Ever find yourself just sitting around at home, bored, not really doing much of anything but feeling like you could be doing something more productive with your time? Many people feel that way sometimes, and the best remedy is to find some type of skill or talent that you can work on that is going to be fun, useful, but ultimately not something too serious.
Here are some ideas for skills for teens to learn when you’re just hanging around, looking for something to do. These skills or talents can be useful in different ways, even if that just means as a way to start a conversation.
5. Learn to Count Cards
This won’t get you very far if you’re going to try to use this trick at a casino. Casinos make it difficult to count cards, and they know how to spot it very easily. Still, it’s a fun skill to develop to give yourself an advantage if you’re playing cards with friends.
It comes down to simple addition and subtraction, and once you get the hang of it, you’ll have an advantage anytime you’re playing card games for the rest of your life. You can also choose not to this skill when you don’t want an advantage, it’s up to you!
4. Learn Mind Tricks
There are a lot of different and interesting tricks that the human mind can do. Whether it’s something like neuro-linguistic programming techniques or memorization tricks or just fun illusions and brain hacks, learning a few of these will give you something to talk about whenever there’s a lull in a conversation, and you never know when they could come in useful.
“The brain is so powerful, the mind is so powerful when you learn to control it. It’s about understanding how your mind works and then controlling your mind to act in the way you want it to. There’s always more to learn, always more to discover.”
Sebastien from ControllingMinds.com.
3. Expand Your Horizons
Everybody on this planet could benefit from expanding their horizons in life. Whether you’ve never read a single passage, so you decide to read some bible verses for teenagers just to gain a little more perspective, or you want to learn what life is like for foster families by reading about fostering teenagers, or you decide to look at some local teen volunteer opportunities to meet new people and improve your community, there are so many ways you can get outside of your comfort zone a little bit and expand your horizons to make your own life better, and to make life better for the people around you.
2. Improve Relationships
Is there a friend that you haven’t talked to in a while? Somebody in your life that you owe a heartfelt apology to? This isn’t really like the other skills or talents that you can work on, but it will definitely improve your life – if you’re able to be introspective, and to build bridges, and to just get really good at keeping in touch with your pals and letting them know you’re there if they need you.
Also, get into the habit of thanking people when they do something for you, whether it’s a full-on thank you note, or even a quick phone call or a text. When someone gives you a gift or goes out of their way for you, and you recognize it, they’ll feel a lot better about what they did!
1. Personal Finance
Learning the basics of budgeting, saving money, and how investments work. Stick to the basics, don’t get caught up in trends or anything that sounds too good to be true, and you’ll be way ahead of most people your age. Even if you can’t open a bank account at 17 years old or younger, you can get one if you have a parent who will help you out by opening it with you.
