Hi PUNGGOL TITANS
I have set up a FACEBOOK Group for you. Go to Facebook and search under Facebook Groups, the group called Punggol Stadium. Set.This will be a portal where we can share videos, photos from the camp, and as a communication tool and network between you the TITANS and the COACHES. Do look forward to it and see you on FACEBOOK!
Once upon a time, Long ago in a small, far away village, there was place known as the House of 1000 Mirrors. A small, happy little dog learned of this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he bounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he left the House, he thought to himself, “This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often.”
In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, “That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again.”
What are the kind of faces, emotions and feelings that you give out when you meet people out there. The world is a reflection of yourself. If you want to find goodness in the world, be good and seek goodness in your surroundings, in the people you meet. Who you are and what you seek in the world out there will reflect in your world. If you seek adventure, you will find adventure. If you are positive and enthusiastic, your world around you will follow suit. So today ask youresleves are you reflecting and projecting the right images in the world out there?
Hey Titans. Its been some time after the programme and hope all is well with you studies, school, and what have you. Would like to share this story with all of you for today.
ACRES OF DIAMONDS
One of the most interesting Americans who lived in the 19th century was a man by the name of Russell Herman Conwell. He was born in 1843 and lived until 1925. He was a lawyer for about fifteen years until he became a clergyman.
One day, a young man went to him and told him he wanted a college education but couldn’t swing it financially. Dr. Conwell decided, at that moment, what his aim in life was, besides being a man of cloth – that is. He decided to build a university for unfortunate, but deserving, students. He did have a challenge, however. He would need a few million dollars to build the
university. For Dr. Conwell, and anyone with real purpose in life, nothing could stand in the way of his goal.
Several years before this incident, Dr. Conwell was tremendously intrigued by a true story – with its ageless moral. The story was about a farmer who lived in Africa and through a visitor became tremendously excited about looking for diamonds. Diamonds were already discovered in abundance on the African continent and this farmer got so excited about the idea of millions of dollars worth of diamonds that he sold his farm to head out to the diamond line. He wandered all over the continent, as the years slipped by, constantly searching for diamonds, wealth, which he never found. Eventually he went completely broke and threw himself into a river and drowned.
Meanwhile, the new owner of his farm picked up an unusual looking rock about the size of a country egg and put it on his mantle as a sort of curiosity. A visitor stopped by and in viewing the rock practically went into terminal convulsions. He told the new owner of the farm that the funny looking rock on his mantle was about the biggest diamond that had ever been found. The new owner of the farm said, “Heck, the whole farm is covered with them” -
and sure enough it was.
The farm turned out to be the Kimberly Diamond Mine…the richest the world has ever known. The original farmer was literally standing on “Acres of Diamonds” until he sold his farm.
Dr. Conwell learned from the story of the farmer and continued to teach it’s moral. Each of us is right in the middle of our own “Acre of Diamonds”, if only we would realize it and develop the ground we are standing on before charging off in search of greener pastures. Dr. Conwell told this story many times and attracted enormous audiences. He told the story long enough to have raised the money to start the college for underprivileged deserving students. In fact, he raised nearly six million dollars and the university he founded, Temple University in Philadelphia, has at least ten degree-granting colleges and six other schools.
When Doctor Russell H. Conwell talked about each of us being right on our own “Acre of Diamonds”, he meant it. This story does not get old…it will be true forever…
So sometimes we really look for what we want pursue the things we think we want the world over, not realising that what we really needed and could get was in front of our faces, where we already are. Yup opportunities are all around us and its only up to us to find it and grab it today. Each of us have all it takes to make a difference. So look around you, what are the opportunities that you could create for you to pursue your dreams? Find your acres of diamonds today. . .
Hey Titans. Its been a while, hope you guys are doing well and giving your life its best shot. Hope the camp has made an impact in you and that you are living an empowered life every single day. Anyway, would like to share a video with you. This is from BRITAIN’S GOT TALENT. It’s about a boy, an awesome dancer who even though got turned down during auditions came back fighting and deserving nothing but the best- the crown of the competition. Perhaps it is an example we can take a leaf from that sometimes we should always have faith and keep perservering and change our strategy! Once we hit our winning strategy (like the dance routine he came up with!) we will get the success we truly fought for.
Good morning TITANS! Hope it has been an AWESOME week for you! And it seems as if the camp had just happened but it has been one week already. Remember what you did at this time last week- it was the RACE of your LIFE! Remember the friends you made and friendships strengthened, the struggle and stretch you overcame and how you did it all together. Yes time flies. Thats the bad news. The good news is youre the pilot. So make full use of it and let time be on your side on the way to success!
Heres a video we’ve made for just for you
Untitled from Ridhwan Yusoff on Vimeo.
Its the beginning of a new week and like all the coaches and Mr Gopal has told you guys, the real test comes after the camp, if you would be able to maintain your strength and character through whatever life throws you. Here are some suggestions on how to do it :
1) Set up a flipchart paper in your classroom. Ask your form teacher if you are able to get it. Or use class fund. Buy some post it notes as well. At your own time use the post it notes to write appreciation letters to one another to encouarage, appreciate and motivate one another.
