20 Skills For Success And Happiness

Tired of having success and happiness only momentarily? Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could have both for the rest of your life? In this article, Beauty and Tips takes a look at the 20 skills you need for lifelong success and happiness.

When you were at school, you were taught things that would help to improve your grades. You learned the necessary math skills, English skills, problem solving skills and so on. When you left school, did you continue acquiring new skills? Or did learning skills start and end in the classroom? The skills we learned in the classroom are not enough to grant us constant success and happiness throughout our life. For whatever reason, too many of us stop focusing on developing our skills set once we get a career. And yet it’s skills that take a person to the top. It’s skills that carry a person further than they could ever have imagined, granting them sustained happiness, the likes of which they could never have dreamed of.

How strong are your skills? How many would you say you have? If you think you’re lacking in the skills department, and want to know what it takes to take you further in life than you are right now, let’s take a look at the 20 skills for lifelong success and happiness.

Organisation

Organisation is one of very important skills for success. A tidy bed, a clean kitchen and an organised study make us happy. Everything looks neat and tidy, and it lowers our stress levels. And when you know where everything is and what your schedule is like for this week, you won’t lose time, fall behind with work or miss deadlines and appointments.

Active Listening

Ever said to someone “I’m listening!” even though you know full well that you’re not? You’re giving half an ear. While they talk, you play on your phone.

Maybe you’re the same in the lecture hall. The lecturer is talking to you and teaching you some awesome new stuff, but your mind is wandering.

Active listening is another one of important skills for success that more of us need to learn how to use. When you actively listen to a person, you’re giving them your undivided attention and soaking up all they have to say. Active listening helps you to grow your knowledge, but it also helps you to understand people better. You learn to notice their habits and traits, and gain a deeper insight into who they are and what makes them tick. This improves relationships, both professional and personal.

Being Likeable

People like likeable people. It’s true. People get hired for jobs because they’re likeable people. We take chances on people in a new relationship because they’re likeable. We make new friends with likeable people.

Likeable people generally get further in life than unlikeable people. They’re certainly happier, and they have a better shot at sustained success.

Willingness To Learn New Things

For sustained levels of success and happiness, you have to be willing to learn new things and be open to new ideas. Be like a sponge who absorbs knowledge. The wiser you are, the more you know what you want out of life. And the more knowledge you have, the more you’ll know how to live life on your own terms. Keep learning and you’ll always have the knowledge and skills for success to be flexible, adaptable and happy.

Positivity

Negativity won’t get you anywhere, not in the short run or the long run. Positivity, on the other hand, is the fuel that can keep you going on a home run all your life. It’s the gasoline for your momentum, propelling you forward with a smile on your face at all times. The more positive you are, the more opportunities you see and this is another one of skills for success that can be learned and cultivated.

Ability To Handle Criticism

How good are you at dealing with criticism? Do you listen to it, take it on board and use it to your advantage to make some changes? Or does your ego get in the way so that you angrily dismiss it and carry on doing what you were doing?

Successful people aren’t so pig-headed that they assume they’re always right. In fact, they love to get the advice of others because they know there are a lot of people out there who are smarter than they are.

Listen to what others are saying about you and your work. Take their advice on board and use it to get even better at what you do.

Brevity

Successful people are quick thinkers who make instant decisions. Why? Two reasons. For one thing, they know that time is precious and that they need to keep moving forward. Secondly, they understand what their higher purpose is. As such, every single decision is made with this higher purpose in mind.

Brevity is one of important skills for success, it’s an asset that allows us to explain ourselves and/or our message quickly and powerfully to people. And people just love this.

Let’s say you’ve got a product to pitch. Can you explain it in just two minutes? Or let’s say you’ve got an idea for a movie and want to pitch it to producers. Again, can you explain it in just a few sentences? Successful people can, and it’s this what makes them out from people who are so confused about what it is they do that they simply can’t explain it without costing everyone a lot of time.

Assertiveness

Can you live the life you want on your own terms if you aren’t assertive? Maybe. But it’s tricky. Without assertiveness, we’re quick to make decisions that please other people. We don’t want to take an hour out of our day today to help with someone else’s coursework, but because we don’t know how to say No, we go ahead and do it.

Assertiveness isn’t about being mean. It’s about respecting yourself, so that you don’t let other people walk all over you. It’s about establishing boundaries so that everyone knows where they stand. It’s about making sure you live your life on your own terms as much as possible without being mean to other people. You have a right to say No, if it furthers your personal goals. Remember, your time is precious.

