10 Universal Skills

Some skills speed you up in several areas of life at once, others only pay off in very specific circumstances. Here are 10 of the first kind.

A follow-up to Skills That Change Your Life.

There are 2 types of skills: universal and narrow.

Universal skills are the ones that open doors for us or speed us up in several areas of life at once.

For example: knowing English is a door into the world of a billion English-speaking people and creators; the ability to sell comes in handy in any line of work; the ability to negotiate lets you settle things with all kinds of people; emotional intelligence teaches you to control your own emotions and act sensibly.

Narrow skills are the ones that can be extremely useful, but only in specific circumstances.

For example: knowing Vietnamese, being able to give a shiatsu massage, knowing how to operate a construction crane, and so on.

A well-chosen universal skill is like a locomotive that pulls a long line of carriages full of real changes in our life.

Below is a list of 10 universal skills I consider very important:

1. The ability to learn, to find the information you need and to organise what you’ve learned. Being able to pick out and remember the main thing.
2. The art of dealing with other people.
3. Emotional intelligence.
4. The ability to set goals and reach them.
5. Time management. The skill of planning your day and choosing the main task of the day.
6. Public speaking and working on camera.
7. The skill of creating and distributing content.
8. English.
9. The ability to sell.
10. Touch typing. I went through the “Solo on the Keyboard” programme.

Every one of these skills drags a whole tail of pleasant opportunities behind it and can free up a huge amount of time and attention.

So which skills help you improve the quality of your life?