10 Important Things You Don't Learn In School

10 Things You Don’t Learn In School

Though high school and college are excellent at teaching many valuable skills, they don’t teach many aspects necessary to succeed and thrive in life. And some of these skills are essential to have! In this video, we have compiled the most important things that every person needs to learn in order to navigate relationships and careers, and to be a well-rounded, successful individual.

Number 1 - How To Think You have many duties and responsibilities in life. And the decisions you make have serious consequences. Some immediate, and some delayed, affecting not only you, but others as well. Making the right choices could literally mean the difference between happiness and remorse, success and failure, and so on. You need to be equipped with the ability to think through scenarios and situations which inevitably come up in life.

Number 2 - Conversation Skills Throughout your life, you will find yourself surrounded by other people. Be it your family, spouse friends, co-workers or boss. All of your interactions will require certain social norms, such as mutual respect and give-and-take. Today’s younger generation, are more accustomed to communicating mostly via text messages, email, and social media. With this relatively new type of communication, their personal communication skills tend to lag behind. This can sometimes result in social isolation and not learning from others’ experiences and mistakes. Lacking proper communication skills could be stifling in various ways and even become a barrier to rewarding careers and relationships. Knowing when to speak, when to listen, and how to connect with others are all valuable skills important in the workplace and in relationships.

Number 3 - How to Handle Money Handling money responsibly is a very important thing to learn, and the sooner you learn, the better. If you study business, accounting or finance, you will learn about procedures, financing arrangements and business structures, but you won’t learn all that much about personal finance, investing and saving. Another valuable skill not taught in school is how to establish and maintain good credit. And if you ever want to buy a house or car, you will need good credit. Otherwise you’ll need to have cash and buy outright. That being said, many people don’t know how interest is calculated, what a good interest rate is, how your credit score is affected, and how minimums are calculated!

Number 4 - Relationships & Family Being in a relationship, having a family, and raising children are all hard work. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying they’re bad things, they’re actually all great things, but maintaining a marriage over several decades is hard work. It requires understanding, respect, a strong connection built over time, dedication, and many other factors. And, well, not everyone is cut out for it, but they don’t teach you anything about it in school. Raising children is equally challenging. It’s unlikely that anyone raising a child will tell you that it’s all smooth sailing. Most will tell you that the entire experience is a learning process, and that there was so much to learn that they didn’t know prior to having kids.

Number 5 - Manners It seems as though manners have been on a steady decline over time. But having them is indispensable in a civilized society. Using them properly makes good impressions with people around you, whether it’s your friends, family, teachers, bosses, acquaintances or strangers! It also makes you more respectable. In addition to manners, kindness and respect for all people you encounter is important. If you travel, you should learn about the customs and manners of that society, otherwise you might come off as ill-mannered and you may even offend others by your actions or lack of.

Number 6 - Finding A Job There are two goals of education: The first is to educate, to make students more knowledgeable, and the second is to prepare them for the workforce. Finding a job will be crucial to support yourself and possibly a family. But unfortunately, many people have no idea how to find a job. They don’t know how to write a decent resume, where to start job hunting, or what employers are looking for.

Number 7 - Home & Car For most people, the two most expensive purchases they will make will be a house and a car. Of course, you will probably replace your car several times in your life, but buying one is still a big expense. Both of these purchases involve an extensive process that most people coming out of school just don’t have a clue about. You need to learn about buying and leasing, and figure out what works best for you. Then you need to deal with hard driving salesmen that usually don’t care about what is best for you. They care only about their bottom line, to separate as much money from you as they can. Then once you have the car, you also need good insurance, and there are certain things you should know for proper maintenance. It’s pretty much the same when buying and selling a home… timing, price negotiation, mortgage process and approvals, down payments, dealing with real estate agents, etc. And then, maintenance of the home.

Number 8 - Learning From Failure There’s a misconception that failure means you’ve lost the game in life. This couldn’t be further from the truth. It's okay to fail! Failure is a great life teacher. It teaches humility and how to correct your course of action. Failure makes you tougher and more capable of navigating life’s inevitable ups and downs. It helps you keep a realistic viewpoint of the world. Being afraid of risks is a surefire way to stunt personal development, and when people realize that failure is actually a part of success, they have breakthroughs.

Number 9 - Time Management Time management is critical, and most people drastically underestimate its importance. However, by no means do I imply that every moment of your life should be spent working! The time you spend on leisure activities, hobbies, self-development, and especially family time are crucial for being a healthy and happy person. There should also be certain hours of the day dedicated to your life goals. Managing time effectively keeps you self-disciplined and focused on your tasks at hand. Unfortunately, most people manage time ineffectively.

Number 10 - Survival Skills Accidents can happen at just about any time, and being equipped with the knowledge of first response is important, not only for your sake, but for those around you. Everyone should learn essential skills like First Aid and CPR, making a fire, swimming, reading a compass, navigating a map, and changing a car tire – and that’s just to name a few! Learning self-defense can also be a valuable skill in protecting yourself, should you ever fall victim to an attack. While many schools do teach some of these skills to some degree, they’re not a universal part of the curriculum. Learning all of these things from an early age would not only be beneficial, but should also be imperative. We wouldn't just be smarter, we'd be better people as well. What else do you think we should learn in school that we don’t? Let us know in the comments below!