The Little Book of...

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Let’s face it; life is becoming increasingly challenging
for many people.
The ability to be able to cope with all the constant
change and subsequent upheavals is essential if you
want to survive and thrive in turbulent times.
Developing a resource bank of life skills will help you
to be more prepared, agile and resilient.
Life skills are the abilities for adaptive and
positive behaviour that enable individuals
to deal effectively with the demands and
challenges of everyday life
The World Health Organization
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) divide life skills into
subsets of categories, which include the following:
Learning to know (cognitive abilities) which
involves decision-making, problem-solving and
critical thinking skills.
Learning to be (personal abilities) which involves
skills for increasing internal control, managing
emotions and handling stress.
Learning to live together (interpersonal abilities)
which involves interpersonal communication skills,
empathy, co-operation and teamwork.
In a world that is full of complexity, this book has
been designed to be an easy and light read that
keeps the key messages clear, simple and concise.
It is a toolbox for you to dip into whenever you need
to and choose from it what works best for you.
You will discover a compendium of twenty life skills
and each one has been distilled into five top tips.
These are to support you in improving the quality of
your life and help you to take relevant personal action.
Much of the information you may well be familiar with
and really isn’t rocket science, however it is not what
you know, it is what you do with that knowledge that
really makes a positive difference.
Changing your behaviours
Habits are at first cobwebs and then
they become cables
Spanish Proverb

Over 90% of your daily routine is comprised of

various habits that create your behaviours. Most of
these habits are performed subconsciously, which
means that you are so used to doing them you don’t
Here is some advice to help you to successfully
even think about them on a conscious level!
change and sustain new habits
Remember: you control your habits - they do not 1. Keep it simple - Concentrate on changing just one
control you. Your life is the culmination of all the daily habit at a time and allow yourself to focus
behaviours that you have chosen. You are where you
are right now because of the behaviours that you 2. Make a record - Write down what you are going to
have adopted in the past. do and share your commitment with someone else

It is important to identify which habits in your life lead
to negative consequences and which lead to positive
rewards. The difficulty in this sometimes has to do
with instant gratification. If you change your habits,
on occasions you’re not going to see an immediate
effect.
Experts believe that it takes around 28 days to form
the basis of a new habit or behaviour. The time it
takes to replace an old one is inconclusive because
it depends entirely on the person and how long they
have owned the habit!
3. Identify your first obstacle - Work out a plan to
get over the initial hurdle
4. Use positive visualisation - Imagine what your
new habits looks, sounds and feels like
5. Stick with it - It takes at least a month to
implement and sustain a new habit so be tenacious
We first make our habits, and then our
habits make us
John Dryden
Change Ability
It is not the strongest of the species that
survives, or the most intelligent, but rather
the one most adaptable to change
Charles Darwin
Take Five Tips
✓ Understand why the change is happening
✓ Actively seek out the opportunities
✓ Be positive and open minded
✓ Understand your emotions around change
✓ Take responsibility for your reactions
Communication
The single biggest problem with
communication is the illusion that it has
been achieved
George Bernard Shaw
Take Five Tips
✓ Understand your own communication style
✓ Appreciate other communication styles
✓ Be present when you are with people
✓ Actively listen and focus your attention
✓ Be positive, clear and assertive
Conflict Resolution Creativity
Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional Creativity is inventing, experimenting,
Max Lucade growing, taking risks, breaking rules,
making mistakes, and having fun
Take Five Tips Mary Lou Cook
✓ Understand the benefits of conflict
✓ Consider the other person’s point of view Take Five Tips

✓ Manage your emotional reaction ✓ Be open minded and receptive to

exploring creativity
✓ Seek mutually beneficial outcomes
✓ Always make notes of good
✓ Once the situation is resolved - move on! ideas and inspiration
✓ Go for a walk in the fresh air
to stimulate your mind
✓ Explore and share ideas
with other people
✓ Step out of your comfort
zone and take some risks
Decision Making
Decision is like a sharp knife that cuts
straight and clean, indecision a dull one
that hacks and tears and leaves ragged
edges
Graham Gordon
Take Five Tips
✓ Establish a decision making process
✓ Identify who else may be involved
Empathy
People will forget what you said, people
will forget what you did, but people will
never forget how you made them feel.
Bonnie Jean Wasmund
Take Five Tips
✓ Get in touch with your own feelings
✓ Understand the range of emotions people can
experience

✓ Create a broad range of options ✓ Be genuinely interested in what others feel

✓ Analyse the pros and ✓ Be willing to put yourself in the others person’s
cons of each option shoes

✓ Develop an ✓ Extend the hand of human kindness

implementation
plan
Feedback Goal Setting
Feedback is the breakfast of champions Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life
Ken Blanchard only has meaning if he is reaching out
and striving for his goals
Take Five Tips Aristotle
✓ View feedback as the food of progress
✓ Be responsive and open minded Take Five Tips

