Take 5: 14 May 2018 by Mrs Serene See Toh
Good morning Mdm Tan, Mrs Selva, Mr Chung, fellow colleagues and all Gessians.
On 16 April, my colleague, Mrs Palan, shared an interesting story about a psychologist presenting his course materials on stress management principles to his audience who were adults and students. In the story, the psychologist walked to the table in the middle of the stage and poured a glass of water. The psychologist raised the glass of water and asked his audience, “How heavy is this glass of water I’m holding?”
Mrs Palan’s story highlighted the importance of letting go of our stresses and worries. No matter what happens during the day, as early in the evening as we can, put all our burdens down. Don’t carry them through the night and into the next day with us. If we still feel the weight of yesterday’s stress, it’s a strong sign that it’s time to put the glass down. Mrs Palan reminded all of us that it is important not to let these challenges and unhappiness we faced bother us for too long. We must learn to let it go meaningfully and move on with life happily.
So how do we let it go meaningfully and move on happily?
Let me have your attention as I am going to continue to share a personal reflection that I hope may be helpful for all of you in facing your challenges and remind you of our core values RESILIENCE & DISCIPLINE.
Point 1:
Letting it go does not really means actively avoiding things we feel pain or negative about all the time. The first step to achieve happiness is to embrace the times of sadness, times of challenge and negativity. Steer them into experiences that give our life meaning and growth and strength. We should learn from these challenges and unhappiness and move on for our future happy experiences.
The truth is, there is no such thing as “permanent” happiness. In fact, we cannot feel “happy” unless we have something to compare it to. Most of the happiest celebrations usually comes after we have overcome something.
Point 2:
In order to have long term happiness, we must always gain freedom in how we get to spend that time. Gain freedom for ourselves means that we need to be resilient to discipline ourselves and show that we protect and spend our time wisely in fulfilling our responsibilities.
So what is personal discipline?
Perhaps to truly put yourself to the test would be, do you own your phone? Or your phone owns you? Are you in control of your time or is the phone controlling your time?
Sometimes we hide behind denial… the denial that we can quit our bad habits any time we want to. But in reality, we cannot. Because we lack personal discipline.
Similarly, you are defined by the people you surround yourself with, not by your excuses for keeping the wrong people around. Personal discipline requires us to have the courage to make difficult choices.
Discipline is not a set of restrictive rules; discipline is a personal framework we can adapt for ourselves to structure our life and help us make better decisions. We should be the pilot of your own time.
As you return to your respective classes to check your examination scripts today, I hope you will embrace whatever results you had positively.
For those who have done well, embrace the happiness for your efforts have paid off. Be grateful for all the people who have pulled you along, during this challenge. Do not be complacent but continue to protect and spend your time wisely through resilience and discipline.
For those who have not done so well, embrace the disappointment and sadness positively. Steer them into experiences of growth and strength. Always seek to question what went wrong and how you can be better. Adapt a disciplined framework to structure your life and to help you in becoming better. Protect and spend our time wisely through resilience and discipline. You are always empowered with how you want to use your time wisely.
Thanks for listening to my sharing and wish all of you will learn to be resilient as you move on. May you strive ever onward and always be people of excellence, standing and significance. Onward!