In the midst of one of my lessons in class, I have brought up the fact that each of us has our strengths in some areas. For those of us who do not feel this way, it is because we have not found our strengths, talents and abilities yet. As I feel that this is something that will be good for you to know, I will like to extend this awareness to all of you in my classes.

According to psychologist Howard Gardner, there are not one but several intelligences in life. What is being assessed throughout your academic life is primarily inclined towards logical-mathematical and linguistic intelligences, which is merely two out of several intelligences. For more information, you can key in “Howard Gardner” and/or “Theory of Multiple Intelligences” into any search engines for more details.

I will like you to know that you are smarter than you think. And if you put in effort in achieving your life goals, I believe that all of you will do very well in life.

I am reading a book on leadership when I came across a sentence which states that leaders always live their lives with values. However, this point is not elaborated further and I am left wondering what the values are.

Personally, I feel that living lives with good values is important not only for leaders but every one of us. However, what are these values? I feel that they are as follows:

• Respect: I figure that I won’t have to elaborate much on this point since all of you have learnt this in your cross cultural communications for two semesters. We have discussed how important respect is when it comes to establishing rapport with others but it’s also important to note the consequences in the absence of it.  Therefore, we should make every effort to respect others as unique individuals with their own strengths and talents.
• Thriftiness: This is a value that is rapidly eroding in today’s society. This is especially so in this day and age where consumerism is becoming more prevalent. In Barry Schwartz’s book “The Paradox of Choice“, the author mentioned that we become less happy when the variety of our choices increases immensely. Therefore, it’s best we think twice about walking into a retail outlet the next time we are in a shopping complex. We should draw a distinct line between what items are “necessities” and what are “luxuries”. This is even more important in recently years where media advertising has somewhat blurred the lines between the two terms.
• Reciprocity: The tendency to reciprocate is losing its impact on society in recent years.  While we used to send season’s greeting cards to friends and anticipating a letter from our pen pal in the past, we are seeing an increased signs of societal isolation in urban society, where urbanites are inclined to listen to a music player than making an effort to talk to their friends. This observation has been given a name by psychologist Daniel Goleman in his book “Social intelligence“, which is “urban trance”. Most urbanites are almost trapped mentally in their own world, and much might be attributed to their bid to avoid the bombardment by media advertising and all the distractions around them. I feel that it’s time that we go back to basics by engaging others in more face-to-face communications.
• Integrity: The value of integrity is also decreasing in value in recent years. You read about it in the papers (cases of embezzlement and frauds), you will observe it in the workplace and you see it in the streets. Personally, I consider integrity as one of the personal values that should be upheld by us because should the value of integrity depreciates drastically, the very social fabric of society will be destroyed, and this will eventually plunge society into a state of decadence.

Personally, I feel that the abovementioned values are good values to hold on to. I hope that you feel the same way too.       

Dear class,

I have noticed that there is a tendency among some of you to stop midway in your speech when you are presenting your points in class. Below are a few observations that I have made when you are unsure of your points:

• Give up trying to find a way to complete your sentence
• Informing your audience that you are unsure of how to continue
• Abruptly end your sentence with words that you find appropriate with no further elaboration
• Seek assistance from your team mates
• Stay silent and wait for your team mates to take the initiative to either help you or present their points

While I understand that all of us do encounter challenges while presenting, I will advise you not to give up too easily on the elaboration of your points. Being a presenter who can speak well is a skill that can only be improved through practice over time. The five approaches that are mentioned will not help you to improve in this aspect. One of the things that you can do is to be more confident of what you are presenting, which can be achieved through good preparation before your presentation. Try to familiarise yourself with what you are presenting. Then, rehearse your speech several times before your team presentation. During your rehearsal, do say out what you are going to present in your own words. You might like to seek feedback from your good friends as well with regard to your presentation. This will give you more familiarity with the presenting materials and improves the fluency of your presentation. 

However, this is not enough. The most important factor is still missing: confidence.

You must have confidence in yourself that you will do well. Having the thought that you can be a good presenter is not enough. You must take steps and make the effort to achieve what you want to achieve.  For a start, always make the effort to finish all the sentences that you are presenting.

Remember, confidence is important in all aspects of our endeavours in life. If others are not there to give us confidence, we need to instil confidence in ourselves.

The day when we are truly confident is the day when we will excel.

In life, I believe that all of us have dreams. It is easy to have a dream in life. The challenging part is in turning our dreams into reality. Some of us didn’t put in the effort, some of us think that it is too difficult and some of us give up midway. If you were to look closely at the cause of our procrastination, we will realise that it is fear and insecurity that stop us in our tracks and prevent us from going forward and realising our dreams.

So what are we afraid of?

In a society that recognises achievements and applauds prestigious titles, it’s not surprising to see many of us not daring to undertake challenging tasks like public speaking, coaching/mentoring tasks etc. The challenge is even greater for students who do not have any previous experiences, unlike working professionals who have both experience and credibility. Merely looking at a public speaker’s online profile and/or resume can be intimidating.

Nevertheless, we have to ask ourselves this: how do all these professionals become successful? And we will realise that – like us- these professionals start with nothing and accumulate their experiences over time. But is it smooth-sailing? Probably not. We only see the successful aspect of their careers but we often overlook the obstacles and difficulties that they overcome over time.

As students, have more courage and believe in yourself. Constantly remind yourself that successful people do not become successful overnight. They put in a lot of time and effort before they become successful.  You can do the same thing if you live life with courage.

Life is not smooth-sailing and it can get rough at times. What’s important is not to hope for a life with no worries, because it’s not going to happen. Life’s a roller coaster ride with its ups and downs. We can’t stop the roller coaster from moving but we can definitely brace ourselves for the ride.

As the saying goes, “the night is darkest before the dawn”. If we have the resilience, determination and perseverance, we will definitely get to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  

Dear students,

I will like to introduce you to a website for journalists, which is Poynter.org. This is a website that was first introduced to me when I am still a student taking Mass Communication studies. I find it to be a very good resource for journalists and for those of you who wish to join the media sector.

Below are some interesting sections of the website that you might find interesting:

• Design / Graphics:  For those of you who are into the visual arts as well as page layout and design, you might like to explore this section to gain more insights into the intrinsic workings of the visual artists.  Some interesting links include this link where photographers bring art to life. This  link  provides you with some insights into what makes good newspaper layout and design.  
• Photojournalism:  As the title implies, this section takes a look at various aspects of photojournalism.  Some interesting links will be this where a photographer Mona Reeder provides her take on photojournalism. More noteworthy is her perspectives on the qualities of being a news photographer and her advice to all aspiring news photographers. Another interesting link provides a visual treat for enthusiasts of photography.
• Writing/Editing: For this section, this interesting link enables readers to see life through the eyes of a journalist through a comprehensive interview. This link  highlights the outsourcing of editors to India, China and the Philippines and questions the standard in news editing.

There are many useful and interesting resources for journalists and media professionals, so do have a look at the website and hopefully, learn something from it.