Amidst a burgeoning interest in the improvement of life skills, there is concern that literature is better at teaching contents and facts than skills. This concern diminishes the potential to build essential life skills. As a result, efforts have been made to demonstrate how it can be used to teach the ten WHO-identified life skills (namely, decision-making, problemsolving, creative thinking, critical thinking, communication, interpersonal skills, selfawareness, empathy, coping with emotions, and coping with stress). This proposed direction gears towards a learner-centered method with a focus on "learning how to know" rather than "learning what to know." This study contributed by explicating how learner-centered methods (specifically, brainstorming, group work, critical and creative thinking, the interactive method, the discussion method, inquiry-based learning, and discovery learning) can improve life skills. O. Henry's "The Last Leaf" was a case study to illustrate how to teach prose for life skills. This study also argues that skill-based teaching approaches, as opposed to content-based ones, can improve students' life skills and lead to a deeper understanding of the short story. This study lays the groundwork for empirical inquiries into the potential of literature for life skill improvement.