Lucky Number 7: Skills Everyone’s Gotta Know.
January 16, 2018 by Staff
Filed under Weekly Columns
(Akiit.com) The longer you’re an adult, the more you start to realise there are some quintessential skills that you should have picked up by now; the kind that pretty much every “grown” adult needs to have in their arsenal. Yeah, at a basic level, we’re talking about survival skills, like how to leave the house with your keys and get to the shop and back with the right kind of milk (the on that your girl loves). But that isn’t all. There are tons of other skills that are pretty darn important to acquire. We’re talking about skills that will help you stand on your own two legs in the jacked-up information era, and skills that will help you navigate an emergency with even more style than Roger Murtaugh in Lethal Weapon.
So, without further ado, here is an extensive guide on how to get by when you’re out on your own in the terrifying world of adulthood. Good luck out there.
- You Gotta Know… How To Make A Fire
Sure, the chances of you actually landing in a situation where you
could really do with a fire are pretty slim and, in that event, you’re about 87% sure someone will have a box of matches on them. But it ain’t worth running the risk because you never know when having fire at your fingertips will come in handy. Warmth, light and energy; it all comes from fire, so why not go on YouTube one night this week and check out how to start a fire without matches. It’s the most basic survival need of humans.
- You Gotta Know… How To Grow Your Own Veg
Just because you live in an apartment above a 7-Eleven in Brooklyn, New York City, does not mean you can shy away from this basic need. It is one of the most satisfying bits of skill anyone can pick up. It’s that pride in knowing you can grow food. Trust us, it is a skill. It is one of those processes that requires patience and understanding and time in order to see gorgeous yields of fruit and veg and herbs. You could have space to do it in the garden or a kitchen windowsill that gets a whole lotta sun – whatever it is, don’t waste your chance to learn this skill.
- You Gotta Know… How To Do CPR
It is a hard pill to swallow, but you need to accept that no one is going to out-run death. Not only that, but you don’t know who or when will be threatened next, and that is when having basic knowledge of how to save a life becomes the most important piece of information you can ever hope to own. Yet 70% of Americans don’t know what to do when someone suffers a cardiac arrest. But forget that statistic for a minute and focus on this one: 85% of cardiac arrests happen at home. Why are we telling you this? Because it means the life you can save is most likely going to be the life of a loved one. Heavy but real.
- You Gotta Know… How To Sort Your Car
We’re not saying you’ve gotta train to be a mechanic so that you can repair any problem that rears its ugly head. But there are a couple of skills you need to know, and the first one is how to change a tire. Chances are, you will get a flat while driving through the middle of nowhere-ville on your own. So save yourself a major migraine and learn how to change a tire on your tod. The other skills you need to know is how to jumpstart a car. It’s easy, but it ain’t as easy as just guessing. So learn because this is one of those issues that is super-duper common.
- You Gotta Know… What To Do In An Accident
Accidents happen, right? And it isn’t hard to see why when you think about the fact driving consists of total strangers heading towards each other at 70mph with just a white line dividing them. There is a lot of space for human error. That is why you need to know what to when a truck slams into your car or a cyclist swerves into the road or you are the first to the scene of a pile up. That means checking yourself over, getting details, not saying too much, speaking to insurance companies, speaking to the police and lawyering up. Once again, knowing what to do in the event of an accident is a skill.
- You Gotta Know… How To Negotiate
In business – and in life – there is room to negotiate, and that means there is room to get a better deal and save yourself a bunch of money. That alone makes it a pretty rad skill to have your scabbard. But it isn’t just about going to a market and haggling with a the seller, or bartering with the car insurance broker on the phone or trying to get more out of a client; it is also a great skill to have when negotiating a pay rise or a promotion or just landing the job you’ve always dreamed about. It’s a great way to improve the hand you have been dealt and show you are ready to do battle wherever needed.
- You Gotta Know… How To Tell A Story
Just to clarify, this doesn’t mean you need to read and remember all the words to Pathfinders or your favorite childhood story. We’re talking about have the skill to tell a story, to sell what you are saying, to have something to add when it comes to camping out, to speak in such a way that makes people listen and engage. You want people to enjoy what you have to say and the way you say it and have them using their imaginations as you use gesticulations. Once again, knowing how to orate like you are Obama addressing the nation is a great skill to possess, and also something that will make you a must-have on the camping list because cell service ain’t always going to help keep people entertained.
Staff Writer; Lamont Ford