List #8: 30 Skills We Need But Don’t Teach
30 Lists of 30 to Celebrate my 30th Birthday
The What & Why Behind This Project:
This year I turn 30. And my gosh, I have been thinking about it a lot. I don’t know if it’s the pandemic, or the fact that this milestone is loaded with many societal expectations, but my mind has inundated me with reflections and memories from the past, with questions arising about my life choices and lesson learnt, about my expectations of being a human and about my desires for the future. And this combined with pandemic reflections has meant there has been a lot on my mind….🤔
I started writing a series of questions and lists of all the elements I wanted to capture and articulate. There were a lot, unsurprisingly; 30 years is a long time really! So I gave up on the 1 list idea that I normally write (30 reflections/lessons turning 30) and decided to write 30 lists.
30 Lists of 30, for my 30th Birthday.
Who are these lists for, you might wonder? I started writing reflections many years ago to get to know myself better. And when I shared these raw and real accounts with friends I discovered that what I wrote about my individual journey, touched upon something universally human. Beyond the masks and labels we wear is a messy, beautifully complex life, with highs and lows. And more similar to others than we might think.
So I share them in the hope that you too might feel something — intrigue, joy, resonance or maybe even difference — as you reflect on what it means to be a human. I recognise that my experiences are my own, that some come from a place of privilege and that they may not all be relatable or interesting to you. I know I can’t please everyone, so take what you can…(and let me know what lands!).
So, Back to Lists…
The Why Behind List #8: 30 Skills We Need But Don’t Teach
There is no user manual for being human, but I’ve spent much of the last decade+ building frameworks for and learning some key human skills that I use pretty much everyday in my life. Such useful skills that it baffles me as to why I was never taught them in my teens! Can we teach these skills to the next generation?
List #8: 30 Skills We Need But Don’t Teach
- How to budget, save & invest money
- How to understand the political system and so your vote is more informed
- How to understand the impact (positive and negative) of the food you eat and how to cook it
- How to have difficult conversations, give feedback, compassionately and assertively, whilst owning your behaviour
- How to sit in empathy with someone, without trying to solve their problems or give them advice
- How to feel your emotions fully including the perceived ‘negative’ emotions like sadness or anger, without judgement or shame
- How to deeply listen, read and understand others’ feelings verbally and non-verbally
- How optimise health and energy with sleep, exercise, diet and good boundaries
- How to become self-aware — understanding, interrogating and changing your beliefs and realising that the voice in your head is not actually you but just a narrative you’ve created about yourself
- How to learn anything (learning how to learn)
- How to focus your attention (remove distractions)and be smart in your productivity, not hard
- How to deal with rejections, set-back and change and not let them reinforce negative narratives about yourself
- How to grieve, and hold space for others who are grieving
- How to express and receive different forms of love
- How to slow down and notice more
- How to get to know all your sub-personalities (parts of yourself) and detach yourself from the one that talks the most / you identify with the most
- How to give children love and acceptance that isn’t conditional on them being good, doing well at school etc.
- How to adopt a curiosity mindset about everything including remaining curious about other perspectives without judgment, whilst also staying true to your own principles
- How to ask good questions — that allow others to discover something new, create new thinking and highlight faulty thinking
- How to speak in public with confidence (inc. storytelling) , so that you can share your voice and communicate your ideas to the world
- How to read and understand your body and look after it
- How to tap into and empower your creative self
- How to unlearn
- How to collaborate in teams
- How to understand your values
- How to cultivate good habits
- How to talk to anyone and cultivate meaningful relationships
- How to make good decisions, including identifying your biases and heuristics and the power of reflecting
- How to practice love and kindness (both for yourself and others)
- How to meditate
☕ If you enjoyed reading this list and want to support my writing I would love a coffee!
👉 https://www.buymeacoffee.com/30Listsof30 👈
Your support will help me fund my PhD starting in October 2021 at the School of Design Engineering, Imperial College, London. The subject: Human Connection & Conversation Design. This research lab > interactionfoundry.com
Want To Read More Lists?
I’m publishing one list every day in August (and will add the hyperlinks below).
- 30 Reasons Why I’m Writing 30 Lists of 30
- 30 Questions I’m Living Right Now
- 30 Ways To Have An Awesome Conversation
- 30 Risks I Took & What I Learnt
- 30 Ways to Create and Cultivate Community
- 30 Questions I Reflect on Every Saturday Morning
- 30 Essential Items I Pack Backpacking
- 30 Skills We Need But Don’t Teach
- 30 Things I Wasn’t That Grateful For But Am Now
- 30 Reflective Questions that Lead to Fascinating Conversations
- 30 Signs I am Most Definitely an Adult
- 30 Beliefs I Changed about Myself & Life
- 30 Games I’m Playing in Life
- 30 Confusing Messages I’ve Internalised About Who To Be & How to Live
- 30 Ways I’m Totally Imperfect
- 30 Considerations for Designing Meaningful Human Connection Experiences
- 30 Mundane Experiences That Can Actually Be Quite Magical
- 30 Words To Describe Elements of My Pandemic Experience
- 30 Things I’ve Learnt About Human Behaviour That Show Up Everywhere
- 30 Words I Love
- 30 Parts of Me
- 30 Principles I Live By
- 30 Lessons from 5 Years of Entrepreneurship and Creating
- 30 Health, Productivity, Creativity and Happiness Optimisation Experiments I’ve Explored And The Life Hacks that Resulted From Them
- 30 Things I am Proud of (Achieving) Before 30
- 30 Experiences (& Goals) For the Next 10-ish Years
- 30 Things I Need To Let Go As I Move Forward Into The Next Chapter
- 30 Journal Entries from the Last 20 Years
- 30 Lists That Didn’t Make it to the 30 Lists
- 30 Reflections Writing 30 Lists of 30
Follow me on Medium to read them.
Still Curious?!
💬 Watch my TEDx talk: Talking to Strangers: Having a Meaningful Conversation
📖 Read about some of my work recently published in Entrepreneur.com How to Become a Master at Talking to Strangers
✍️ Stay connected through Conversations With Georgie: The Home of My Thoughts as a Life-Long Learner. Curious. Deep. Exploratory. Real and Raw.
📧 Contact Me: Georgie@Triggerconversations.co.uk
