SKILLS HAVE NO EXPIRY DATE

I have so far talked about the importance of knowing oneself, knowing the YOU. When I talk about the SKILL SET and the importance of recognising them in you, I want you to understand while I understand the need for most of you to squander and look for various aptitude test, psychometric tests and a zillion other that can help you understand this mystery a little better, I do urge you to not base your life decision on them. Yes they are scientific proven, yes they follow a system which is complex and yes they go about in a way that we do not understand and yes they are true. Well so is the phenomenon of ALIENS. I am no authority to comment on either other than the fact that I do not understand them, and hence my apprehension of believing in them completely. So go ahead and take the IQ tests, but use them with care to decode your life.  As for me, I do not think any set of 20 (or even 40) questions can tell me what I can or cannot do. After all Einstein was told that he would never be able to read or write – but wait there were no tests then. But what if there were? Do you think they would have given him the feedback that he would be the revolutionary scientist? I doubt it! They do however tell you, what you need to work at. So like I said, learn to read the tests in the correct manner.

While our life is largely determined by the skills that we may have genetically, our life will largely be determined on SKILLS that we acquire in the course of our life. With all the drumming about that our brain develops 80% by the time we are 8 years old, you might ask if the Learning is actually Age Specific. I think this belief is one of the reasons why parents are running to teach their child everything by the time they are 8, what if they have missed their bus?

I once met a parent who asked me about the Medicine course. Now with all my experience, I did figure that the child in question is young. You would be surprised how different the questions are depending on the age of the child. So I patiently answered questions that were being asked – which country do you think is the best for Medicine? If the child does not get through the medicine, are there any other options? What kind of experiences should they have while in school? What books can you recommend that as parents we should make them read?

After some of these, I couldn’t resist and asked her how old her child was. She was 8 years old – EIGHT!! You might be thinking that it was ok, some parents like to begin early and after all she was only taking information. You might be right!  I would much rather she asked me about Harry Potter!!

As parents we make it our life mission to assist our children reach the pre-determined destination and follow our passion and dream. I appreciate their single-minded determination, I do!! But my concern in most of these cases is what if this is not your child’s passion? And even worse they don’t even know this is not their dream until it is too late? I usually suggest that we should concentrate in helping them acquire skills, skills that they want to. Each of them will add to their intelligence and sensibility. It is an ongoing exercise that brings huge benefits. Degrees, while important and crucial, are not the only deciding factor in the child life and hence we should lend it some focus.

Skills, they are not age specific – no they are not. They thankfully do not come with an expiry date. I read about a grandmother in Uttar Pradesh who mastered the art of Shooting. She was encouraging her granddaughter to shoot and said this is a child’s play, takes the gun and shoots a fantastic round. It was indeed a Childs play for her; she has won many a medals since. Another OLD gentleman started running marathons when people told him he should retire. He is one of the oldest marathon runners in the world and an inspiration to million. While skills are not age specific, I do believe they however come with BEST BETWEEN age. Try to check this date for the skills you want to arm yourself with and then proceed with care.

Now we have established that you really can learn anything if you apply yourself (maybe with exception of being an astronaut, or maybe not!). We have also learnt that there is no age barrier. Hence – Learn some new skills. Each of these acquired skills will take you a long way into your career in the very least and a long way in your life for sure. A lot of young students that I meet want to believe that they have somehow missed the time when they should have learnt something. I am too old to learn how to dance, I am too old to begin skating so on so forth. All I want to tell you all is that let go of this inertia and find it in you to conquer it.

The next question – how do we determine what skills should I acquire?

Best answer to this would really be – what your heart desires. If I lived in an ideal world, then it should be about what we want to do, but since we don’t and we do have to follow the rules set by the society, job market, universities, schools, social clubs etc. The best path to take therefore would be to acquire some skills that your heart desires and some that agree with your career choice. I had explained that you should ascertain your SKILL GAP before you set out to taking courses and classes. Each of these is a skill acquiring systems and you should choose them with care. Determine what SKILLS would benefit you the most in the chosen career route and then move on to acquire them. Sometimes to master them would only require some small workshops/short courses which you can set out to do while you are still in school and/or in college. Let us say you want to be a journalist. It would benefit if you did a radio jockey workshop today and theatre workshop, even volunteer to work with a social group to get firsthand experience. It would give you valuable lessons on Voice Modulation, a skill set that would help you enormously once you make it to the Television. Another huge benefit is the social communication skill that you would develop. This is important to survive this world no matter which field you take on.

So go on SKILL UP, acquire skills and not just degrees. Think about your future career options and link the skills that you must have to excel in that field. These skills could take a long time and/or a lot of effort; prioritize them in accordance to the value they would add for you. If you want to become a journalist, Horse Riding is not going to be a pressing matter, it will however teach you Balance, definitely important. Acquire a new skill, they don’t expire and they last you a lifetime. Begin today!!