I chose this mission to be my first one because I think it is very challenging. I would begin by saying that we all have skills. Many of us don’t know that we have so many of them that we could do anything we wanted if we dared. There are lots of people who avoid writing a résumé because it is awfully painful. Thinking about YOUR skills, what YOU can do, what YOU’ve learnt to do is a difficult process. I remember when I first wrote my résumé - It took me 2 days to decide what I was going to write and even then, I wasn’t 100% pleased with it.
So what are skills? According to www.thefreedictionary.com, a SKILL means “Proficiency, facility, or dexterity that is acquired or developed through training or experience”. So let’s see how many skills I can think of right now…How many of them do you find yourself in?
- singing, or playing an instrument
- painting
- drawing
- photography
- sculpture
- theatre, cinema (acting)
- dancing
- sports.. from playing golf, to being able to cross the Channel by swimming, to football or ice skating
- being able to work independently
- analyse skills
- being self-motivated
- working under pressure
- getting along with other employees (yes, it is a skill!!)
- being organized
- communication skills
- stress management
- repairing shoes (I bet you haven't thought of that yet)
- organize projects
- writing (fiction, poems, plays,etc)
- fishing
- woodworking
- being detail-oriented
- managing a budget
- customer-oriented
- mathematics: analysinc, calculus
- programming
- architecture, design
- fashion
- being able to do teamwork
- time management
- working with specific computer software
- gardening
- speaking in front of an audience
- handling data
- listening
- driving a car
Despite the fact that I didn't write "learning skills" down in the list, I think that this is the most important skill. If we know how to learn, we can learn almost anything. We can learn, for instance, how to be able to manage our life and work. We learn to manage our time, we learn to work under pressure, to interract with others, to listen and communicate, to manage a budget and organize our life, after all. I don't think that there is a specific way of learning how to learn, it comes from experience, from motivation, from US and OTHERS.
As for me, I am pleased with I’ve learned so far, although I have moments when I ask myself “What if I had chosen another path in my life?” . When I don’t do that, I think of what I’ve learned and I realise I know so little! I often look up admiringly at my father and I am wondering when I will ever be able to know as much as him. But meanwhile, I am trying to develop my skills (some of them listed above), to become a reponsible, self-confident adult.
Most of all, my studies here in France helped me realise what my skills really are and I’ve become aware of the fact that you must NEVER underestimate yourself or your skills! Just have the guts and learn how to sell your skills!
Hello, Florina!
Nice to meet
Hello, Florina!
Nice to meet you!
It’s very interesting what you wrote and I really agree that all of us we have to learn how to learn and that we could learn anything, you know how they say : Nothing is impossible, the word itself says: I’M Possible:)
But, I want to add that we have to take in consideration also the talent that you are born with, and wich you have to work a lot in order to develop it. I mean, yes, we could learn anything, that’s how they learn us in schools, a little from everything but not everyone has talents for drawing or dancing or not everyone is given to understand sciences or to practice medicine, that’s why we have many specializations.
The idea that i am trying to say is that in my opinion we have to discover first of all what are we the best at and after that trying to “sell” our skills.
Look, for example, i have a very good friend, she had nothing to do with music, she doesn’t even know the piano notes, but when she hears a melody she can reproduce it in 2-3 minutes only by hearing the sounds. And i was really amazed because I took classes of piano and I could see other people who learned technical things that you could learn, but they didn’t had the sense of music.
So basicaly, I agree with you, but we have to take into the consideration our individual talents and to develop them.
@Daniela Cantir
Hi Daniela! Nice to meet you too! 
Yes, you are 100% right when you say that skills are not enough for success! Talent is also important and some sort of born affinity for a particular subject. And LUCK too. At the right moment. I understand your feeling about your friend, it is frustrating, but this is the way it is…learning is not enough for proficiency…Sometimes, try as you might, there is this person who never studied the subject all her/his life that gets it better than one who worked hard…
hi
Hi, Florina, I didnt mean it is was frustrating, i mean you just have to know your talents and here I think the parents have a big impact and they have to learn how to know their children’s skills and orientations for a certain domain and it’s a very important thing in education and to support them so that when they grow up they know what they want and what they are good at, because the case with the piano that i’ve told you, my friend wanted to take piano lessons since she was little but her parents didn’t think she was good at this, but now i can see she has a hidden talent that she should develop because she has this sense of music and she is good at it even if she didn’t learn anything and for example si always complaints that she doesn’t understand accountancy course from school meaning that she is not good at that even if she studies a lot…and on the contrary there are children who took classes and tried to study piano because their parents thought it’s good for them, but they didn’t have this affinity for this.
