Habit 3: Put First Things First

In the past, I always put my focus into one. Whenever something interests me, I’ll strive to be at my best on that something. I always strive for “efficiency” instead of “effectiveness”. Other than being efficient, I also tend to be “do-it-all” type of person. I never say “No”. As I’ve blogged a few weeks ago, never saying “no” isn’t good at all. You should learn to say “no”.

Habit 3 teach about dealing with urgency and importance, putting things first without losing balance. Most people lack balance in life, either their too pre-occupied with work, love, family, school, business etc. Such lackness causes them to feel stressed, haggard and unhappy with life which also at times lead to broken relationships. I used to be one of those who don’t believe there is this real “balance” in life. Now, I’m happy to say that my life never felt this balanced as I started to learn the trick. :D

When I say balanced, it doesn’t mean complete equilibrium in all aspect, mind you, it can’t be perfect equality. Someone have said that life balance is like your four fingers (exclude your thumb). If you’d look at these fingers, they’re not created equal but their close to it. In viewing life’s balance, you can look at your fingers to remind you the “almost equality” in the four aspect of life, that’s mental, spiritual, physical and emotional.

When you start to understand this, you’d see life as easy as ABC. Haha. You’d start to appreciate how wonderful life is and how you can live it to the fullest, day by day. You’d realized that “busy” is the most irrelevant excuse you can ever say for you’d never be busy. You’d start to view the word “busy” to mean lack of control on the most important asset of life which is TIME. For you do have all the time to build relationship and produce outputs, it’s just rest to you on WHAT’s valuable that leads to your happiness. :D

As I started to apply this in my life, a noticeably changed in my aura and outlook started to come out. Now I feel bubblier, younger and happier than I ever felt. :D To start attracting positive vibes in your life, aim for balance, and from there you’d start to attract positive things for you feel positively happy with life. Remember, like attracts like. :D

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of the things which matter least”. – GOETHE

A Stain I Want To Erase

Imagine yourself having a relationship that’s too good to be true. LIke a love that’s deeper and sweeter than Romeo and Juliet. A prince in a fairy tale world. Then suddenly, it all stopped. For days, weeks and months, you won’t receive any texts, email nor phone calls.

Furious and confuse, you’d approach that prince. He’d ask you why do you want to see him? And you’d answer, “Coz I wonder how you’ve been” then ask him, “What am I to you?”. And he’d tell you, “You’re a stain i want to erase!. Start worrying about yourself. Take care.” OUCH???!!! OMG!!!!!

Okay, how did I know this? Stop playing that thoghts in your mind for this isn’t my love story, hahaha. I’m currently watching the korean version of “Boys Before Flowers” (a.k.a Hana Yori Dango (Japan) & Meteor Garden (taiwan)).

There’s this scene where the guy said that, “A stain I want to erase”.

I find guys (or even gals, for i heard there are bitch out there) who does this thing a BIG COWARD. Instead of telling the other person directly that they’ve fallen out of love, they keep the other waiting and wondering of ‘WHY THINGS SUDDENLY CHANGED’. They don’t have the nerve to tell directly that they’ve fallen out of love.

Face it, telling them or not will cause the same, you’d break their heart (may even crashed it). So why prolong, and why leave the other person hanging?

Some are scared to say the magic word, “i’ve fallen out of love” because their scared of hurting the other person. But scared or not, not telling the other person that you did, will only worsen the other’s situation. For some, those who tell the girl/guy directly are cruel, but as for me, it’s better to be honest than keep the other waiting. They’d get hurt, that’s for sure, but at least, they can move on.

Pain isn’t scary, what’s more scary is believin’ onto something that isn’t there anymore.

Summer Time

TIME MOVES SOOOO FAST. A few more days and it’ll be summer month again. GOSH.
I’ve been in Baguio over the weekend but the summer capital itself didn’t make me realize that. I’m that slow and stupid, if not most of the time, at times.hahaha.

Everybody is planning their summer getaway that’s for sure, and am I planning? Yeah, just another baguio trip with my college friends. Some people have been inviting me to EK, Galera, Palawan and etc. but I haven’t said “yes” to any of those. And why? I don’t know, I just don’t like to spend for now. Okay, weirdo.hehe. FREE STUFF ARE WAY BETTER, OFCOURSE! :D

Right now, I’m living day by day which some also call as step by step. I plan, sure I do, but more of a long term plans, like a certain end I’m picturing. And at the same time, I’m living to the fullest today. When I say fullest, it does not mean physical and financial full blaster, but more of emotional and relationship wiser.

