7 Habits You Need To Succeed In Life That You Were Not Taught In School

You are out of school and suddenly you face the qualms of life – joblessness, insecurity, rejections and nothing you learned in school prepared you for this whacky world.

In school we are taught so many things but most of them are just for the sake of passing exams. Nothing prepares us for success in life. This is why Dr. Matiang’i and his team are fighting so hard to change the education system in Kenya.

As we wait for that to happen, here are essential skills you need to succeed in life that you won’t be taught in a typical classroom setting.

Related: An Open Letter To 20 Something Young Kenyans 

Skills You Need To Succeed In Life

1. Spotting a Scam

You have probably been a victim of a job scam or know someone who has been. This is one of the essential skills that four hours of a lecture will not teach you.

This is why so many graduates continue to fall victims to these man eaters who are out to make some quick cash out of desperate job seekers.

Let’s face it, you are looking for a job and clearly you don’t have 1K or even as little as 100 bob to pay someone to conduct a background check so that they can give you a job. So it’s essential that if you are to succeed in life, you need to know how to spot a scam.

Read here a comprehensive report on 7 Smart Ways to Spot a Job Scam For Kenyan Job Seekers.

2. Negotiation

There isn’t much room for negotiation in a classroom setting unless the lecturer or teacher is in particularly good mood.

However, as you enter the big bad world of adulthood, you start to realize that negotiation is one of the key skills that you need to have.

3. Saving

No one in school will teach you how to save. Worse, there are no lessons on the importance of saving. This is one of the essential skills that you learn in life after several years of not accounting for your money.

If you are to get ahead in life, you need to arm yourself with the know-how on how to save. And not just to save but saving to invest later.

Related: 5 Best Saving Tips If You Earn Between 15-50K For 2017

4. Networking and socializing

This is one of the skills that I love insisting on that you will never be taught in school. Most people make the mistake of thinking that social media is all about the number of likes that you get on a Facebook post. It is much more than that. It could mean the difference between you being offered a great job to being job less for a while.

You need to look at the big picture and see social media in a whole different way. It’s not all about posting provocative pictures but you can use it to network for jobs.

Related: 9 Ways To Use Linkedin For Your Job Search 

5. Work Life balance

School is all about working hard to improve your grades but what the teaching professionals will never teach you is how to balance your life in order to achieve happiness and therefore succeed in life.

Being able to balance between all what is happening in your life is essential if you are to achieve your goals.

6. Learning from failure

The harsh reality of life is that things will not always go as you planned. Sometimes you will apply for a job and never hear from the recruiter which happens a lot. At other times you will attend an interview that you think is part of your big break only to never hear from the interviewer.

School will never prepare you on how to deal with these harsh situations. Because of this, so many job seekers end up sinking into depression because they were never taught how to learn from failure.

Related: 5 Ways Of Coping With Job Search Depression 

7. Expecting the unexpected

I say this not to bust your bubble but expecting the unexpected is one of the rules in life that everyone is supposed to live by. The world is an unpredictable place and as such you should always expect things to go in a different direction.

Putting yourself up for the fact that anything can happen can drastically improve your personality and help you fight those tough battles you will encounter in life.

You have been to school, and have already acquired the necessary knowledge to wade through life but that’s not enough. You need to possess the above life skills if you are to succeed in life.

Related: 10 Signs You’re Succeeding In Life Even If You Don’t Feel You Are

Lilian Wamaitha, a Communications and Digital Marketing Officer at Career Point Kenya. Contact her via lilian@www.careerpointkenya.co.ke. Click here to like us on Facebook.