Present yourself a gift of confidence, people!

The results of the 2021 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) will be released this Thursday June 16, 2022.

Most of you will succeed with flying colours; delighted, surrounded by happy and proud teachers, parents and friends.

Some of you will also learn to improve as you go on and embrace it as you have put in all your blood, sweat, tears and efforts.

More than a decade ago, I received mine. Preparing myself to go to school to collect the result slip was filled with anxiety so I made sure not to come too early nor late.

Thankfully, once I arrived, not many were there yet and I was happy with my result as well.

After thanking everyone, I left for home to share them with my loved ones.

Truly, it was a good stepping stone- starting point- mind you, so don’t fret too much. The journey has just begun!

Whatever it is, remember to celebrate first and give yourself a good pat at the back.

In one’s life, it is truly important to have and note on these major events in life.

This influences the fluctuations of your level of aspiration; the motivation and skills which you would like to gain and empower next.

How you define success and failures matter from a very young age.

Nevertheless, some of you might prefer to plan your journey as soon as possible and start thinking, due to excitement or perhaps bewilderment, “Where should I study next?” “Should I take a break and help my parents for a while?” “What are the skills necessary to keep me going for the next 5 years in my aspired field?” “Does it matter if I study local or abroad?” “What should I major in?”

Yes, indeed, even 58 years after SPM has been implemented, people have been asking the same old question.

There are numerous different blueprints that will work differently for different demographics down the line-with some drawbacks and major wins-of course.

I think, we in Malaysia, completely have the tendency to believe that one will generally experience good versus bad outcomes in life depending on the pathways we choose immediately after high school.

The question we need to look ourselves in the mirror to ask is however: is the optimism versus pessimism or learned helplessness due to spoon feeding has an attributive factor to those negative events?

If so, how do we overcome that based on our different strengths and weaknesses?

There will always be another high-school leaver right before and after a batch of students.

What improvements have been made and learnt as soon as a batch of students leave school? A trouble shared is a trouble halved.

The trouble is, not only will such “army troops” find it difficult to plan their pathways once they are out in the real-world or seas “with the sharks”, they are unlikely to even ever see the beach or sea.

And now, with the result release date only days away, I would like to wish all the best to those aspiring future leaders.

What sets you apart from one another despite your results? Be confident. Strike while the iron is hot.

SYAZUIN SAZALI is a certified English language literacy and public speaking coach. Linkedin & Instagram: @syazuinsazali, Email: [email protected]