Take 5 – 19 September 2016 by Mr Paul Lai

Good morning Madam Tan, Mr Lee, Mr Chow, colleagues and GESSIANS. Before I begin, kindly take out your GESS Life Handbook to jot down important notes.

I am going to ask all of you a question. Do you know how to appreciate yourself and your worth? Let me repeat my question : Do you know how to appreciate yourself and your worth?

It sounds very complex. Let me put it simply. Do you love and respect yourself? Respect comes in many forms and self-respect is the most crucial aspect of one’s life. If you do not love and respect yourself, how do you expect others to love and respect you? You need to work on yourself first.

Self-respect is the proper respect for oneself and one’s worth as a person and thus a belief in oneself. To establish a belief in yourself, you must concentrate on your positive qualities and working to improve yourself as a person. For your positive qualities like ability to concentrate in class, work hard and clarify doubts with teachers, you need to reinforce them. For your unproductive habits like using handphones during lessons, talking to friends during lessons and being disruptive in class, you need to consciously replace the bad habits with productive ones. I used to be a perfectionist who would not forgive myself for making mistakes. As blaming myself brought unhappiness, I tried not to live in the past. Instead, I moved on from past mistakes and took up new challenges that came along.

Remember, when everything else fails you, you will always have your self-respect to fall back on. How you feel about yourself affects every aspect of your life. You and only you are responsible for your fate. Life is no fun if you spend it hating yourself as it will stifle your progress you hope to make.

Our Sec 4NA/NT had started their N-level examination last week, our Sec 4 Express and Sec 5 students will be sitting their ‘O’ level examination in a month’s time and our Sec 1-3 will have their mid-year examination soon, you need to restrict you usage on your handphones and computers and channel your time and energy into your study if you really love and respect yourself as you are the only one who can help yourself to achieve what you hope to achieve. When you have self-respect, you take pride in who you are and what you have to offer.

Let me end my take 5 by giving you a quote : “Your chances of success in any undertaking can always be measured by your belief in yourself”. For the coming examinations, there is nothing too difficult for you if you believe in yourself and do the right things.

Onwards, GESSIANS!