Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.
– Author Unknown

Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.
– August Wilson

In the darkest hour the soul is replenished and given strength to continue and endure.
– Author Unknown

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.
– Elbert Hubbard 

It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more ‘manhood’ to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex. Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind.
– Alex Karras

Life is very interesting… in the end, some of your greatest pains, become your greatest strengths.
– Drew Barrymore

Our strength grows out of our weaknesses.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
– Mahatma Gandhi

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.
– Arnold Schwarzenegger

Strength is a matter of the made-up mind.
– John Beecher

The important thing about a problem is not its solution, but the strength we gain in finding the solution.
– Author Unknown

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
– Franklin D. Roosevelt

And I saw this power quote at a school I just conducted:

“I wept when I had no shoes until I saw a man with no feet”

Good luck to operation mayhem, CCI!

Best regards,

Carolyn (Trainer)

Due to the recent pandemic of the H1N1 flu (Influenza A), I urge all of you to practise extreme hygiene. Please wash your hands regularly after major activities. If you are sick, do not wait till you have coughed your lungs out before seeing a doctor.

The number of cases of H1N1 flu has been rising so I urge all of you to keep vigilant. At this point of time, I strongly urge all of you to participate more in our blogs!

Please note that everytime an article is posted up on our blog, I will follow-up by putting your photo on our front page.

Please take care!
(Email webmaster@cci.com.sg)
Do write about the events you’ve been to or any leadership articles you’ve come across. Your participation in this will be greatly appreciated!

Do take note that contest for our blog details will be released soon.

Webmaster @CCI

The thing about Singaporeans is that we tend to get a little too complacent in matters like this. Since it has become a worldwide pandemic, I urge everyone to practice hygiene so that you and I will not be a victim of H1N1.

Please wash your hands at every chance you get and if you are sick, do see the doctor!

Carolyn (Trainer)

I have been in the leadership reign for 10 years since my poly life and now my entrepreneur life. Everywhere I go and in everything I do need leadership. Leadership to rule over oneself, leadership to rule over others, and leadership to rule over situations.

When I decided to rule over myself, I change the pattern of my habits and my behaviour. For example, i decided to be disciplined and set myself to focus on my exams. All that affections that may lead me off track has failed to tempt me. In self-leadership, you take charge of your own life and not allowing temptations to rule over you

When I decided to rule over others, I did it with sincerity and faithfully. It’s genuine from the bottom of my heart that I want to help my team when it’s down. When I say rule other others, I don’t mean lead them as what a King will do. I meant to take lead when there’s a need to, and to be led when there’s a need to. To honour others to lead is to honour oneself’s pride. In team-leadership, you take charge of the team you want to excel in and not lead like a commander or shy like a tiny little ant

When I decided to rule over situations, I don’t allow situations to rule over me. How will you react if you really want to do well but most of the time, you don’t see results? Do you give up or persevere on? Do you agree with your teachers if he said your class are a lousy one or proof to him that you are that one special gem that’s waiting to be polished? In true leadership, no matter what situations you are in, no matter what challenges you faced, you will gather all sort of ingredients to overcome it.

The world needs leaders. The world needs you to be a leader. I want to spread the gospel of leadership to as many people as possible and hopefully one day, they will be awaken. And one day, they will come to realise that they can stop wasting their lives studying for the sake of studying, working for the sake of living, and living for the sake of living. I want them to understand that there’s so much more to it when you lead.

That leader I know knows himself. That leader I know knows others. That leader I know will not give up. Are you that leader I’m talking about?

- Justin (CEO, Trainer)

This quote is a simple yet powerful one. It helps build one’s attitude and character.

I’ve been told that young people nowadays, including my generation don’t really appreciate quotes. Or rather don’t know how to appreciate quotes. There is nothing wrong with that actually.

I personally love quotes. Especially those short and sweet messages because it will hit me hard. Those simple yet powerful quotes are good ones. Because with short quotes I can remember better and follow better. Sometimes this is how I build my attitude and character.

How about you?

(Aaron - Fac)

This may seem like a trivial issue compared to the economic downfall or any riot or civil war happening in other places. However, if we continue to neglect this problem, it will develop into a tumor of the society. What we might face in the future are road bullies and fights happening in neighbourhood every now and then. A peaceful island might turn into a boxing ring. I’m not trying to exaggerate the situation but for any trainers and facilitators who served leadership and character development programme before will certainly be worried about the student involved and hope to play a part in imparting the correct values and changing the mentality of the student and of course, to many other students. I hope leadership can be instilled in everyone’s heart, starting from self-leadership…

“ Only you can change yourself, just like you are the engine of the car and other people are just the gears to push you forward.“

Recently, I came across an article about a secondary school student punching a bus driver after the latter scolded him for littering on the bus. I was rather shocked at the sheer audacity of students these days.

