The Youthzones staff was lucky to spend a morning with Merle Friedman (PH.D) and we had the chance to talk about life-skills and life change. What struck me is how friendly and appreciative Merle was, not showing off her knowledge, but encouraging us and helping us carefully. A few things stood out: Always focus on the positive, discuss and look at strengths of a person, not weaknesses. Also, try to help people not to make mistakes that will lead to shame, most people already feel bad…

I have never met a person who do not think their opinion is as important and clever as anyone else. But how smart we really are depends on input, the quality of what goes into our eyes and ears every day. Want to evaluate your real IQ? Analyse what you hear and see from day to day. That includes quality of friends conversation, radio and TV. 

Attached a…

This is a reminder that the life-skills competition closes on 1 December. 

All groups must submit their written updates and photos asap to admin @ youthzones .co.za or to Doc or Schalk. 

The winners will be determined by independent consultants.

All the best!!

The soft skills we normally learn as children or pick up along the way can change the course of history.

How a person communicates, how one reacts to criticism or in a situation of conflict-can have great consequences. Leaders are skilled in two areas: managing their own lives and managing their relationships with other people. Just as we need to learn and practice football, netball or basketball skills, so we have to practice our life-skills.

One of my golden rules is: “never…