Unlock your SkillSets
We play real-life Candy Crush every day. We unlock a new level every time we develop different skills.
In real life, students earn badges in schools, soldiers earn badges in battles, and now anyone can earn badges in apps. If we achieve a badge, we are motivated to do it again, learn more, or come back.
Our brains are wired to unlock the next set of skills that can potentially develop in us.
My Candy Crush level started at level 1, but I have unlocked many skills with practice and mastery and earned up to 7 big badges I can think of, but I am discovering more as I reflect on this idea.
This has been my game plan:
When I was growing up, I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to study. Interior Design was my first career option. But I never really took any design courses because my school, at that time, didn’t offer exciting design courses other than the yearbook course.
But, I was good at biology, chemistry, and physics. I was good enough to get into the Advanced Placement courses (University Level courses taught in high school) and earn the student of the year award for excelling in these.
Badge 1: In these courses, I learned to study, to learn concepts fast enough to apply them in class.
I unlocked the following skillset as I moved to the US to get my BA, earning my next badge. My first badge, the “How to Study” badge, got me into TUFTS University’s Biomedical Engineering Program. A year into the program, I knew I didn’t want to be in a lab all day long. I enjoyed being around people. So I decided to switch over to Child Development and Education. I felt at home here. I knew I understood people, but could I get the skills to be an effective teacher?
Badge 2: During my college years, I earned the “effective teacher” badge. I learned to understand people’s needs, skills, learning styles, and knowledge gaps to tailor education styles and lesson plans.
Back then, I knew I had more to unlock in my life. Now I am on badge 7, learning a skillset at a time. I have been through
Badge 3: Teaching, where I learned how to manage a classroom and its participants
Badge 4: Starting a Business, where I learned everything about beginning in the business world and how to grow a company.
Badge 5:MBA, where I learned that most of what a business is about is its clients, the experience, and the product.
Badge 6: I earned “The Octopus Mom” badge. I have learned to manage a household, its finances, and caring for my husband and two daughters.
Badge 6: Corporate Coaching, where I learned that making the right questions can unlock healing conversations.
Badge 7: Write of Passage, where I got the confidence to share what I am sharing now.
My badges are unique to my experiences, but they show the skillsets that I have been able to unlock through each experience or degree.
Life is about skills, not degrees. The bundle of skills you have will be your unique proposition to this world.
Unlock your badges, show the potential in you.
