The healthy version of teriyaki chicken

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Today's workshop started a little later than usual as the children were having a briefing session in the hall. Then I heard the sounds of running shoes as they came in one by one. 

Obviously not shy of seeing a foreign face in class, some of them smiled at me. That's a good start, I thought to myself. Welcome to Primary 5 - Class Earnest!

With the teacher in charge in class, 2 min was all it took for the class to settle down. And this class was more sporting as in there were no squabbles about one kid not wanting to be in the same group as another kid. All were equally sporting. Great! 

It's no mere coincidence that I chose a white shirt again today. The choice of a colour evokes a different emotional response from both ourselves as well as the people around us. Sharing with the kids the psychology of colours, white symbolises purity, innocence and openness to learning. 


The psychology of colours

One particular group was really adorable. When discussing image destroyers, they didn't take long to brainstorm their ideas. They just looked at one another in the group and started pointing out what they did not like. '' You are fat', 'You stink', You have dandruff on your hair'....'you have pimples on your face'....'your dirty shirt'....'you dig nose'....'you farted'.... I was initially in stitches...but later reminded the group to focus on the destroyer and not attack the person.


Group presentation

Some kids left indelible impressions on me as they were not shy to come forward to present. So in order to give everyone chance, I laid down ground rules that those who have shared should give others a chance. This helped to motivate the shy ones.

Then as I walked around class, it was evident that each group was trying to outdo the other group. Class Earnest was also more forthcoming in the sense that they were more eager to share their presentation. Some groups volunteered to go first without being cajoled.

It always helps to have some girls in the group as they really are more meticulous, taking time to colour and beautify their flipcharts. Check out this colourful heart!


First impressions tell me this is the masterpiece of a predominantly girls' group!

Training kids is totally different from training adults. When I train adults, I never get a scenario whereby they will use their rulers to measure the length of their face. But I experienced that first hand when enthusiastic kids used their plastic rulers to attempt to determine their face shapes. Hahaha... 

This is perhaps my most memorable class as the energy of the group was really good. Plus I really took a lot of pictures with the kids... :)


Certificate presentation - smile for the camera!


Certificate presentation - smile for the camera!

Smiles galore as some kids pose with their certificates & me

One class photo for memories :)

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I'm back at Rosyth School for the second day of my grooming talk. I'm taking a class of 42 students from Class Meticulous which is on the second floor.

When I walked into the room, the students were already divided by gender. I was told the thoughtful teacher in charge had the boys separated from the girls to facilitate group discussion.

Today’s presentation went extra smooth, probably because I took less time to settle the class down. I particularly liked the dynamics of the boy-girl divide as it aided the progress of the talk. There were no 'boy bully girl' nor 'girl bully boy' scenarios to attend to.

The students really lived up to the adjective 'meticulous' as they put in a lot of heart and soul into their discussions and presentations. It was evident from the standard of the work they produced. As an eleven year old back then, I certainly wasn’t as creative as the 42 of them. At their young age, they were already fervent practitioners of Tony Buzan’s mind mapping techniques. From the word go, all groups drew mind maps after mindmaps on their flipcharts. As an eleven year old back then, if you were to utter the word mind map to me, I would surely have stared back blankly at you. Not content with mindmapping, some groups decorated their flipcharts with drawings of a very high standard. I don’t recall being able to draw that well at their age too.


Let's discuss image destroyers using mind maps!


I'm thoroughly impressed by the high quality of the mind maps

Without any doubt, the image destroyers and grooming toolkit portions were very well received. As the interest of the class grew, so too did their level of participation and eagerness. After the second discussion, 5 out of the 8 groups automatically sat on the floor in circles and started discussing. If this is not testimony of their keen interest, I don’t know what better evidence there will be. And mind you, the girls were always the first to take the lead. 


The enthusiasm of the kids lead them to fully utilise the floor to discuss their work. Salute!

Yes, the girls were particularly attentive and readily asked questions during my presentation mostly pertaining to grooming tips. The boys later caught up when they too stopped me occasionally questions ranging from 'what’s my face shape, Teacher?' to 'can we put more items in the grooming toolkit or not?'

Today, I had some time to spare at the end to sneak in a group photo with the students :)


With the Primary 5 students from Class Meticulous

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I truly salute the management of Rosyth School for giving their Primary 5 students (who are only eleven years old) a strong headstart over their other peers by getting image consultants like myself to coach their students. It truly amazes me. 

Stepping back into school grounds makes one young again. This is the irreplaceable beauty of the school compound. Who can forget the corridors outside the airy classrooms where all students wait earnestly for their teachers to come usher them back in for lessons? Who can forget those dark blue desks and plastic blue chairs? Who can forget students standing up in class and greeting you ‘Good Morning Mr Lim’? But after all the déjà vu moments rushed me by, I saw the same innocent eyes I used to see in myself years ago – the eyes that thirsted for knowledge.



Yes, Mr Lim was here to share with the Primary 5 students codenamed Class Optimistic the perils of image destroyers, face shapes, grooming tips, social etiquette and cultural differences.

Probably because today’s class comprised more boys than girls, I took a while to settle the class down. Boys being boys, are always harder to control.

After getting the attention of the young ones from the moment the slides on image destroyers came on, they got all excited. I was happy they could readily identify with the examples I shared. Nothing encourages a trainer more than the fact the audience can relate to what you are talking about. In this way, it is easier to build rapport.

Being young kids, it is inevitable for them to run around the class as they have boundless energy levels. But if you think I started to fret over this, I didn’t as they were running around for a good reason. They were exchanging ideas and trading coloured markers to decorate their flipcharts!



When it was time for the kids to present their work to the class, the shy ones needed some cajoling before they came forward. Knowing how some kids would never want to open their mouths no matter what, I made 3 kids in each group of 6 come up at one time and specifically told them that everyone gets a chance to hold the flipchart and everyone gets a chance to share with the class. This made everyone happy as no one felt it was unfair that only one had to do the talking while the other two simply held up the flipchart.



Three super appreciative kids even took the time to write me positive comments on the feedback form at the end of the talk. Thanks!

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A client asked me today besides me motivating and pushing her during workout sessions, what other ways could she use to motivate herself to lose weight? 

I shared what I thought was the best extrinsic motivator. What she could do was to buy a skimpy outfit, say a bikini and hang it in her wardrobe. Each day when she opened her wardrobe, she would look at that bikini and tell herself 'one day I will fit into it'.

After hearing it, she laughed. Then she agreed, recalling the times in the past when she in fact used what I just shared to mentally condition her mind and succeed in losing weight.

Many times, our mind has a different agenda from that of our body. Our body wants to push boundaries but our mind wants to preserve the status quo. When intrinsic motivators like the feeling good factor fails to converge both mind and body, then some form of extrinsic motivator like that bikini will work miracles. For the guys, try a skimpy swimming trunk that will show your 6 pack abs in its full glory or plunging V-neck T-shirt (popularized by Topman) for some pectoral peek-a-boo!

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