One thing.
Ever notice how learning how to live is a forgotten skill? Learning how to live can be equated to terms like:
- Managing Relationships
- Leadership Development
- Critical Thinking
- Well-Being
- Stress Management
From my expereince, I didn't have many people in my life who Deliberately sought to advise me on how to live life effectively. Besides my mom, a teacher here and there, or a book selected by random, it seemed like the real emphasis was on the other types of skills. Like:
- Managment Training
- Reading, Writing and Arithmatic
- Consultative Selling
- Business
- Communication
This post is not an indictment of skills development inside of the organization. It is the indictment of leaving life skills in the dust for the sake of an imaginary outcome (retirement, promotion, economic status) that will never satisfy. Running into the same walls again and again, won't make things as good as they should be. And don't be surprised when you see someone making major dollars with the social skills of a baboon. As I'm sure you know, many of our organizational (work, family, school, etc.) problems can be traced to a lack of life skills development. It truly is the 800 pound gorilla in the corner. If you or your organization flipped the priority and began to make "life" number 1, I think we'd see the needle move.
Let's face a fact that we all know deep down inside; if leaning how to live is essential to our well-being, then we best place it at that level. Anything short of this will lead to a major helping of regret-lifetime.