Because of this natural variation, the goal in developing a set of life skills is not to establish a single set of benchmarks for people to use to evaluate their successes in life. Instead, one hopes to develop a framework comprised of skills that may have varying importance for different individuals or in different societies but which, when looked at as a whole, accommodate definitions of success used by most individuals and by most societies.

Finally, the definition of life skills should address how they are used. The most common way—and the way that appears in conventional definitions of intelligence—is through adaptation to the environment (Sternberg and Detterman, 1986). For example, people must adapt to workplace environments and to new responsibilities as their family lives change. Even people involved in creative endeavours, such as authors, artists, and entertainers, must take into account the tastes of their audiences, markets, or clients, as well as changes in the available technologies of production. Individuals can, however, use life skills to shape their environments, such as when a worker modifies a piece of machinery or a production process to increase comfort or efficiency. When neither adaptation nor shaping leads to a successful interaction with the environment, individuals can use life skills to select a new environment, such as when a person decides to change workplaces, move to a new location, or become friends with a new group of people.

Therefore, for the purposes of this study, we define life skills as:

skills or abilities individuals need in order to achieve success in life, within the context of their socio-cultural milieu, through adaptation to, shaping of, and selection of environments.

The following sections examine various theories and models related to life skills to see if there is consensus or convergence on particular skills that fit this definition.