2012 has started and time surely moves swiftly as we move into the first weekend of the new year. How was your 2011? Has it been a great year where you have managed to fulfill all your 2011 resolution? Or has it been another year of more ‘it could have been’ and ‘if only.’ I certainly hope it was not the latter.

How about your results in your study? Did you get your desired results? I certainly hope so too. If you have not, fret not. It is not the end of the world. You might have lost a battle but you have not lost the war; just ensure that you do it better, not just any better but your very best. Give it all you have gotten and left no room for ‘it could have been’ and ‘if only.’ Life is too short for these.

One thing about study and in most things in life is that we can ‘think’ our way to good results or to get whatever we want morally. Bullshit! Yes, you are right in way, especially if we are talking about wishful thinking. Anyone can wishfully think himself/herself to good result and I can tell you right now that it will not happen. However, not everyone is willing to think to good result.

Thus, everyone can think to good result but not everyone is willing to do that. Most are just wishful thinking. You may ask me, “What do you mean by thinking to good result? Isn’t it the same as wishful thinking?” What I would like to clarify is that while you are thinking about getting good result, you are also thinking about how to get the good result and that will make all the differences.

And it is not enough to be thinking about getting good result. We will still have to take the final step – the very key step to getting there and that is to take massive action. Nothing will come through without massive action and this is the very different between thinking and wishful thinking. Without massive action, just thinking alone is just like wishful thinking.

True enough, my strong belief in studying hard translated directly into the good grades I had for Math, A Math, Physics and Chemistry in my O-Level examination. In fact in my A Math papers, for the first time in my life, I managed to finish it with ample time to spare to check through my papers. Even before the result was out for my A Math, I was already confident that I had gotten an ‘A’ for it.

As for my languages and humanity subject, the doubts and beliefs I had about myself translated to my not so impressive grades for both subjects. Even during my A-Level examination, I aced in my C Math and either Chemistry or Physics. As for my Further Mathematics, I only got a ‘C.’ It didn’t come as a surprise because I had not worked very hard for it and in fact I didn’t practice enough. Looking back at the efforts I put in the O-Level and A-Level exams, it is even clearer now the strong relationship between my belief in hardwork and results.

That is why in my email to the parents, I wrote, “The best gift we could give to them is the gift to first believe in their own abilities and then to take action.” It is not enough to just believe in their own abilities. The change in their results will come from the follow through action that they will be taking.

Advo’s Turbocharge! Workshop is a workshop specially engineered for children between the age of 13-17 to help the youths discover more about themselves through a journey of self reflection and exploration. One of the top training programs for kids in Singapore, this highly interactive workshop will help to open the minds of children to see themselves bigger than who they are now. Through the workshop, your children will create new empowering mindsets and beliefs about themselves. With these new empowering mindsets and beliefs about themselves, they will go on to achieve academic excellence and successes in life.

As the saying goes, “Change your mind, change your world!” When we focus on the root of the issue, we not only nib the issue at its root, we also create a long-lasting solution. The good grades will follow.

If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you’d like to win, but think you can’t
It’s almost a cinch you won’t

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow’s will;
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you’re outclassed, you are.
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

And yet, it is exciting to get out of bed. I would love a cup of hot chocolate to start the rainy day, watching the raindrops falling from the sky, the ripples they create when they fall into a pool of water, the sound of the raindrops beating against the window and last but not least, the freshness and sweetness in the air.

For me, it has been the most exciting 4 months and with a lot of changes. What I observed or experienced was a challenge would follow every change. At first the challenge would appear insurmountable and that is because we do not have the capability yet to overcome it. Or rather, what I will say is, “We thought we do not have the capability to overcome it.” However, the truth of the matter is, “We will not be given a challenge too big for us!” This is what I believe and this is what I use to remind myself constantly.

Just as we might continue to focus on the challenge and some will view it as problem; we must remind ourselves to focus on finding the solution. We may not have direct control to the challenge, but we always have the Power to choose what we want to focus on. Use that Power which is given to you and which cost you nothing. Because frankly speaking, if we do not use that Power given to us, someone else would be using the Power given to him/her to choose for us. Just as the quotation from the movie The Astronaut Farmer, “You better know what you want to do before somebody know it for you.” So we better start using that Power given to us before somebody use his/hers on us.

And finally after we overcome the challenge, we grow. With every challenge, there is a great potential for us to grow and to become a better person. Not only that, we are automatically ready for bigger changes and challenges in life. This simple reason of growth makes change ever exciting for me!

What we really must do is Embracing Changes and Challenges and this journey call life will surely be an exciting and memorable one!