What Are Life and Health Skills?
We define life and health skills as those abilities or talents that, through training and practice, make us highly capable and “competent” in that area.
We already saw that the WHO originally focused life skills learning on young people to help them navigate life well. They and their schools are usually the main targets for this training. However, in recent years, organizations have also shown interest in this training. They call them “soft skills”, leadership competencies, or many other names.
Why is it so important and urgent to integrate these life and health skills into our daily lives? We face a high-impact reality of crisis and uncertainty. This often disorients us and causes pain. These skills give us the internal keys to a truly successful life, transforming our vision, mental health, and well-being.
What is the main challenge? Learning them is not about acquiring more techniques. They are not lessons for the mind and memory. You must experience them yourself to practice and integrate them. That is how they transform everything. If you do not want life to pass you by, join me on this journey to where you can enjoy learning them.
Let us start by understanding the origin of our struggles. We will look at how and why we need to learn skills that help us shift from discomfort and demotivation to health and well-being.
Where Do We Come From and What Did We Learn?
In the society where many of us grew up, studied, and worked last century, being “competent” meant being “competitive” and having “social success.”
We grew up comparing ourselves, standing out, and trying to excel over others. Thus, “success” meant being first, the champion, or the one who had the most. This also applied to the workplace. Success was not just about business growth, but how much it grew compared to competitors and its relative advantage.
Unfortunately, formal schools and business schools still prioritize this trend. They maintain these types of analyses, diagnoses, and solutions. Even with new tools and technology, the core focus barely changes.
Why is this? Because we believe in what we can measure and touch. Our distrust and need for control require tangible data. Though limited, these data assure us of cause and effect. Thus, we prioritize “objective data” for decision-making. We treat human conventions as absolute certainties, despite our limitations and mistakes.
We ignore our intuition and our search for meaning. We have learned to distrust the signals from our inner selves. Why is this still the case? It is simple. How many times have you heard in a meeting that you can only rely on “facts, facts, facts… and figures”? They give us a sense of security.
Whether due to haste or inertia, we have dismissed subjective debates, even when we felt their immense power. I am not dismissing “facts & figures.” I am simply highlighting their disproportionate dominance in our daily lives, especially in education and professional fields.
Since the late 80s and 90s, we have added new filters to our lenses. The concept of delivering “value” entered the equation. First, it was for shareholders, then customers and marketing, and finally, timidly, for employees and students.
Then came “values,” “mission,” and “vision” to guide us. We learned to work and lead in teams. By the start of the 21st century, we began evaluating by competencies. It was highly innovative then, though most of us remained blind. We did not see that we were evaluating and giving feedback through our old lenses: the lenses of “who we think we are,” our social personas.
We tried to bring objectivity to the challenge of measuring subjectivity using definitions and rubrics. Still, with everyone wearing different lenses and filters, a distorted vision was guaranteed.
Could anything good, positive, and lasting come from this? It was difficult, but YES, sometimes it did. This happened when we let intuition guide us toward inspiration.
Where Are We Going as Humans?
Only recently, seeing deep dissatisfaction, lack of motivation, and alarming rates of stress, absenteeism, and depression, have we started looking at other skills and concepts: purpose, cause, well-being, health, and mental health.
Notice how most of these are abstract, broad, personal, and subjective concepts. Some are more invisible or intangible than others. Yet, we attribute to them the power to make us, if not happy, at least capable of feeling satisfied. This satisfaction is far more lasting than a salary raise, a promotion, or any other “carrot” we used to chase.
And now comes the good part… Ask yourself:
- Where are they all born (purpose, well-being, health, cause…)?
- How and where can I find them? By looking outward or inward?
- What does finding them depend on? How will I discover them?
Let me guide you through these questions a bit more… First, a new question: do you bet on yourself?
Do You Dare to Bet on Yourself?
With these questions, focused on finding our purpose and well-being, we finally realize they are not outside of us. I begin to see that we must be willing to open and listen to our hearts.
Discovering that we are meant to be happy means we must review the rules by which we live and act. You cannot talk about purpose or know your mission without first recognizing the limits from which you operate and view your actions.
Discovering that we are meant to be happy means we must review the rules by which we live and act
This is an unfamiliar dive and a demanding human path that not everyone wants to take. Getting to know who we are and what we are made of requires our will, perseverance, and commitment to move forward, even when facing unexpected surprises and our own vulnerability. This is not a path for learning new techniques, though I know from experience you will learn many of those too.
Why should you bet on yourself? To renew your game, because you want to play in a different league. The league of the heart, where you enter hesitantly, measuring your steps because you lack control. You bet on yourself above all because you want to mature, which is THE requirement to be TRULY HAPPY. That is why you keep going, committed daily to learning and separating the false from the true. You no longer settle for substitutes for authenticity.
Bet on yourself to play in a different league: the league of the heart
And you know what? It is possible to transform your life. Look closely and tell me what you see at the very beginning. Do you realize that before you were born, you already knew how to swim, you were already happy? Though we won’t go that far back, I can tell you that you are born with an immense potential of skills. That is why you will recognize them once you start training.
Shall we swim? Join me at the School!
