Masculinity is a complex concept that’s hard to pin down, but if there’s anything that people generally associate with being a man, it’s this: to be a man is to be highly capable and productive. Learning certain essential life skills can help you achieve exactly that. For gentlemen of every age, here is a list of essential life skills you should know.
Manage Your Money
Financial literacy is unfortunately an area where many men fall short. If you’re bad with money, it’s never too late to get on top of that. A good starting point would be to examine your relationship with your finances and see what areas need improvement. From there, you can make a budget and start saving.
Another aspect of good money management is learning how to grow your money. Look into investing or starting a side business. It can be anything from repair services to custom T-shirt screen printing. The important thing is to change your financial mindset so be smarter about where your money goes.
Basic First Aid
Basic first aid isn’t just reserved for boy scouts. After all, you and your loved ones can and will get into a minor accident at some point in your life, so it’s good to have the necessary survival skills to deal with that. Learning how to handle a nosebleed, treat a burn, stop a wound from bleeding, and manage a sprain or fracture are essential skills you should add to your first aid arsenal.
Change A Tire
Flat tires are the bane of any car owner’s existence. It’s going to happen to you one day, and while you can’t escape it, you can definitely prepare for it. Help can always come for someone who does know how to change a tire, but there are some situations where that’s just not an option, like if you were traveling out in the middle of nowhere. In this case, the only person you can rely on is yourself.
Ask For Help
Men are conditioned to hold all their feelings in and discouraged from asking for assistance, but that goes against every man’s intrinsic nature to be a social animal. Don’t believe it? Studies have shown that men are far more likely to die by suicide than women. This has been linked to many factors, but it’s mostly due to the fact that men are discouraged from seeking help for emotional problems. There’s nothing weak about asking for help. In fact, it’s one of the most difficult things to do and reaching out should be considered a triumph in its own right. So, the next time you find yourself in a tough situation, the manliest thing to do would be to learn how to ask for help when you need it.
Dress For Success
Just because you can get away with wearing sweats and their grubby old college hoodie to an important event doesn’t mean you should. If you want people to take you seriously, you’ll need to teach yourself the art of dressing for success. If you don’t know where to start, it helps to at least figure out the difference between dress codes like smart casual and business casual.
If you want to succeed in the world as a modern gentleman, these are the most important skills you should have.
