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“Learn This And You Will Retire Rich”: 72 Easy Skills To Improve Your Life
Learning new skills is fun and exciting, but it can also be incredibly challenging and daunting. Most people don’t enjoy being bad at something and failing over and over again. And yet, you’ll have a tough time learning anything new if you don’t see your mistakes as opportunities for growth, instead of as failure. Meanwhile, some skills are actually fairly easy to learn and can have a massive impact on your life.
Some helpful internet users spilled the tea about what they see as top-tier, life-changing skills that you can learn in just a few short weeks. Keep scrolling to read their suggestions. We know what we’ll be focusing on in the new year. What about you?
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
First Aid.
It would change someone elses life far more compared to your own. But that someone could be a friend or relative making it life-changing for yourself as well.
RELATED:
#2
Self Control. It's way easier than you think. You start with delayed gratification. You can have the things you desire, but when you want them you have to set an arbitrary time frame that you have to wait to get them. Start with absurdly easy time frames, like 5 minutes. Keep extending the delayed gratification until you feel like you have better control over your impulses. It happens surprisingly fast and will start bleeding into everything you do. Suddenly, you will find yourself rationally navigating even the most impulsive situations.
#3
You could become decently skilled at cooking in a month if you tunnel focus. From there you can take control of your health,
finances and if you get really good, it can help your dating and [intimate] life.
How long it’ll take you to master a skill will depend on, well, the skill itself, how much effort you put in, and how you apply yourself. However, you don’t necessarily need to perfectly master a skill or spend 10,000 hours honing it, to get use out of it.
Josh Kaufman, the author of ‘The First 20 Hours: How To Learn Anything… Fast!’ explained to Forbes that most people are “deeply disturbed” by the idea of being bad at something, even if it’s temporary.
“When you try something new, you’re usually very bad, and you know it. The easiest way to eliminate that feeling of angst is to quit practicing and go do something else, so that’s what most of us do.”
#4
I estimate most people could become financially literate in 100 hours of efficient study: understand the basics of budgeting, saving/investing, banking, insurance, taxation...with potential cost savings of many thousands of dollars in the course of their lives.
#5
Stretching every day. Spend 10-30 minutes a day stretching and some basic yoga moves, your flexibility will improve so much. Also get yourself a foam roller, my back and legs has never felt so good.
#6
If you work in a large company - Excel. Or some sort of data Visualization software.
People will think you’re a genius.
The optimistic thing is that, even though you’ll probably be awful at something in the early hours of doing it, you can quickly improve your skill with even a little bit of persistence and intelligent practice.
According to Kaufman, you could try learning a new skill by first precommitting to putting in at least 20 hours of practice. That way, you’ll find it easier to keep going even if things seem overwhelmingly difficult.
Next, learn just enough about the core concepts of the skill to apply it. And you can always break your learning program up into smaller, more manageable parts. Realistically, after those 20 hours, you’ll become reasonably competent in that particular skill.
#7
Working out regularly.
It's a lifetime journey of learning, but it only takes a few weeks to start feeling comfortable in the gym & get over the worst soreness from starting weight lifting.
Someday, if you're *lucky*, you will be old. Working out regularly can be the difference between being in an assisted living or living independently. (Also being strong is ridiculously fun).
#8
Sewing.
ghostwillows:
This! Mending clothes is the most useful for everyday and it costs almost nothing to start and modern clothes are constructed terribly.
Kaufman stressed to Forbes that the idea of mastering a skill can be counterproductive because it might stop you from exploring it in the first place. Instead, you could focus on having fun if it’s a personal hobby or on performing well enough to get meaningful results if it’s a career skill.
On top of that, you don’t even have to master every skill that you learn.
“I believe that developing new skills in a way that allows you to perform well enough for your own purposes is – by far – the most common and valuable purpose of skill acquisition. Based on my research, reaching that level doesn’t take anywhere close to 10,000 hours – you can usually achieve the goals you set yourself in around 20 hours of deliberate practice,” he told Forbes.
#10
Managing suffering (anxiety/depression, otherwise)
I know it takes a lifetime to feel better, recover from trauma, etc...but learning the skills to deal with these feelings and then implement them doesn't take long to accomplish...the fruits of the labor itself tho takes years, but is something life-changing (speaking from personal experience, as a trauma survivor myself).
#11
Yoga. Since learning yoga, I've fallen in love with exercise, and it's changed my habit of procrastinating on exercise. I feel a great sense of accomplishment every time I master a new yoga pose. And consistent exercise has definitely made my body better; I no longer get out of breath after climbing just a few flights of stairs like before.