2) Let this be CHOICES HAVE CONSEQUENCES week. All week this week, for everything that happens in class always remind each other (can even remind your teachers CHOICES HAVE CONSEQUENCES). Say the success principle out loud. Then at the end of each day, write in your STADIUM booklet or diary all the choices youve made for the day and if the consequences are positive or negative. And how you can improve for tommorrow.
3) At the end of each day, before you go to bed ask yourself two questions. What should i be happy about today ? and What better can i do tomorrow? Then hope for a good dream and go to bed.
4) Go to akltgoecoaches.wordpress.com and look at some of the videos. They may inspire you.
5) Look at your goals you wrote down on paper in the third day. Write all these down nicely on another paper decorate it draw pictures and hang it somewhere where you can see it everyday!
Till then HAVE FAITH Titans. cos faith can move mountains!
Congratulations Punggol Titans for making it so far. Whatever you can conceive and believe you can achieve! And let this camp, the walk remind you that sometimes we think some things may be impossible but if we believed, if we stretched ourselves and give 101 per cent, we can achieve things that we thought were never possible! And just like the walk all we have to do is take it one step at a time, as one step each moment takes us one step closer to our destination, our goal. And over it all, this experience has reminded us once more that what is important is the struggle not the triumph of who gets first. The ability to have fought well and not just to have conquered. And always remember TITANS…you are who you make yourselves to be. You are the MOST VALUABLE PLAYER (MVP) of your own lives. You have the power. To take charge of your life today, and make the right choices. And choices have consequences. Choose to Win! And when life throws you lemons or obstacles in your path, all you have to do is to……REMEMBER THE TITANS!
And marking the end of our journey, we were each honoured at a special ceremony marking the beginning of a new life. We have gone on a journey of self-discovery and it is now time to take these lessons home and apply these lessons to improve ourselves. Each of us stood in line as we each took turns to go to our coaches who would shake both our hands firmly and give us words of encouragement and affirmation. And then they would ask us permission to pin the purple ribbon that says ‘Who I am Makes a Differnece’ upon each and one of us. We then took turns to appreciate and give thanks to our coaches who has been with us all the way and walked that extra mile with us. Many of us teared and hugged our coaches as we realised this is truly the beginning of something new, something remarkable, a new life in which the MOST VALUABLE PLAYER in our lives are none other than ourselves!
The third day we woke up slightly a bit later and had a good night’s rest. We were instructed to bring benches into the room for a special activity. Then Coach Ridtz said that this activity was to help us for the rest of our lives. He asked us to imagine that if nothing is impossible, what are the things we want to achieve in life? What are our goals? He asked us to imagine and write everything down in exact detail. After that was done, he said that we had to imagine the next 55 minutes to represent the next 55 years of our lives. And if all our goals were to come true at the end of the 55 minutes, all we had to do is to focus on our goals. And we had to do this with our hands outstretched.90 degrees cannot bend. If we bent our arms, we had to sit down and reflect. And so with determination we embarked on this journey. And the coaches came round to motivate and encourage us. Some shouted at us just to get us to focus and realise our dreams. Some planted seeds in our heads and used words that make us think we are bigger and better than we are. Some of us teared, some of us were determined to complete this. And the music helped us even more. But not so much as the presence of each other. And together we achieved holding on to the end.
This was just a meaningful experience for us to remember that we should dream big and set big goals for ourselves. And all we needed to do was to FOCUS. What is important is not what happens to us or what people tell or label us at. all that matters is what we tell ourselves! We have learnt from these 3days and 2nights, if we believed in it and we did whatever we could give 100 per cent we could achieve anything we want! So if these difficult activities we can conquer, every step of each day we could also conquer life and achieve our dreams. We just have to FOCUS on our OUTCOME!
After the stadium, we were rewarded with some food and ice-cold 100 plus. And after a good rest, we headed on to our final checkpoint, before heading back to school. Halfway, the rain threatened to come down and what a waste cos we were supposed to catch the sunset at PUNGGOL end! So instead our checkpoint was the block behind SPC near our school. There we had dinner and time for reflection. Mr Gopal and gave us a talk to congratulate us for having come so far and to push on a bit more towards the journey home, and to be proud of what we are. Officially we were no longer called ROOKIES. Today, from now on, we are called TITANS!
With that, together as one whole TITANS we ran back to school to be greeted by our teachers who had been on our side througout the 2 day experience! We ran it with gusto and spirit as each of us were congratulated by our own form teachers and were given a Victory Bandana and a STAIUM! Tshirt to celebrate the end of our journey.
We showed appreciation and gratitude to one another, the coaches and the teachers as we celebrated the night- a night of having stretched ourselves beyond our potential and came back storming into PUNGGOL SECONDARY as WINNERS! Many of us shed tears and gave pats in the back to each other for completing the journey. At the end of the day what is important was not who came in first, but that we struggled and fought together to overcome the obstacles and challenges in our way.
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