Our life requires us to have a particular skill for everything that comes our way in daily life. It could be anything that adds or makes our life easy to become successful. From personal skills, interpersonal skills, writing skills and numeracy skills- wait, there is no definitive list of skills. And there can be a number of these skills we might need to improve to succeed in various areas of our lives.

Skills help us to be successful and makes us a confident and independent individual. But with determination and practice, we can improve or learn any skill. We must have realistic expectations and goals, be organised and continue learning to meet our hope.

As we grow older, I think some skillsets depend upon our need and context and where we are in our life stage. I have listed some which is not a final list and are limited too. However, you might agree with my list, which I feel I could have worked on way earlier to become a “better me”. Hey, but never too late to start working on it while you, HUSTLE! Welcome to life!

The list of skills that I have listed comes from a place where I am more focused on my academic career, which might not be the same for you, but yes, it is essential to polish the skills as per our life context and needs. I have recognised the following skills vital to growing as a person both personally and professionally.

1. Critical thinking: It is one of the essential aspects for our future success as it helps us think responsibly, productively and independently in all parts of our life. It helps make better decisions, happier, improve relationships and ensure our opinions are educated and well-informed. It helps us to question and see beyond cultural norms. On the other hand, remain open-minded with people around us and learn to understand other factors which influence them in making their decisions.
2. Communication Skill: We all like people who communicate, and it is easy to start a conversation. But for some of us, this is a skill that we need to invest our time, efforts and sometimes money. Having good communication can help in our personal and professional life. We want to deliver the message correctly, not to harm but garner a better work or personal relationship.
3. Reading and Writing Skill: From early lives, we are told about the importance of reading and writing skills, but we become blatant. We are reading and writing but never really into it. For me, I am struggling and on a mission to improve. So, what better way than starting reading books and writing a blog.
4. Self-awareness and Empathy: It is an essential aspect of emotional intelligence. Self-awareness is understanding self, and empathy is being able to feel for other people by being in their shoes. I hope to work on myself to become a better version of myself and, at the same time, to be able to understand other people.
5. Management Skills: I am an on-time person. Punctuality is my thing, so I believe it helps us to achieve so many things. However, I wish to develop skills in managing things to be better at what I do. As a mom, a budding researcher in academia and a businesswoman, at times, it is hard to handle. But management is the key! Be it home, office or a new start-up, entrepreneurship, so keep Hustling for your dreams! You got this!

I think the list would go on, and they’re so many skills in different areas and contexts that we need to have. However, it is never late, but you get to work on what is required per your individual experiences. So yes, recognise the skills you want, list them and start developing those skills.

Remember, the current goal is never to be perfect in it but to get started with it. That is the most significant step one needs to make in building a skill. So let us START TODAY !!