No longer are students shy to talk about sexual education. No longer are they that afraid of violating school rules or having had their parents called up by the school. My, how students these days have matured so rapidly.
As a trainer, we often teach our students about Personal Leadership and the ‘Right Attitude in Me’. But what exactly is the ‘Right Attitude’? In my opinion, it is sometimes ambiguous as to what is the right attitude to react when in the wrong situation. That’s when we, as leadership trainers or even as their elders, step in to guide and offer advice to these student leaders who are confused about their innate abilities to exercise the right attitude.

Now imagine you are the student who punched the driver. Yes, you get to punch the driver who scolded you, but what happens after that? In the end, you still have to suffer the consequences of your improper action.
It is important that a leader must first be able to lead himself effectively before he can lead others effectively. Every time we train our students about Leadership, we mention about how ‘Life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% of how we react to it’. It takes A LOT of patience and self-control to be able to react positively to situations. We can teach the students all about self-leadership, yet at the end of the day it is up to the individual’s efforts to apply the ‘right attitude’ in their everyday situation(s).

All of us make mistakes. But as the saying goes, ‘To err is human, to forgive divine’. The article mentioned that the school has since identified and punished the two students involved in the incident, and that the students regretted their actions. Maybe, just maybe, the two students ought to attend our session on the ‘Right Attitude in Me’.

- Maybelin (Trainer)

- Margaret (Facilitator)

I will count my benefits rather than my burdens
How we will look at our circumstances will determine our happiness. If we constantly look at what we don’t have instead of being grateful for what we have, we will become discouraged or even bitter. We should count our blessings as there will always be others who have more and others who have less than we do.

I will listen to criticism
When we are criticized we must separate what is being said from how it is being said.
There may be a lesson to be learnt that may benefit us if we do this. If we constantly adjust our behavior to the criticism we will become better persons and earn the respect and trust of others.

I will point others in the right direction

I will wait for the best time

- Margaret (Facilitator)

Life. A sequence of event that happens to an individual as he/she journeys from the beginning (birth) till the end (death). SO what about it? Well from my experience as a facilitator, I’ve truly learnt how not to underestimate one’s life experience just cause he/she is young. Through all the schools I’ve been to, all the pupils I’ve interacted with, I realized how sheltered I truly am. From schools like Si Ling Sec to Bishan Park, the kids we take never fail to amaze me time time again. Those with poor family backgrounds pushing and working hard to make their lives count for something. To stay so strong in such trying circumstances. These children have probably seen and experienced life much more than many of us. They fight to survive. Juggling a job and school work to add to their family income. It just seems like such a mammoth task, yet these kids do it so well, excelling in their studies and keeping their job.

Like W-O-W right? The best part is that their classmates are so supportive, visiting their friends at the FnB outlets that they work at. Putting in good words for their friends to the teacher. Defending their classmates with accused (rightly and wrongly). A true show of what team spirit is. Just compare this to the more well-to-do schools. Plenty of backstabbing, plotting, fighting over the smallest things. Should’nt it be the other way around? The public call these children uncouth, unrefined but i think that they are just simply misunderstood.

Life. How do we make use of ours? How do we touch others? So what are we doing there? If they are so good as i said, do we need to “intervene”? Well, yes. Much of this energy that these kids have, their set of morales and sense of purpose in life can be so misguided. They tend to follow their own set of rules. Defending their friends even when they do something wrong, responding to challenges aggressively, expressing their emotions by hurling colorful language.

Why does this happen? The simple answer is that they do not have anyone to set the standard for them. They do not have someone to look up to, someone to guide them along. That is why we are there. To give them just that. To do our best to inspire them. The skills we teach them will all come to naught if they do not even respect us; if they see us as looking down on them. Sometimes its easier to go down to their level, care for them like how an older brother or sister might. By doing so we touch their lives personally. Our work that we do in CCI (i hate to refer to it as a job), is something more than just a job to get extra cash, more than just to pass time. It’s about touching lives.

Cliche but so so true. If we are just here for the money, there are many jobs out there for us where we can earn so much more. But the value that is added when a kid that you taught in a program comes up to give u a hug, or simply smiles and says “Thank you! I’ve learnt so much” or “I’ll never forget you”, is simply priceless. I’m sure many of you would agree. I wish we could have follow-up sessions with students which we took before, just to maybe catch up with them and ask them how they are doing.

Life. A work in progress. All of us are. Improving, changing and learning. Being a facilitator is not easy, let alone a good one. It’s so hard to keep our own emotions that we bring from home or our own lives out of the way as we try to impact others. It’s like slipping on a mask when we are on job, then taking it off again after we’re done. Very debatable if that is good or bad, but definitely it is necessary. But it’s like being truly selfless for that few hours or days, before going back to what we are. If we talk about helping our kids improve, what about ourselves as well? We too need to constantly improve, change, make ourselves better in everything we teach. Effective communication, personal leadership, public speaking etc. are all just plain talk if we don’t experience the change it brings firsthand.

Life. About choices. Choose wisely. Opportunities don’t usually come knocking twice.

Life. Without regrets.

Life. Is. Great. In. CCI. =)

- Benjamin Koh, Facilitator