Out With the Old; In With the New

Change comes with time.

Or maybe, time requires change.

Among the things that change over time is how the human race perceive, define, approach, and live life.

Few decades ago, the approach was individualistic. Competition was normal. Being famous and powerful was applauded. Owning mundane things was ideal. Grandstanding was a way of life. Money was the goal because it was thought to have made the world go round. I say so because I observe many older people are like these--a combination of these. They have these distinct characteristics.

At present, people magnify the importance of good health, being kind to oneself and others, inclusive growth, inner peace, living harmoniously with others, freedom over money. Now, money is just a tool, and freedom is the goal--time and financial.

The paradigm shift resulted in the revolutionary mindset and approaches of the new generation, among them are as follows:

-Inner peace is the new success.
-Gratitude is the new asset.
-Energy is the new charm.
-Humility is the new strength.
-Grit is the new strategy.
-Connection is the new attraction.
-Faithfulness is the new sweetness.
-Healthy is the new lifestyle.
-Calm is the new mindset.
-Happiness is the new rich.
-Spirituality is the new wellness.
-Self-mastery and self-respect are the new power.

May this new set of perspectives and ways of doing things work in your favor as you live through this new era--without completely leaving the old ones behind, such as the dignity in hard work and the importance of self-sufficiency and resourcefulness.

Sure, You Can Make It!

Intelligence and money are not reasons to pull you down or to hinder you from achieving your goals.

 

Sure, learning is a process.

Sure, maturity is a choice.

Sure, life is a constant voyage.

Sure, each of us is given built-in skills that will enable us to be better and to better enjoy this good life.

Sure, we are the captain of our own lives.

We can become whoever we want to be. Truly, we are not given equal amount of talents, skills, and other gifts gifts; but surely, we are all given the same amount of time each day—24 hours. Whether too long or too short for you, we can’t do anything to adjust its length.

Time is equally given to each of us—rich-poor, young-old, girl-boy, literate-illiterate, good-bad. 24 houts a day; 525,600 minutes a year. Period.

Time is fixed. But the good news is, we can diminish or increase its value by how we make choices and how we act upon our choices.

Learning and maturity should be directly proportional to our time alive, our age. But we all know that a big chunk of humanity is not a reflection of it. I’m not discounting myself.

If we look around, we will see many people who have become skilled and empowered in their chosen fields, and  some in the places they found themselves. However, there are more people who are otherwise or who don’t enjoy the lives they are entitled to enjoy.

We sometimes catch ourselves quipping, “She’s brilliant. I wonder why she ended up like that,” or “He’s diligent, but it seems he toils today to feed himself today so he can work tomorrow.”

(Setting aside those people who are able to get what they want because they know how to manipulate people for their own advantage, or see things as “delegation” when in fact they know in themselves that they intentionally make others do things for them, or get to finish a requirement by doing 20% of the work…)

The legit achiever knows four basic things: diligence, focus, responsibility, and sharing. The self-made achiever is like a house built on a rock, strong storm or raging flood comes, it stands firm. Wherever you put him, whatever you ask of him, whenever you need him, he can deliver well.

I. Diligence

Being diligent doesn’t require exceptional IQ. What one needs is only common sense and initiative. Being diligent is being able to discern what an ordinary prudent man would do in a specific situation.  Diligence is also the ability to delay gratification and do some a-little-tightening-here-and-a-loosening-there.

A diligent person would ask himself what shall I do first; what is the most efficient and effective way in doing this; will I bypass or disrespect or hurt someone; what degree of care is appropriate.

More than being industrious, a diligent person thinks of the implications of his actions before he executes his action plan. He eats first the icing before the cake, I mean, he does first the things he doesn’t like most so he can enjoy the rest of the day doing the things he likes.

II. Focus

A purpose driven and dedicated person knows his goal and he presses on it every single day. He knows where he should end up. Whatever the weather is—stormy or sunny; whatever kind of road he is taking—bumpy or smooth—his mind, feelings, words, and actions are all oriented to his goal.

A focused person is not discouraged or demoralized by trials or failures. Instead, he is fueled by his challenges. For him, another trial means another platform for him to stand on so he could see things from a better vantage point. He sees failure just as a delay to his goal or sometimes a detour so he may take a better path towards it.

Being focused is being able to see clearly what you want and seeing it steadily through layers upon layers of distraction.