Grammar

Grammar has always been one of important skills for success, but now it’s even more of an asset. Statistics suggest that more American’s will be working as freelancers in 2020 than not. And because most freelance work will be carried out online, it means that written communication is going to outdo verbal communication as a skill.

If you have poor grammar skills, there are now apps like Grammarly that can save your bacon. But what about when you need to compose something on the spot and don’t have any outside help?

Laser Focus

Are you good at focusing on a project? Or do you find your mind wandering after a few minutes? Do you get easily distracted by the view out of the window, or are you able to close the blinds and dedicate yourself to the task at hand?

Successful, happy people are good at focusing on their way, blocking out all distractions. Sure, they like to let their hair down and have fun, and they even have periods of reflection – but not until they’ve finished their task(s).

Time Management

Ever seen a stressed person, running around from one room to another, sweating, clearly frustrated and cursing? Maybe we’re even describing you! Stress does not make a happy person. And poor time management is a big cause of stress. If you can’t manage your time very well, it can lead to miss deadliness, missed meetings – and therefore lost jobs, lost opportunities and work that just keeps piling up. This causes so much stress.

If you can get better at managing your time, it follows that you can reduce a large amount of stress in your life. Moreover, people will be happier with you!

In 2017, we’re all busier than ever. Thankfully there are lots of time management apps available that are free to download, and which will help to improve your skills for success in this area.

Ability To Resolve Conflict

Conflict happens all the time. We need conflict sometimes. It helps us to air our differences so that we can then bring about a resolution that helps all parties move forward. A lot of the time it needs strong people to bring about the resolution. Otherwise, no one is going home happy.

Are you that person? Can you resolve conflict? Or do you pour more fuel on the fire?

Confidence

Is confidence also one of skills for success? You bet it is!

Confidence isn’t something we’re born with, it’s something we develop. Just like any other skill in this article, it’s a skill we can acquire, nurture and use to our advantage for lifelong success and happiness. All successful people are confident. They face just as many challenges as everyone else, but they have enough confidence and optimism to know that all challenges can be overcome. They’ve got to the top because they’ve made darn sure that people know how good they are at what they do.

Believe in yourself and your mission, and you will go a long way.

Grooming Skills

The way you look can have a huge impact on how successful you are and how happy you feel. Find a look that makes you feel fabulous and all your days will be amazing.

Ability To Make People Laugh

It’s not enough that you make other people laugh – you have to be able to make yourself laugh, too. Without humour, the world would be a very dark place! We’d crumble after a bad day, unable to see the funny side. Humour lifts your spirits, shows you that life isn’t so bad, and can be the key to lifelong happiness and part of lifesaving skills for success.

Trustworthy

If people don’t trust you, you’ll find that long-term success is hard to come by. For longterm success and happiness, you need to be 100% trustworthy. People need to trust you if they’re to offer you a job, get into a serious relationship with you, loan you money and so on. Trust is so important. If you can build trust with people, you can build remarkable relationships.

Perception

Ever worked for a boss who had no perception whatsoever? You know the kind we’re talking about: They were oblivious to other peoples’ feelings, had no idea when someone was clearly having a bad day, and had such poor judgement that they always assigned tasks to the wrong people.

If you’re not good at reading a room and can’t decide if a client looks happy or unhappy, you’ll struggle to be a success.

But perception – like everything else on this list – is one of those skills for success that can be nurtured and grown. You need this skill. You need to be able to walk into a room and understand the vibe. You need to understand how people are feeling.

Flexible

Situations change all the time. People cancel and want to meet another time. If you’re flexible instead of stubborn, you’ve got a much better shot at lifelong success and happiness.

Selling

Selling doesn’t just mean selling products – it also means selling yourself. In 2017, this is a hugely important skill. If you can’t sell yourself for a job better than anyone else, you will forever lose out.

People who are getting ahead in life are generally good at selling themselves. If they need a place to crash for the night? They sell themselves as the model guest. If they really want to get into a relationship with someone? They sell themselves as the perfect lover. Selling yourself is knowing what your strengths are, as well as knowing what the other person is looking for. If you’re good at selling yourself, you might find that you get everything you want out of life.

Punctuality

Lastly, no one likes it when a person is always late. Show up on time every time and people will appreciate it. It can be the first stepping stone to success. Always show up for other people and for yourself. Turn up late and success becomes a lot harder to come by.

Do you have other skills for success and happiness to share?

Stay happy!

from Beauty And Tips Magazine