Good day!
Who among you wants to be successful in life? Please raise your right hand. Perfect. I believe this room is where I should really be right now because I want to be of great help to students like you.
Two years ago, my dream was to be as affluent as Henry Sy. That had been the meaning of success for me, until I came to realize that there were things that better define success. We live in a world which dictates that people must gain power and wealth. I am not implying that you shouldn’t be a mogul or a president; what I’m suggesting is that aside from those tangible things, there is a great number of intangible things that can define your success like happiness, love. If you want to be famous or be one of the richest people, ask yourself first, “Are those going to give me a happy life?” “Would I still be able to contribute positive things?”
We define our own meaning of success. With a lot of wealth, it is better to give and share, right? With all the love and attention from a lot of people, it is better that you love yourself more than how they love you, right?
Our positive relationship with God, our family, or other people is what really matters, because it is what makes a human satisfied. People have certain values, but we probably have one thing in common: We want positive things for ourselves and for our world.
So before you work for your dream or your own meaning of success, you’ve got to ask yourself first what future is going to be the best for you, for others, and for the world.
Today, as a student, your job is to know who you are—and what you want.
So, allow me to share the learning skills needed by students like you which may lead to your success. According to Partnership for 21st Century Skills, they are called the 4 C’s.
The first skill that can help you is Critical Thinking. It is a skill where you carefully analyze something to better understand it. “Don’t be the student that will answer the questions but be the one who will question the answer”. Be the student who thinks and reflects deeply on everything that you study.
The second skill is Creative Thinking. As we all know, creativity means thinking outside the box. Are you one of those students who prefers to stick with the customary or one who creates new ways to execute things? Today, technology is constantly improving; it indeed resulted from creative thinking. Be innovative and have a wide imagination, for those will produce beneficial things you never knew you could.
The third skill is communicating. As a student, you all know that you must listen carefully to everything you are taught. But, it is not enough. It is better to practice speaking and writing too for those are the key for delivering or sharing your thoughts to others. Another part of this skill is technology. Students must take advantage of the ease of studying given by technology. In our digital age, students that use the internet have an access to a tremendous depth of knowledge and interaction. With technology, we exchange different thoughts which improves our communication with others.
The fourth skill that can help you is collaborating. You do know that students can accomplish more by helping each other, right? Students must work together towards a common goal. Working together helps us to know each other more; it helps us know more types of people which will enable us to easily collaborate in our own careers. Collaborating includes managing time and resolving conflicts. Students who know how to manage time will find it easy to grow productively with less effort because they will know their priorities that will produce more for them; being able to resolve conflicts saves time for it gets you back to working, and when you face those problems again, it will be easier for you to solve them. More effort=High Gains; Less effort=Higher Gains.
Those skills are some of the skills that will surely help you have a happy and successful student life, which will surely lead to the accomplishment of your life goal or your success. In applying these skills, do not be pressured; just enjoy the application because it only makes you a better person. But beyond those learning skills, I want to share one life skill that will really bring you to success, and that is initiative.
All those things I’ve said are nonsense, if you do not verily want them; that is why it is important that you have initiative. You must, by yourself, know the things that are best for you. Improving yourself is not a waste of time. You must know with your heart that the positive things you do are for yourself and for others; so have an initiative to know your way to success and work for it.
Always remember that you must base your success to positive things. Remember that success is about having satisfaction and happiness with your journey in life, and those could be possible by giving and sharing what you have too. Others’ successes should be your success too, because we are as one. Thank you.