The past quarter has been a positively blast and crazy. A LOT HAD HAPPENED AGAIN. There’s being a back-up Control Accountant (aka Officer-in-charge), CI workshop, meeting a lot of good and nice like-minded-people from a business community, getting A LITTLE BIT closer to someone who’ve caught my special attention for sometime now (yihee :D), building a lot of good relationship and new friendships :D, year-end bonus/salary increase, getting a good debt, bein’ a core team member, and lastly, a new extrovert, light-hearted and bubbly me. A TOTAL CHANGE I SHOULD SAY for someone who used to be quoted as “autistic”. Okay, that’s exaggerating, just “shy, quiet and snob”. :D

I’m pretty sure summer time will be another blast. Hopefully, by then, I can share to you my chapter 2 in terms of love, a lot of free outings, meeting lots lots of people that I can make a difference to, and lastly a better and financially free me. :D

“Forms follow function”

One More Chance

If you’d be given a chance to go back in time, will you take the chance? Will you give up today so you can go back to yesterday?

I remember a Filipino movie entitled “One More Chance”. A lot of people have been telling me to watch it coz it’s really nice and I can relate to it but I haven’t done so, and I’m betting that I won’t be doing so. Not in the near future tho. Maybe someday I will. You may call it a coincidence but the story was somehow similar to my real love story. Long-term relationship that started in UST that eventually ended after 5 years. OUCH. Haha. I can still remember the pain at times but most of the time, I laugh thru it.

There are times I do want to go back in time especially on heavy days that I really miss those days he’s with me. The first love I had was almost perfect that I couldn’t dare to get mad to the guy which made it harder for me to move on before. But I’m so glad I did and not clinging to pass is what made me do it.

To answer why I never watch the movie? Not because I’ll get hurt but because I don’t want to influence myself and believe in one more chance. As they say, “what’s done is done”.

It’s been 365 days now. The pain is gone, the longing is gone, but the loneliness, is it gone?

At the moment, loneliness is still here. I’m happy, no doubt about it. But “used to be” are really hard to deal with sometimes. There are times I wish I have somebody. Somebody I can share my thoughts with, share my time with and hopefully share my life with.

I’ve used to believe in forever love and I was ready to give that love to someone, wholeheartedly. But sadness, he stepped on it and pushed me away. Ironic as life is, when you’re ready to give everything to someone that’s when they take you for granted. Oh my, I’m word vomiting here.hahaha.

It’s raining outside and it feels like it’s raining inside me, at this very minute, right here, right now.

Trying Times

Nowadays, it’s everyone’s favorite word. From the newspaper, magazines, internet, etc. it’s the main story that’s closely looked at by people from all classes.

Someone has said that “if things are easy then it wouldn’t be worthwhile”. In line to that, someone also said, “Be thankful that things aren’t easy for it only mean it’s not yet the end”. It does make sense coz life, indeed, is really worthwhile and that I still don’t like it to end.

These days I should say have been one of those days I call, CRAZY. My spirit in totality is being tested again. From my own health, work responsibilities/opportunities, family matters, supposed-to-be school matters and my future activity. Trying times is amazing coz it was able to do much in span of almost two weeks, capturing all the areas I’ve just mentioned. Just today, I’ve handled two, both personal and professional. Today I had to stand between an institute versus my own brother which resulted to a bit messing up my professional side. I’m not good in disappointing people and at the same time I’m not good of confrontations and expressing myself verbally, but now I’m trying to look at things in whole picture. I don’t panic and decide the most logical and ethical way. That’s the reason why I always think that you should never let down your guard for you’ll never know once these things hit you. Good thing I’m having the proper mindset that I’m able to handle it all without being stressed out. Although at times, it makes me want to faint, just to exaggerate.

In times like this, I just need to dust myself off and carry on, in addition to thinking through and preparation. I know my priorities now; I’ve already set and decided to stick to them. Good thing I did coz without it probably I’d feel tired and lost again.

As I’ve mentioned a few days ago, I’m about to sail, and I won’t let all these things stop me to where I’m going. AJA! :D

Habit 2: Begin With The End In Mind

I’ve once read that the difference between a winner and a loser is the ability of the former to create his/her blueprint. Most of the time people hate contemplating about life and their action, but they always wonder why life’s so hard. And when asked what’s their life’s all about? They’d either make fun of you thinking you’re some kind of retarded or they don’t know the answer.

Recently, I’ve discovered that life isn’t really hard if you know how to play it. When I say play, I don’t mean to make fun of it, but just like any other sport life has its mechanics and tactics that you can learn to for you to result as a winner and happy. Sadly tho, most people aren’t willing to learn how to play it or even avoid the topic.

In the past, I seldom contemplate about life and me. I was one of those people who think reflecting and meditating is boring and weird. But now, different as I am, reflecting and contemplating have been one of my consistent habit. For sure, it’s weird for most but I’m pretty sure some loves it. J The change is still unfathomable for me until now but I love how it is. Coz I feel I’m more in control of myself and my life the day I started to contemplate about it.

