You are smart — you can play well with smart gadgets; you are smart enough to trick your elders when it comes to having some fun. You are great at parties — not just the planning only but at its wonderful execution too — right?

You are just amazing! I mean it. I have seen you all picking up the latest cell phones and operating it without even needing any guidance. Wow! I have also seen you playing games on Xbox brilliantly. Many of your elders may require time to understand the mechanism, but you guys simply excel! And it is just your remarkable capabilities of understanding that are to be highly commended.

capabilities of understanding that are to be highly commended.

Many of you are doing well at schools as well, because today’s teachers are more interactive with their students and the many extracurricular activities in schools have also refined your inner strength to bring out your hidden talents.

Many of you are fond of games and have all the knowledge about each match that has been played, is to be played or is being played anywhere around the globe, in all kinds of sports. That is great!

But this is not enough! You need a chill drill and make the effort to work on the weaknesses you may have. You may have covered many areas, but some are still not addressed!

Here are some smart hacks to help you in attaining a more positive, radiant and impressive personality.

News gain

Come on, you are growing up into smart individuals who are expected to know more than just players and games. Widen your knowledge base. For this, you should read credible newspapers only. You can switch to the electronic alternate as well, but here again try to check out the authenticity of the news items and the sources from where the news story is being retrieved.

Listen to at least one news bulletin each day, of a reliable news channel, whether on TV or radio. Tune in onto a talk show that could help you in understanding major current events, both locally and internationally.

Whether in sports, entertainment or current affairs, you need to gain the information first hand. By the term ‘first hand’ here, I mean the piece of information that is gained by the person personally, through reading, listening or watching a credible news source and not hearing it from a friend!

Update always!

Instead of just holding a gadget and playing games always, when on the internet try to spend some time on informative sites, reading or watching something that improves you in some way, be it in terms of information, skill or personal development.

There are countless good websites that can make you learn anything and everything while sitting in the comfort of your home and without spending any money. Of course, you must first discuss this with your parents or elder siblings so that they can suggest the right websites that suits your age and interests, and only do the web surfing under their supervision. This would polish you as an individual. Try it.

Social currency

Make sure you broaden your topics for conversation among your friends as well. I was shocked to find that many children find it very ‘nerdy’ to talk to their friends about their studies, grades, achievements and career goals. Why?

I must say that you haven’t understood yet what friends are really for! A good friend is always there to help you in all aspects of life — not just the ones that are mutually liked and shared. Many boys play with older boys, but they never grab an opportunity to learn from the experiences of their older friends.

Come on, you need to learn from the more experienced people around you so that you could make wise choices when it is your time to seek admission or make professional choices.

Classic check!

Even if you are not fond of reading, still go through at least few scripts of famous writers so that you may not sit blank when such writers or their classics are discussed.

Reading notable writers and books enhances your personality aura. It gives you a lot of worthy things to have meaningful conversations about, besides giving you an insight into the great minds who wrote those books.

Hygiene check!

Make sure you dress well and smell good always. All your skills vanish the moment there is foul smell coming from your body or mouth.

Foul body odour creates a very bad impression which, of course, you don’t want. You can be holding the smartest of the gadgets and be in the trendiest of places, but if you are not neat and clean in appearance, people will not warm up to you. If you don’t take yourself seriously enough to maintain personal hygiene, why would others take you seriously and pay attention to you?

So take a shower and change into fresh clothes daily, they don’t have to be expensive, just clean and well pressed. Your hair and nails too need to be trimmed and clean. And don’t forget to use deodorant and maintain oral hygiene. You can chew a mint-flavoured candy or gum to keep your breath fresh.

Wiser with wisdom!

You are not born to watch the silliest of comedy programmes with extremely disturbing language. You need to raise your standards. I shall not use this platform to name some comedy programmes that kids often enjoy watching, but the language used by the main characters is simply ‘disgusting’.

Instead of just watching various programmes on internet, try to take up the good points that are taught to you via many of such programms (directly or indirectly) and also choose nice shows that offer content which is beneficial to its viewers in any way!

The golden rules

Friends, the key to an attractive personality is to keep yourself focused and never indulge in anything that goes against what you and your family believe in.

Today, we are bombarded with so much of information regarding the private lives of celebrities — this may excite you when you catch it on social media, but make sure you never take so much inspiration that you start to imitate them. They are paid to do all that they do and publicise different brands so that novice fans want to possess all the products and things they endorse. Admiring someone’s work is fine, but don’t be a celebrity watcher who ends up detached from reality.

Just enlighten your mind with meaningful things, things that brighten up your future! Don’t ‘act’ cool, wise kids, ‘be’ cool!

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 20th, 2018