The complete list of all life-guiding messages for young people – click the titles for further information
If you don’t like where your story is headed, you can change it. You can write yourself a new one. One where you do things worth writing about. You don’t have to be stuck.
Encourage friends through hard times: ask what you can do to help – but only offer if you are actually willing to help. Even if there is nothing you can do, offering sends a strong signal you care.
Working as part of a team helps your project benefit from other people’s skills that you don’t have. Teamworking is a learnable skill in itself.
Instead of blaming, take the restorative approach: find out what has happened, who was affected, how you can involve everyone affected in finding a way forward, and how can everyone do things differently in the future?
Smoking reduces the oxygen level in your blood, giving grey dry skin, malnourished hair, poor muscle tone and less oxygen to the brain, giving slower reactions.
Bullying undermines self confidence and lowers self-esteem. Recently 65% of people surveyed with eating disorders felt bullying contributed.
Child Maintenance is a mandatory payment paid by the parent who does not have day-to-day care of the child, payable weekly or monthly until the child is at least 16 years old. The money comes out of your wages or benefits before you receive them.
If you’ve receive abusive text messages, don’t reply – keep them to show a parent, teacher or the Police. Mobile ‘phone operators can take action on the bully’s account.
If you break something in anger, it will still be broken when you’ve calmed down. The same is true for the words you’ve said. It is okay to feel angry, but not to behave angrily.
Rogue apps on smartphones send text messages secretly to premium-rate numbers. Monitor your ‘phone and bill regularly for any unusual activity.