III. Responsibility

Acceptance of responsibility is being open to challenges, pain, heartbreaks, and other uncomfortable emotions associated with growing up, achieving, and victory. Responsible persons know that trials, challenges, or problems don’t go away unless you yourself work through them, or else they will remain a hindrance to your growth and victory.

Some people deny to themselves the problems they encounter; others acknowledge the problems but do nothing about it hoping the problems will just go away. But the responsible person acknowledges his problems, sits down and studies each problem for a reasonable time, make an action plan, and face the problem properly—right time, approach, and means—based on his evaluation of the situation.

A responsible person knows that when he avoids the legitimate suffering that results from dealing with problems, he also avoids the growth that problems demand from him (Peck).

Learning is the twin of responsibility. As in taking on responsibility for what one feels, for what one ought to do, for whatever situation one finds himself, one will always surely learn whether he fails or succeeds.

A responsible person's mentality is, "Either you win or you learn."

IV. Sharing

An empowered person shares what he learns. An empowered person is someone who becomes who he is because of what he has gone through in his life. He has a personal account to share about his journey from rags to riches, or from being a victim to being the philanthropist, or from being the last to being the first, or being the nothing to being the superstar.

Having a first hand experience of the essential polishing in life—from thinking of a dream to being diligent to pursue his dream and making it a goal; to being focused and dedicated to his goal; to taking on the responsibility for every circumstance that leads him his goal—an empowered person knows the feeling and thoughts of one who is also driven to legitimately achieve their goals, which enables him to empathize and believe in them.

A small mind will tell one that his dream ridiculously difficult and he will not achieve it because of he is poor or he is not intelligent or he is ugly or he because he is who he is. But an empowered person will encourage one to pursue his dream, pray, and work hard and that if others can do it, he too can do it and may even do things better.

Sharing is a mechanism that multiplies and scatters good things in life. Sharing is the system which makes giving away good things come back in better packages, better quality, and sometimes more in quantity. Simply put, sharing makes good things last from generation to generation.

Whatever our statuses in life are or wherever we are and whatever we want to achieve, it is possible to achieve our goals if we are willing to do our part and focus our energy and resources on the goal.

Intelligence and money are not reasons to pull you down or to hinder you from achieving your goals.

Everyday, within 24 hours, do something that contributes to achieving your goals. If you want to be a teachers, entrepreneur, priest, lawyer, doctor, or corporate executive…

Think like one.

Talk like one.

Act like one.

What you think of, speak of, read about, or do in a day will make a difference in the quality and essence of your 24 hours and 525,600 minutes.

Dream. Believe. Feel. Receive. Thank. Share.

…and thank God for the each brand new day He gives you to become better, do better, and become step closer to your goal.

One sure thing, you can make it if you believe and want it.

Never underestimate your capacity and never underestimate God's power.

Pray and work hard! You can make it, I know!

the only Surrender that reaps Victory

In my few months of inactivity in the blogosphere, I experienced and discovered a lot of things (most of them great and wonderful things!) that I wish I could share them all with you in just one seating.

I am an optimistic and grateful person by nature; however, my imaginative and analytic mind occasionally weighs down my high and pumped up spirit—as my imagination causes me interruption and my analysis a paralysis. I dream and aim high, but my time bucket was leaking minute by minute.

So, I resolved to pursue my goals effectively (doing right things) and efficiently (doing things right) to achieve excellent (doing right things right) results.

With this, I immediately started to figure out where I would start and how I would sustain my progress until I achieve my goals and continue to achieving more, for His glory.

From my experiences, observation, and lessons from friends’ stories...
 ‘good preparation’ proves itself to be indispensable;
 ‘punctuality’ associates itself to victory;
 ‘constant practice’ establishes credibility even without the help of words
 ‘taming of tongue’ molds one to be wise;
 ‘gratitude and joy’ invisibly floats one up to success;
 ‘upright character’ sustains one on top;
 ‘positive thoughts and words’ amazingly change lives (yours and others);
…and most importantly,
 ‘unwavering complete faith’ in Him keeps one on the right track.

I saw how the combination of these eight works in the lives of my friends and other successful people. In God’s grace, I myself am now enjoying the harvest of my used-to-be little seed of determination to succeed… which later on turned into my fruitful tree of desire to glorify Him in whatever I do.

When He comes to your life, you will never be the same again. When you taste the rewards of His promises, you will constantly desire to glorify Him. The sweetest surrender of life, ever—completely putting your life in His hands.