#12
Correctly brushing and flossing your teeth. Remember kids, only floss the teeth you want to keep.
Which of these life-changing skills do you think you’d like to prioritize? Do you think you’ll pick any of these up in the near future? What new things do you think you’d like to learn this year? What are the most essential skills that you’ve learned that you think absolutely everyone should know? Let us know!
#13
Learning how to communicate clearly and confidently.
In just a few weeks, you can improve how you explain ideas, set boundaries, and express yourself. It helps in interviews, relationships, negotiations, and even daily conversations. People often underestimate how powerful good communication really is.
#14
Emotional regulation.
Most adults are toddlers with bills.
Learning to pause before reacting is life-changing.
#15
Strategic thinking, i.e. prioritizing the right thing. It changed my life. I used to be busy but doing the wrong things. Now I am pickier on what to invest my time in.
#16
Basic DIY. Being able to fix small issues around the house/car/etc can save you a lot of money, stress, and time, and help you create a space you are genuinely happy with. Start with some basic tools, add to them as you tackle new projects. Also helps you maintain your property so you spend less money on replacements.
#17
Researching information and sources.
So much [nonsense] is fed to society that knowing what is a good source and good information is critical to making good decisions.
People make decisions every day so this is huge in the long run.
#18
Practicing not eating mindlessly+snacking unhealthily. It [is a pain] for the first few days due to carb + sugar withdrawal, but your body adapts quickly and will feel much better.
#19
Heimlich manoeuver. I saved a kid in class one day. He was turning purple. It was so surprising how hard I had to do it to make the piece of candy come flying out of his mouth.
#20
Reading books. I’ve just gotten back into it and I feel with every book I read, I learn something new, either about myself or about life or I just feel a sense of accomplishment!
#21
Salary negotiation- learn it from YouTube
Interview skills- a. Learn it from YouTube b. Practice with ChatGPT giving you Interview questions c. Film yourself at least 4x with your phone practicing your answers, it will CALM your nerves in the Interview.
#22
Speed reading. It only really takes focus to read words on a page without making your internal voice speak them to you as you go. You'd probably be surprised how much you can comprehend accurately by letting your eyes do the work by themselves.
#23
Kicking the doomscrolling habit…!
A few months ago I deleted all those doomscrolling social media apps (I’m lucky I don’t get the urge to doomscroll on Reddit) after a long period of setting screen time limits, ignoring my screen time limits, setting them harsher etc. Just delete it!
I suddenly have heaps more time in my life to do the things I really want to do— and importantly, the motivation to do them!!! It’s really positively impacted my critical thinking skills, my impulse control, my productivity etc.
Yeah, I’m no longer up to date with the ‘trend of the day’ but the ability to form my own opinions about things has been very refreshing.
#25
Take an inexpensive, short course related to your career. A little certificate can go a long way especially since most of your colleagues aren't getting them. Do a couple a year and when you're searching for a new job or trying for a promotion, you'll have a lot to show.
#26
Maybe not drastically change your life, but anyone can learn to type properly in just a few weeks.
El-Snarko-Saurus:
I know most people picture 1950s secretaries taking typing classes and tests as most of the jobs they could get involved that one skill. But I took a computer class in high school where one or two weeks was dedicated to typing/ten key and I work in a highly scientific field now where I watch senior scientists peck at the keyboard to write up their papers and emails and it takes them FOREVER! I guess once AI takes over it won’t be as necessary but I can say that my last 20 years have been greatly efficient!
#27
A really stupid one: juggling. It's not about learning to juggle it's about training your subconscious (cerebellum really) to catch things that you're barely aware of. You can drop a glass bottle you're drinking from and your other hand will shoot out and catch it on the way down before you really realize what's going on. It's the kind of quick reaction time that even sports doesn't teach you, but if you do a sport like baseball, it will help make your catches more automatic.
#29
Socratic journaling. Took me about a month to learn how to regulate my thoughts when dealing with anxiety. The best thing I could do for my mental health and it’s free.
#30
Learning to mind your business is very rewarding. You may think I’m joking but I’m telling you when you mind your business half the stress goes away.
#33
How to fingerspell and some basic signs in your local sign language.
Get the basics of sign language and you can learn new signs as you need them - it will make a big difference in your ability to communicate when you’re older.
Hearing loss is a strong cause of cognitive decline and dementia because you lose your ability to socialise. Hearing aids are a long way from perfect.
#34
Gratitude. Take 1-3min every day before you go to bed and write down/say to yourself 3 things you are grateful for in your life or that happened today.
