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In this article, I want to share with you three skills vital to your success and happiness that only the elite master.
These skills can be highly overlooked. A lot of people may not realize that these are foundational skills for a better life, learning, making more money, and getting smarter, healthier and wealthier.
The thing about these skills though is that nobody wants to master them.
The path to mastering these skills can be really hard, scary, and long. They can completely demolish your ego and are definitely not for the faint of heart.
Are you ready to find out?
Here are the three skills…
- Writing
- Reading
- Speaking
They seem pretty straight forward though, right?
If you take a look at people who have mastered these three skills, they are likely going to be people who are highly successful, wealthy, and intelligent, in many ways (emotionally, socially, etc.).
One thing that’s great about these skills is that even just mastering one of these skills helps you improve the other two skills. They also help you learn and improve other skills.
But there’s a few reasons why nobody wants to master them.
Why nobody wants to master these skills:
1. These three skills take self-awareness.
Self-awareness can be a scary and ugly thing for us. Think awkward and cringey.
Have you ever had to listen to your own voice or watch a recording of yourself and cringed or hated the way you looked or sounded?
That’s self-awareness and not a lot of people want to face that and feel that. It can be very uncomfortable and scary, especially speaking, particularly if it’s public speaking.
2. Schooling can ruin these things
Schooling can make us not want to master these skills even more because in school we were often forced to write and read about things we didn’t care for, things we didn’t want to read or write about.
This is one of the main reasons why many of us don’t enjoy speaking, reading, or writing. Nor do we make any time for these things.
I’ll admit that before I started blogging, I passionately hated writing. I dreaded anything having to do with writing. I was a math and numbers girl. Multiple choice made me happy. Essays made me want to cry and hide (aka procrastinate).
Even if my teachers would grade my writing high or even compliment my writing, I didn’t believe them and I still hated writing. I was still highly self-conscious of my writing and thought I was a terrible writer.
Once I started blogging, I surprised myself. I was shocked at how much I could write and at the ease of it. That’s because I was no longer being forced to write. I started writing about things that I was interested in and deeply passionate about.
This brings us to our next topic.
How to make mastering these skills easier
Make it enjoyable and pleasurable
The way to make mastering these skills easier is to make it enjoyable and pleasurable.
Write what you want to write, what interests you, or makes you feel good. Read a book you actually want to read.
Make sure it’s something you pick, not something someone else picks for you. It can be anything. Speak only about what you want to speak about.
So when it comes to reading, be wary of book recommendations and take them with a grain of salt. Make sure it’s something that actually interests you and you actually want to read, not just the most popular book that everyone recommends.
Start with reading anything. It doesn’t have to be nonfiction. It can be romance or teen fiction. As long as it’s something that you want to read and you’d find enjoyable. And as long as you start.
Remove limitations
You want to make is as easy as possible to start working on these skills. Remove pressure or any worries that can stop you from enjoying these skills.
Pick material for reading, writing, and speaking that doesn’t make you worry about a deadline or a price or judgement from other people.
Don’t worry about trying to write a certain way or read a certain type of book or trying to finish a book by a certain timeframe.
You want to make these things as less of a chore or hassle as much as possible.
Be easy on yourself
Don’t be so critical and judgmental of yourself when you’re learning these skills.
In school, I was under the pressure of receiving a good grade for writing. Our writing can be under a lot of judgement, criticism, and scrutiny which can dampen our experience of writing and lessen the enjoyment out of it.
When I started blogging, I made it clear to myself that it was a journey and that I would figure it out and improve my writing naturally with practice and time.
Writing was a lot harder in the beginning than it is now because of my need for perfectionism and fear of judgement.
My first blog post (which is also my about right now) took me over a year to finish. That’s partly because I started writing it when I only had the idea to start a blog, but it was also because I felt it had to be perfect.
Now I can finish blog posts within a few hours. I’ve even written two blog posts in one day, and not short ones at that.
Practice more self-acceptance and forgiveness on your writing, reading and speaking skills and don’t be so critical of it so early on. Mastering these skills is a long process and no one is born a master writer, speaker, or reader.
Why You Should Master These Skills
Writing
Writing not only helps you communicate with others better, it also helps you with solving problems and managing and dealing with your emotions.
It improves your emotional intelligence and helps you become mentally healthier if you journal and write about your problems, your emotions, your life, your day, etc.
Reading
There are some startling facts about reading.
Only 10% of people who start a book get past the first chapter.
The average American doesn’t even read one book a year.
Yet many highly successful people credit their success, knowledge, and skills to their reading habits including Elon Musk and Warren Buffett.
Reading puts you ahead of the game. It gives you an advantage in your life. It puts you an elite top percentage group of people who actually read and educate themselves.
Reading helps you learn and solve problems. You start to work smarter rather than work harder.
There is so much information out there that can drastically improve your life if you find it through reading.
Speaking
Speaking helps you effectively communicate with others. It also helps you build confidence in yourself and your abilities to present, speak, and communicate.
The skill of speaking can help you in all areas of your life. Even if your skill of speaking has nothing to very little to do with your job or how you make money.
Final Thoughts
The journey toward mastering these skills can be ongoing and grueling, but you will find that it can be very rewarding.
Even if you find yourself to be very skilled in these three topics, there is always room for improvement.
The path toward mastery of these skill is going to be lifelong so it’s best to get started as soon as possible.
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