During one of the leadership training I’ve attended, we had an activity to create our EULOGY. EULOGY is like a written statement about you that people will talk about during your own funeral. When I’ve looked at the instruction, I had goose bumps because during those times, death is like something I don’t want to talk about. (Ofcourse, that’s another thing that changed too). At that moment, I didn’t know what to write, reason maybe I was too stunned or I really didn’t know what to write, I was lost too. But now, in five minutes I can tell you what I want to hear in my EULOGY. Scary? Nah, it isn’t. :)

Begin with the end in mind is like writing your own Eulogy. It will consist of things that you want people to remember about you. Like what kind of character/attitude you have? What kind of relationships you’ve built? What kind of work/contribution you’ve left? And what kind of advocacy you’ve supported?

It amazed me to discover that life can be your own blueprint, as always, Life’s a choice. Ofcourse, there are things beyond your control but despite those, it all comes down to your OWN choice. Everything in life has 2 creations, 1) the blueprint and 2) the result. With the blue print we see what we want to happen, like how big the house, how many bedrooms and if it has garden or pool. On the other hand, the result is the output. The actual house you were able to build.

The same thing goes to our own life. Most people feel lost with life because they don’t have a guide, a blueprint to look into. That’s why everything they do is based on the current state or other people’s opinion/standards.

Each of us has our own unique blueprint, a unique purpose, a personal mission statement. If you’d contemplate about it, most of things have. Companies, schools, athletes, organizations, etc. Everything has their blueprint, a mission statement that they look into as basis of their way of service and operations. Sadly tho everything has that people follow to, but most people don’t have their own self. And now I understand why people will most likely can’t answer what their purpose is.

Although our mission statement is something we can do but it can’t be done overnight. It’s a continuous process to build but the core value is in there. Such mission statement will guide you in your decision makings with life coz you have a principle and values you can base upon.

Once you begin to have this, you slowly see life as easy as shopping. Hehe. I’m just exaggerating but once you do, slowly you’d be able to see a clearer picture of what your life is really all about. Also, you’d be amazed to see the change you’d have that’s in line to the blueprint you created. Don’t wait for your own funeral before you realize what you really are and what your life is all about. :)

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Bon Voyage! :D

“You cannot cross an island if you won’t sail the sea.” This saying always runs thru my head whenever I try to reach a decision.

I always hear people say, life isn’t easy, that life is hard. This saying creates two reactions, a negative and positive. Sadly, most of the time, I see people who take the first, that’s being negative and burdened about the hardship. As for me, I’ve always looked at life’s hardship as a challenge that will result to something good. I’m more of a doer before I complain, and I seldom say “No”. The difference with the past is I take myself too seriously which is far from my current state. Now, I still am a doer (pro-active), tho it does stress me alittle at times but I don’t take myself too seriously anymore. I smile through it as I take on the challenge, the hardship. Taking responsibility without taking myself seriously helps me keep my bubbly and worry free self which makes me feel great with my life now. :D

Now, I’m about to sail the ocean to the island of my desire. Naks. Haha. The decision wasn’t easy. I’m a professional accountant/auditor, trained to be skeptical and factual, like to see is to believe. My profession is a bit contradicting to my personality of a doer, the “can” do attitude that nothing is impossible. Ironic as it is, despite the fact I’m a trained accountant, my core value of a dreamer/believer retained in me.

I greatly value respect, the fact that people will believe in different things that I do. Honestly, I don’t see any problem with that coz each of one of us has our own journey and purpose to live in, our own battle field. In the past year, it was a bit struggle for me to find like-minded people, those who see life the way I see it. Gladly, my journey and purpose lead me to meet these people. These people were mostly part of a community but I’m happy to say that I also see a few of them in my current workplace. And these persons keep me to where I am now without losing my focus for they help me be reminded. :D

I’m aware that my voyage will be a struggle but I’m excited coz I know I’ll learn a lot. As I’ve said before, I’m not afraid of failures, for failures are my wisdom to life. So I bid myself, bon voyage! :D

Happiness is found in DOING not merely in POSSESSING. – Napoleon Hill

Krung World

Most people, if not all, have problems to deal with. What differs is on how each of them deals with it.
Some people will battle with it unprepared while most will probably prepare for the solution which I agree to be the best way to deal with it. But there will be cases where you neither do anything of these two, instead, you find yourself escaping, either physically by going aboard or the cheapest way, thru fantasy.hahaha. For me, I usually do the later; I go to the fantasy world which I call the Krung world. :D But there were instances I went aboard which if money will do me, I think I’ll like it better. Going a board gives you wider perspective since you see other things. And I guess being in the krung world does the same effect to me since it gives me the opportunity to know and see the way other culture lives, other than the “kilig” thingy it brings me. Hehe

I’m proud pinay and my desire is to live my whole life in this country, if my fortune will permit me so. I once thought of leaving this country for a great reason that became alittle bit larger than me but last year, after thorough thinking and contemplating, I’ve finally decided to let go of a BIG opportunity and stay in PI. It was not an easy decision, it was one of my defining moments, if you want to call it that way, but right now, I don’t feel any regret doing so because I feel great and happy with the way my life is at the moment.