✓ Provide evidence to support any feedback given ✓ Positively embrace the benefits of goal setting
✓ Only feed back about something that can be ✓ Be clear about why you are trying to achieve
changed something

✓ Ensure that feedback is a positive experience ✓ Ensure that you record

your personal action plan
✓ Share your plan with
someone else
✓ If it is important to you –
Stick with it!
Healthy Living
The greatest wealth is health
Virgil
Take Five Tips
✓ Refuse the snooze on your alarm
✓ Always eat a healthy breakfast
✓ Walk 10,000 steps every day
✓ Reduce refined carbohydrates and sugar
✓ Eat plenty of green leafy vegetables
Impact and Influencing
Think twice before you speak, because
your words and influence will plant the
seed of either success or failure in the
mind of another.
Napoleon Hill
Take Five Tips
✓ Believe in yourself and your abilities
✓ Be assertive and develop trust
✓ Treat people how you would like to be treated
✓ Manage your enthusiasm appropriately
✓ Be genuine and influence with integrity
Life Balance
When people go to work, they shouldn’t
have to leave their hearts at home
Betty Bender
Take Five Tips
✓ At the end of each day, set your priorities for the
following day
✓ Make a distinction between work and home
✓ Manage your mobile technology
✓ Take “guilt free” time out for yourself
Positive Thinking
Become a possibilitarian. No matter how
dark things seem to be or actually are,
raise your sights and see possibilities -
always see them, for they’re always there
Norman Vincent Peale
Take Five Tips
✓ Make the decision to be a more positive person
✓ Become very aware of your thinking and internal
voice

✓ Balance your work, rest and play ✓ Use positive internal language to condition
your thinking
✓ Challenge any
excuses you make
to yourself
✓ Seek out
opportunities
through problematic
situations
Problem Solving Relationship Building
Problems are to the mind what exercise is The most important single ingredient in
to the muscles, they toughen and make the formula of success is knowing how to
you stronger get along with people.
Norman Vincent Peale Theodore Roosevelt

Take Five Tips Take Five Tips

✓ Be positive and view your problems as ✓ Actively listen to what other people have to say
opportunities
✓ Accept and celebrate that everyone is different
✓ Specifically identify and understand each ✓ Focus on people’s strengths rather than
problem
limitations
✓ Be creative and explore a range of options ✓ Be open-minded and learn to trust people
✓ Determine your goal to help you select your ✓ Develop etiquette around mobile technology
solution
✓ Analyse and review
your problem solving
approach
Relaxation
Take rest; a field that has rested gives a
bountiful crop.
Ovid
Take Five Tips
✓ Build in time every day for relaxation
✓ Identify different relaxation methods that work for
you
✓ Use simple breathing techniques to de-stress
✓ Explore the range of relaxation remedies
✓ Learn to be mindful and enjoy the moment
Resilience
Our greatest glory is not in never falling,
but in rising every time we fall.
Confucius
Take Five Tips
✓ Avoid adopting a victim mentality
✓ Be optimistic and keep an open, flexible mind
✓ Believe in your ability to overcome adversity
✓ SUMO - Shut up and move on
✓ Learn and grow from
every experience
Self Confidence
Make the most of yourself, for that is all
there is of you.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Take Five Tips
✓ Be your own best friend
✓ Take personal responsibility
✓ Understand your strengths and limitations
✓ Don’t beat yourself up if you make a mistake
✓ Strive to be the best that you can be
Stress Management
There is more to life than increasing its
speed
Gandhi
Take Five Tips
✓ Control your thoughts to manage your stress
levels
✓ Manage your time efficiently
✓ Use exercise to alleviate stress
✓ Reduce caffeine, alcohol and junk food
✓ Learn to let go and go with the flow
Time Management
But what minutes! Count them by
sensation, and not by calendars, and
each moment is a day.
Benjamin Disraeli
Take Five Tips
✓ Value your time and other people’s
✓ Review where you are spending your time
✓ Create time management systems
✓ Avoid procrastinating and get things done
✓ Be tidy and organised
Value and Purpose
It is our choices that show what we truly
are, far more than our abilities
J.K. Rowling
Take Five Tips
✓ Identify your purpose and meaning in life
✓ Be the change you want the world to be
✓ Develop an attitude of gratitude
✓ Respect and value other people
✓ Practise kindness on a daily basis
The Learning Architect has developed an online
library of support materials that includes bite sized
life skills information, videos, podcasts, books, tips
and articles
For complimentary access please email
info@thelearningarchitect.com
Believe in yourself! Have faith in your
abilities! Without a humble but reasonable
confidence in your own powers you
cannot be successful or happy.
Norman Vincent Peale
www.thelearningarchitect.com
Just a Thought
Yesterday I had a thought.
That thought became an emotion
That emotion turned into words, the
words fuelled action,
The actions became a habit.
My habits are my character,
My character defines
my destiny.
Today, therefore,
I’ll think about my
thoughts a little more.
©Liggy Webb

www.thelearningarchitect.com