Learn to say "NO"

- “No” is a hard word to say. But it is sometimes a way of saying “Yes – you can” to another person.-

That is the extract of the email that I had received from one of my best friend. Such a great advice he had sent to me. Thank you very much for always giving me great advises.

As a new teacher in a new place, we need to learn so many things. We need to learn about school organization, classroom control, managing pupils' behaviour, managing the class, communicate with other adults, filing system and many more. Time by time, we will meet with a new task that we never get before. It is no doubt that we need to learn all of this and get as much experiences as we can.

But as a normal human being, we will have our limitation in doing work. Different people can manage different work load. Sometimes, as a new person, people expect you to learn and get as much as experience in a short time. They forgot to consider your feelings and your ability towards the work given. You just need to be strong and be patient and try to handle the work as good as you can. However, when you think that you cannot do it anymore or you think that you need to step back one step, you better learns to say no.

I found that it so hard for me to say no sometimes. I honestly admit that I will always do whatever things given to me. I just do not want people give a bad perception to me as a new comers. But after a while, I learn that sometimes we need to step ahead and say No whenever its needed. It is not about you ignore the order given to you, it about defending yourself. Sometimes people always use the same excuse which is a new teacher need to get experiences". But sometimes it is not relevant in a short period of time, you need to learn everything. Is it really experiences to you or else?

I do not want to blame anyone in this issue. Maybe sometimes people forget to think what other people ability and how far can a person learn in a period of time. Its better if we learn a bit by a bit and give a great impact in the performance rather than give everything but the performance is not well.

So, to anyone out there including myself, let us learn to say no for sometimes (I mean sometimes and according to the situation) and make a better result in our performance in life and work. Just like the advice that I get before, telling no is so hard but when you are able to say it, you are learning a new experience!

p/s: life is about learning and discover new things