#35
How to can and properly freeze fresh food, some degree of butchery. How to garden a multitude of vegetables. Bake bread. Some degree of auto mechanics as well. How to read topographic maps and properly use a compass.
#36
Learn about investing. Compounding interest to be specific. It doesn’t matter if you make a lot of
Money during your working years.
Learn this and you will retire rich. I promise.
#38
Going to sleep early and getting a solid 7-8hrs of uninterrupted sleep, try that for 2-4 weeks.
#41
Learning to fold. People think they're achievers if they go all-in. But sometimes you have to call a loss a loss and not go down the drain of sunken cost fallacy. The quicker you get out of a dead end, the better. The best poker players aren't the ones that go all-in in a heads up because they have a full house - the best poker players are the ones that can fold with a full house on hand because they know they're gonna lose to a better hand.
#42
Making your bed perfectly every morning. Sounds dumb, but two weeks in, you’re suddenly a person who has their life together.
#43
Assertiveness skills. Too many people are either doormats or bullies when proper assertiveness lives somewhere in the middle. You learn how to be confident and how to advocate for yourself respectfully, and how to communicate all of that without leaving anyone feeling stressed or not heard.
#44
Practicing mindfulness. It lets go of negative feelings, thoughts, and you start to enjoy and better understand things.
#45
Estimating calories/protein. Everyone eats food. Look at the package or use an app and start getting a reference for how much XYZ has. It has literally guilt tripped me into eating healthy. Do something long enough and it becomes routine. Eventually you gravitate to the healthier choices and it becomes a lifestyle, not a fad temporary diet.
#46
Critical thinking. Helps you make better decisions and avoid potentially bad mistakes. And helps with a lot of other things that make up everyday life that might seem small at first and on their own, but over time become larger and more consequential. Critical thinking makes you instantly smarter in almost all things that matter, without needing to become an expert in all those things.
#47
In the corporate world - public speaking. Getting out of your shell a little bit and having an opinion will do wonders for you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen underperformers get promoted over work horse engineers simply because they speak up more in company meetings.
#48
Welding. With the advent of extremely inexpensive machines and youtoob, it’s very accessible to almost anyone. If I couldn’t weld, I’d go INSANE. Almost every personal project I get involved in includes welding, and I frequently collect some handsome paychecks with those skills, too.
#49
You could get an amateur (ham) radio license in a few weeks of study and be able to communicate with people all around the world. Not to mention become more capable of surviving major disruptive situations and crises. In major emergencies access to communication is everything.
#50
Basic video editing. Seriously.
I learned the fundamentals in like 3 weeks just messing around with DaVinci Resolve (free version) and suddenly people were asking me to edit their videos for events, social media, etc. It opened up side income possibilities I never expected.
Plus once you can edit, you can create content for yourself - which is a completely different skill that changes how you see storytelling, pacing, and communication. Even if you never make money from it, knowing how to tell a visual story is incredibly useful.
The hardest part honestly is just getting comfortable with the software. After that it's just practice and you get better at it week by week. Totally doable in 4 weeks with an hour or two daily.
#51
So, it's hard to say exactly, but I'll throw out "Sentence Composition." I don't mean grammar or grade school stuff, but the strategies writers employ to extend sentences, the ways extending sentences can change how the words in it read, fast and slow, suspenseful or fluid.
I've been reading some on this and, as someone who hated English class, I'm shocked and annoyed how simple some of these ideas are to pick up on.
Edit: I guess I should've added a bit more for people to go on if curious. Rhetoric and Syntax are the main technical terms, but it doesn't have to be a technical study. Check out the article "A Generative Rhetoric of the Sentence" by Francis Christensen (7 pages, free on JSTOR for students or someone with a gmail.).
#52
Lock picking.
SlaughterWare:
I had a bit of free time last summer and thought it might be one of those fantastic 'just in case' skills should the situation arrive where I lock myself out or whatever, and taught myself this from youtube vids. Conclusion? a) it's actually really fun and satisfying as a hobby to pick locks, and b) If people knew how easy it is to do in some cases, they'd freak.
Something that shocked me the other when I rewatched Terminator 2 is that there's a scene in the movie where Sarah Connor breaks out of her cell and she rakes a customized pick exactly like you would in real life, authentically.
Frankly I'm amazed that it was even left in the movie! lol!
#53
You can learn to read and write the Korean alphabet in a few weeks, and it will improve your enjoyment of K-pop.
#56
Document. Especially anytime anyone verbally asks you to do something you are uncomfortable with, in personal life or work. Even if it's just family or friends borrowing money or a personal item. Unless you are fine with never seeing it again.
