As a grown man, there are a lot of life skills that you are not taught in school. This is unfortunate. Never in my life have I had to use Shakespeare, never. However I spent hours and hours in class and outside of class reading and analyzing his writing.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to start thinking about teaching life skills first and liberal arts skills last. Education should be approached like Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. Maybe we should teach people how to survive before trying to get to enlightenment. Schools are taking the wrong approach.

Over the next series of HTBGM, we’re going to focus on life skills. I think the following 10 life skills are a great place to start. Let’s get you focused on the things that matter and save Shakespeare for a depressing, rainy, English day!

1. Financial management: Budgeting, saving, investing, and managing debt.
2. Health & Fitness: How to feed yourself and take care of your body
3. Communication: Verbal and nonverbal communication skills, as well as the ability to listen actively and effectively convey ideas.
4. Problem-solving: The ability to identify problems, generate solutions, and make decisions.
5. Conflict resolution: This includes the ability to handle conflicts and disputes in a constructive and meaningful way.
6. Interpersonal skills: This includes the ability to establish and maintain relationships with others, as well as to work effectively as part of a team.
7. Survival Skills: How to take care of yourself when there’s no one else to take care of you and / or when shit goes down.
8. Business Skills: How to survive and thrive at the workplace.
9. Basic home maintenance: This includes skills such as changing a tire, fixing a leaky faucet, or replacing a light fixture.
10. Emergency preparedness: This includes knowing how to respond to emergencies and natural disasters, and having a plan in place for these types of events.