Btw, your painting is beautiful:) did you take classes or smth? my father is a painter so i appreciate very much the art
Hi there
Of course, parents play a very important role in their children’s future. That’s why they should encourage them to do a lot of extracurricular activities when young. With time, they choose whatever they like most. So I totally agree with you on this topic! When I was in school, my music teacher told me I was not good at singing, but she was SOOO Da*n right!!
Thank you very much, Daniela! No, I have never taken classes because I never dedicated much time to painting (because of school mainly), but I intend to buy a book with techniques&other secrets about painting, because there are so many things that I need to improve:) What about you? Have you ever tried painting?
You’re talented:) I didn’t try oil paintings, even if my father’s paintings are mostly on oil , but generally i like to paint, draw…
Good point
Hello, Florina and Daniela, I think you are both right. There is a sense that you can, indeed, teach yourself new things, so that your skillset is not fixed in time, like Florina says; but it is also true that, when selling, it is better to have something unique or excellent to sell - hence the specialization, like Daniela says.
Me, I sell my time as a project manager, or as a scholar; but my most important skills are storytelling, divination and forgiveness.
@Alberto
Alberto, as you are a project manager in the first place, I’m persuaded that you already have some experience which enables you to know how important is to know how to make an advert out of your skills, especially on a cover letter. This is what I had in mind when I wrote the article. You try to sell WHAT makes you THE ONE and you do it as good as you can, even if you might not have particular skills. But I think that all of us have - let’s say- special skills that we are (maybe) not aware of, I’m perhaps a bit dreamy. I agreee with both of you, but when you don’t find that thing which makes you unique, you just try to get the best out of what you have, right? I have maybe missed some points, I’ll come up later when I remember them.
Storytelling again
Well, when you write a cover letter you are essentially telling the reader a story about themselves. “Dear Madam/Sir, your Edgeryders project is trying to make sense of the transition of European youth to adult life just at a time when the dialog between the young generations and the institutions is at its weakest. Youth prefer to interact with their peers, something that they can do globally thanks to the pervasiveness of the Internet [put some statistics on Facebook uage here]. This makes your task very difficult. But what if you could be engaged with them in online dialogue, and steer that dialogue towards addressing the questions you care about? That is difficult, but I can help you. I have done similar projects [put in some projects here]… am the author of [some publications on the issue of online collaboration]. Your project has the potential to break new ground in youth engagement, and I am sure we, together, could do a great job!”
So essentially the story is: (1) you are in trouble, young people won’t talk to you; (2) I can help you, I have the expertise; (3) together, we will turn a moment of difficulty into a success, and you from a struggling organization to a cutting-edge one. Notice that “I am THE ONE” is just rhetoric: anybody with similar skills can be “the one”. But you are convincing, because you link those skills to the problem at hand.
It is storytelling, in my opinion. That’s exactly how I use it.
And you are good at it
But I’m not that good at storytelling so it makes my task very difficult. But there is time for everything, this is why I’m here, to improve my skills!
As for the cover letter, watch out, you might get an overwhelming number of applications from students soon.^^
Just from pure curiosity-how much time did you spend on writing the previous comment? (basically the first paragraph)
Lots of time to learn!
It took me… I don’t know, it feels like 5-10 minutes for the whole comment.
But I have had a LOT of time to learn. I am 46 years old, and i was writing stories at 9 and songs at 12! I bet you will be much better than me when you get to my age… unless you decide to focus on other skills, like James did on swordsmanship and singing.
So what do you think are your superpowers? Come on, make a guess! This is learning too (and it’s fun).
amazing
Many years of storytelling there! I like to consider painting a superpower. You can check and vote one of my paintings here:
http://www.artlastudents.com/index.cfm/search/detail/entry/1083
Good job!
Interesting point of view!
Thanks
Thank you Diana! Feel free to criticise, I am open for debates
A can do attitude
Thank you so much for writing this 
I have always been faced with people who are very structured around education bringing them skills, and not through a natural affinity or skills learnt in life. Some people are just naturally geared to certain skills. If we all learnt the same things in the same way, we’d be of no real use to anyone else. I find that my skills are writing, Communications Skills and the ability to speak in front of others. I have never been afraid of people who are seen to be somehow bigger than me professionally or personally, and I have a strong passion for clear communication and getting the point across so everyone can have equal understanding of whatever is being communicated.
I completely agree you should never look down on what you can do. I have found this out recently as there are things I can do specifically, but I always believed everyone else could do them to, but that is so not the case. Everyone has their place and what they can do, and even if those skills are similar to others, no one else will be able to present those skills in the same way you can