Resourcefulness: the Skill We All Need to Learn

Disclosure: collaborative post
Pixabay – CCO licence

Sometimes in life, we can be quick to attribute blame to external sources rather than ourselves. If there’s one lesson we can all learn from life right now, with all its pressures, financial strains, and emotional crises, it’s that we can benefit from learning a sense of resourcefulness. Resourcefulness can mean something different to every person; it can involve emotional resourcefulness or financial resourcefulness. But if you think you can sell your old phones to get a bit more money, being more resourceful is something far deeper than that. It’s a behavioural change. So let’s show you some ways to do this and how it can benefit your life.

Prior Preparation

We live in a very reactive society, and resourcefulness is something that we can all benefit from learning. It’s a skill that we should be able to teach our children, and parents who are homeschooling their kids may look at the academic side of education and consider that more important. However, you’ve got the benefit of teaching them real skills that will see them through every aspect of their life, not just up to the point where they may or may not get a degree.

A great example is how you can learn to be more resourceful within your home. It’s something that so many of us would not consider because we don’t have the aptitude or the skill. But, as the saying goes, if you want to learn how to build a house, build one. This means not relying on others but, in fact, making the most of how to tackle a project. If, for example, you want to build a pergola or a conservatory, it’s important to first prepare to assimilate the knowledge.

The great thing is these days there’s plenty of help and resources available online and in person. Providers such as Clear Amber Shop offer various types of roofing and information to help you out. Prior preparation is such an obvious thing, but it helps you anticipate challenges and makes you more proactive in finding solutions which you can apply to every aspect of your life, whether you are building an extension on a house or anticipating parental difficulties. There’s always benefits to prior preparation.

Be Open to Learning

Every day is a school day; however, there are still many others who are stuck in a mindset that we should never admit we are at fault or have any feelings. When we recognise that we don’t know it all, this flicks an important switch in our brains. It means that we are prepared to learn from others.

Being more resourceful is about having the ability to look at something and, rather than refuse to learn it or believe that you can’t, having an open mind, which is so important not just in learning but in life. For example, learning a language is something that we may all think that we’re not capable of doing, especially after a certain age; however, science has shown us that neuroplasticity, the effect of the brain creating new neurons and helping people learn new things, occurs at any age. When we’re older, we have to push it a bit more, but we can always build those connections.

When we tell ourselves we can’t learn something, we can replace this mindset with a more positive attitude and tools such as positive self-talk. When we become open to learning, we develop a toolbox that we can draw upon in many aspects of our lives.

Understand Yourself

This goes back to the notion of an ingrained blockade that we’re not able to do certain things because we believe ourselves incapable. Understanding our limits and our strengths are two particularly important aspects of our lives that don’t just ensure that we enter a situation with the right attitude, but also mean that if we don’t have the ability to do something, we are ready to develop our knowledge base.

A great example is in terms of our finances. We can think that we are bound by our financial limitations because of how much we get paid, but we can become more resourceful in a financial sense, for example, by determining priorities, focusing on saving, and carefully monitoring our expenses.

When we understand ourselves and we have an insight into our behaviours, we can make certain changes or become more aware of our abilities, and this results in a far better quality of life financially or not.

Becoming more resourceful is about making the most of the resources available, whether it’s an object, a skill, or a relationship. Therefore, if you increase the resources available within yourself, and adopt some of these approaches, you can develop the ability to find more innovative and efficient ways to overcome challenges in various aspects of your life.