Student Voice: Speech Day Address, Head Student, Vaishu, Year 10

What is Success?
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The dictionary definition of success is the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. Success to parents may mean studying hard so that you get into a top university and land a good job. Success for students may be winning competitions or gaining House points. Although the definition of success can vary from person to person, the two common denominators in all definitions of success are focus and determination. 

There are countless examples of how focus and determination drive success. One of the names that come into my mind when I think of focus and determination is Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo was born into a very poor family and faced many difficulties before making it big. He focused on practising every day and trying to get better each day. His determination and will power to be better and make it big filled his inner passion of becoming a football player. He rose from being the son of a cook and a gardener to being the highest paid footballer in history. This is a result of his sheer hard work and determination. Furthermore, his focus on achieving his goal only helped him. 

Focus and determination are two words that have similar meaning. However, they are not the same. They can be difficult to explain, but whatever the situation, focus and determination always go hand in hand. In other words, there is no determination without focus, and no focus without determination.  If we think about how we can improve our focus and determination, we're essentially thinking about how we can become more disciplined. The first steps to becoming more disciplined include being able to prioritise your work. This is because often people fail to prioritise their work and that results in failure.  Again, for being better disciplined, focus is really important. Focus ensures that you're on track to achieve your goals, as you don't get distracted. 

To conclude, success to me means achieving the goal that you have set for yourself and ensuring that you have done it to the best standard you can do. I would like to leave you with a question today: How would you define the difference between focus and determination? 

I hope you all have a wonderful summer holiday.