I learned that in the military. As one example I had a LT and Chief tell me to do something I knew was against our regs. OK. I drew up a "procedure" which happened to include the section of the electric plant installation manual they were telling me to violate. Had them sign it and stuck a copy in my locker. 7 months later, after an external inspection team found it, they called me into the office. "We found out you splicing that feed pump was a serious violation and now we need to figure out what to do about you." "OK, should I go get my copy of the procedure that you signed where I told you it was a violation of the EPISM and you told me to do it anyway?" Never heard another word about it.
#58
Work skills - how to plant the seed for a raise in advance, pitch yourself in interviews or pitch your projects, and manage up so you advance faster. It does not take long to learn these skills at all. The trick is you do need to follow through and be decent at your job, but if you are doing that anyway and not advancing, knowing a little about these things can make all the difference.
#59
Drawing. the ability to draw anything in detail and accuracy is highly unrated. Hand writing and drawing basically allows you to have a better ability to communicate or just have some mild form of entertainment. Alot of people seriously lack penmanship or just a level of artistic design as an outlet.
#62
How to apologize like you actually mean it and follow through with changed behaviour. can turn a relationship that was going to end into one that has improved. pretty hard to stay mad at someone most of the time if they take responsibility, promise to change, and follow through.
how to say no to something without it being an argument until you say yes. state clearly, firmly, then disengage. also sometimes the right words matter. if i told my parents i couldn't do whatever chores they dreamed up 'because i was reading my textbook' they didn't care. but if i said 'i'm studying' suddenly THAT mattered. even though i was performing the exact same action, their perspective mattered. most of the time people are okay with a no and what they really want is to feel valued. so you gotta strike the right balance between just plain 'no' and 'would if i could.' and if somebody in your life is the type of person to argue about every no, tell them, not only do you not have time for that thing they want, you also don't have time to argue about it and the next time they don't take no for an answer, you'll stop answering entirely.
learning how to learn. focus on finding good sources, a variety of perspectives, and how to review so you remember. try the 3, 3, 3 review method: learn something and take notes. review those notes 3 days later then 3 weeks later, then 3 months later. it is pretty hard to forget after that. also focus on what helps YOU learn and often using a variety of learning styles at once helps. visual, written, spoken, hands-on.
#63
Speaking from experience, learning how to weight lift and with proper form. Since weight training in some form is so important and beneficial to health throughout all age ranges and genders, finding a place (like a good CrossFit gym) to learn and become comfortable with weights, lifts and workout format is an extremely useful skill that can then be done at home with the right equipment or in any gym for rest of your life.
#64
Learning how to manage your attention instead of your time. Even small changes in focus habits can have outsized effets on everything else.
#65
Learning to drive a manual car. To be fair it's only Americans who make a huge deal out of it as the rest of the world just does it without much thought but it really opens up a lot of job opportunities and people don't realize that. A lot of jobs that are not delivery driving may still require a lot of driving and being able to drive any car makes you much more useful than someone who can't.
#66
Dancing.
When you learn how to dance, you essentially become much more in-tune with your body and relearn how to simply move.
I remember how when I learned as a teen all of a sudden I started to realize how I was being inefficient with little movements and completely changed them so that I was wasting less energy and getting more out of each movement I made.
#67
Learn to sing healthily, for the health benefits. Popular important songs in different languages. Singing well requires precise coordination of so many muscles you never think about, and striving for that often reveals tensions in your body you don’t realise you have, literally from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. Additionally, musicianship (taught properly) requires combining a whole range of cognitive processes that humans don’t do in any other form, musical practice is truly unique in this way. Singing of course can also be a social activity, there is lots of neuroscience to support the benefits of singing together - both the music itself but also with the addition of languages which work in their own way - but it’s enough to know there’s magic and connection. In all, singing is a unique tool for nervous system regulation and overall physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing, there really is nothing like it. It’s something humans have ALWAYS done. It’s just part of being human.
#69
Honestly you can learn a new language in a month maybe not properly proficient but good enough to watch a show. I learned basic Arabic for a prank on my good friend after he got back from a deployment.
#70
Basic level graphic design.
Then learn as you go.
Eventually get a plotter, cut decals to sell.
Boom, you got a career.
#72
Creativity. Sounds vague, and it could be applied in a countless assortment of hobbies and skills, but the benefits of having a solid level of confidence in a skill that allows you take take creative control has a massive impact on every aspect of your life. Picking a subject and putting 100hours into it will make you hugely competent, and people will notice. Photography, woodwork, painting, writing, whatever.
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