Despite being proud pinay, there’s one thing I hate to admit but is true and that is I’m not fond watching our own entertainment shows. Instead, I’m fond watching Korean and Japanese dramas. At first, it was more of a past time, nothing much better to do and since I love Chinese-korean-japanese looking guys, I didn’t mind watching until it became a habit… more of an addiction.hahaha. Now, I can even speak a few Korean words, even Japanese. Haha. And so I call it my Krung world. A place I can escape to whenever I feel like it. :D

Before, I really can’t answer why I love watching them, until I realized that other than the kilig it brings me, I’m learning a lot from these dramas. Not only it broadens my point of view on how other culture lives but also by the lessons I learn from it, unconsciously. Hahaha. And yeah, there are lessons from this krung krung dramas, it if not all, well, most of my favorite does.hahaha

To name a few, here’s my top three list of Korean/Japanese Dramas that I can say are one of the best so far (both on the artists, acting, cinematography, directing and the lessons learned, yeah there is.haha)
1. Full House (KD)
2. My Girl (KD)
3. Hanayori Dango (JD) or Boys Over Flower (KD)

I’ve watched these dramas more than 5 times even tho they have 16 episodes which you can watch for 3 days straight (if you’re that addicted and I once am. Haha.) By watching these, somehow I can see the Korean and Japanese culture, scenery, the snow and it gives me this strong desire to visit these two countries sooner or later. Tho I still have to find my courage to eat their food.hahahaha.

To amaze you, there’s one common denominator from these 3 dramas, and that’s where the lesson learned comes in. From these three, all the 3-ladies have the same characteristic that somehow reflects me. That is their all bubbly and friendly, simple and laid-back, humble and respectful, and lastly, their all determined and strong-willed. They smile and are happy despite anxieties and they never give in to fear, including humiliation. Nice character I should say for a woman. :D

Nowadays, for a lady to survive happy in this life, it’s best to maintain a light heart and mind to be happy in every circumstance and at the same time strong-will to fight whenever it is necessary to do so. :D

For a final note, I love to share this quote I’ve recently read, and it’s from the words of wisdom of Donald Trump:

“Give yourself a little freedom to develop into something or someone you’d actually like to be”

Why I want to be a core team?

Nowadays I’ve been attending a community where they empower people, not just by their words but also by their sincere effort to listen to you. In the past, I’m more of a talker, but since last year, I started to become more of a listener because I realized that I’ll expand my horizon more if I’d listen. Student of life as I am, I think listening helps me grow more of a person. And pro-balance as I am, I believe that a person should be a listener and a talker, just like a giver and a receiver. :)

I’m glad I’ve been able to be seeing this community and more, I do hope I’d be a part of it soon. :)
But before I can become one, I have to answer the why? My official list is done separately, but here’s the summary of why:

- I share the same vision of making PI a first world country. Possible? Ofcourse it is, nothing is impossible!:D ;
- I want to be financially literate and FREE;
- I want a fast track life and living my desired lifestyle;
- I’m focused and determined person, when I put my priority, things happens for me, lucky me. :)
- I want to surround myself with like-minded people;
- I want to be a student and meet one of my mentor in life;
- I want to walk the talk;
- I want to ACT;
- I want to BE;
- I’m strong willed and I know I can do it. :)
- And lastly, I want to take part in spreading financial literacy. I want to be a mentor myself, walking and talking the truth of the fruit of my step to be a core team. :)

I’m very much aware that it’ll be hard, I’d risk a lot, will accept a lot of criticism and may bump into failures, but as I always believe in, its better do something than wonder forever with what ifs. But I’m very much positive if not all, there’s still a lot of Filipino’s that are open-minded, they just need the proper information and proper mentor. :)
Just like what my friend said to me yesterday, the mere fact that I’m sharing this here, blogging and talking about it, shows I’m brave enough to face the consequence of what other people will react to this. And I guess I am naturally risk-taker.
I just have one life, and I’ll never know until when it is, I’d rather be free to do things now than secure myself and restrict it just because I’m thinking too much of the consequence. I’d act now, before life just passes me by. :)