HEALTH FORUM
HEALTH FORUM
Life Skills for Youth By Phil Andrews
Life skills, mentoring and leadership development is are incapable of seeing in ourselves. essential to our youth’s success in the new global econoLife skills, when combined with mentoring and my. Life skills enable our youth to navigate many of life’s leadership development, offer three critical compochallenges and helps them to develop the competencies nents to ensure that today’s youth enter the marketneeded to survive in an ever changing environment. place ready, able and willing to succeed at the highest Skills provide readily available tools to deals with many levels. Leadership development is essential. Leadership of the life situations that youth will encounter on their begins within us, and is translated through the decipath to adulthood. Life skills encompass such things as sions that we make daily. Leadership is doing the right time management, financial literacy, emotional intelthings when no one is looking, and it is the hallmark ligence, decision making and problem solving. In the of champions. Most research shows that so much of area of time management, youth need to effectively what we become as adults is largely shaped by our early manage one of our most precious resources given to us years of development. It is for this reason that life skills, in life (a 24 hour day). Planning is an important tool in mentoring and leadership development should be the every person’s life. Marcus Garvey stated “To live life foundation of a young person’s development from early without planning is to live life as if it is not a serious childhood, adolescence and young adulthood years. thing” and he also talked about planning your life 50 Mastery in life skills, mentoring moments, and leadyears in advance. ership development are a lifelong jourFinancial Literacy is also critical beney and there is always that higher level cause a large part of our life is surrounded we can achieve in life. Problem solving around finance and it affects our quality and critical thinking skills often take of life. Every young person should read into account all of our life experiences, books on personal finance, take a basic books we have read, and the number of financial course, or speak to those indiways we look at problems. Sometimes viduals in their community that have set we need to just think before we take acan excellent example of what it means to tion which often leads to making betbe empowered in the area of finance. Beter decisions. One thing is for sure our ing smart as an individual is great, but we lives will be filled with opportunities to must also learn that self-regulation is part make decisions. Youth must remain like Phil Andrews, President of Long Island of the puzzle. How we get along with oth- African American Chamber of Commerce, Inc. sponges absorbing all that life has to ofers in life can also heighten our capacity fer in the areas of life skills, mentoring to grow to higher levels in life. opportunities, and leadership development on a daily, I recommend that every human being work at sharpmonthly, yearly and lifetime basis. ening their listening skills. How many times have you At each step of life youth must ask themselves these heard something that helped you in life by paying attenpivotal questions - Am I all I ought to be? Am I all I am tion to the details of an enlightened conversation? Life capable of becoming? These two questions are certainskills can also be enhanced by the mentoring experily more than able to take a lifetime to master for both ence; mentoring is said to be “the gift that keeps giving”. young people and adults. I am confident that today’s A positive mentor in the life of a young person serves youth can achieve a high level of success in their lives as a guide and a skilled listener, to the mentee, can help through the combination of life skills training, mentordirect him or her to make the best choices in life and ing support and leadership development strategies and expand their possibilities by giving them helpful input they will continue to bring fresh and innovative ideas from their own life experiences. All adults were young to the forefront in the new global economy. at some point in their lives, and often undervalue their Phil Andrews is the President of Long Island Afriexperiences of how they became productive adults. In can American Chamber of Commerce, Inc. serving the fact, mentoring can help us at each and every stage of counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Queens, and Kings Counour lives. It is said that we all have blind spots and othties. You may contact Phil Andrews @ info@liaacc.com ers are often able to help us to see things in us that we or via telephone @ 347.475.7158.