Category: Inspirational

The calender page turns to July and we’ve gone passed the half of the year. As we strive to reach our goals this year, it’s time to be grateful for how far we’ve come once again. And this time, I’m sharing not my own account but Daddy’s because we’re just proud of him.

Over the past month, Daddy has been practicing to walk in the streets slowly with the cane and the physical therapist. Street vendors, tricycle drivers, our house guards and passersby—their eyes all fixated on his legs. Since he was a perennial “person of the outside” before the accident, many of them thought that he just moved out to another country or elsewhere because they did not get to see him for a long while. They were surprised about what happened and felt concerned.

One of his major exercise challenges is to go down from seventh floor to the lower ground floor and back again by stairs. In a couple or more instances, old Chinese neighbors in different floors scolded him for they thought he was punishing himself with struggling efforts to climb up and down. “Why not use the elevator instead?”Others claimed that he won’t be recuperating anyway, so he’s only giving himself more pain and trouble.

These are the times when he defends that he needs these physical exercises to become better. I think that God may have also used these vessels not to encourage him to pull over and stop but to encourage him to still keep try and go on. I think that by verbally explicating his reasons (to both internal and external little whispering devils) on why he needs to train, his belief in the purpose and in himself amplifies. I’m glad he accepted the inkling that this may be his second life. He has been granted another chance to live however with this tussle, and I’m also glad that he’s thankful for it.

To date, there are still times when he gets caught up in the “why me” and “no fair” of life. So when he asked me two nights ago, for the nth time, of why he was chosen to experience this cruelty, my answer was that maybe it’s for him to inspire more people. True, he had received too much credit for his experiences before as a made-up person, a charismatic and hardworking businessman, a fulfilled family man, a devoted follower of God who shares the good word to a lot of people with his own means.

When life gets to be this stable and satisfactory, most days are as forgettable as the next: things don’t change, people follow the same patterns and do the same things. It’s a rare day that goes to shape a person, the simply great moments and the truly horrible ones, that will last forever burnt into someone’s mind. It’s in these moments that we find who we truly are and set ourselves on a course to be who we want to be. I am convinced that:

God has set him to another divergence of road-learning to be a walking example. To walk the talk, he has to uplift himself and choose not to be contrite for the heartbreaking and horrific things that happened but be conscious that there’s a powerful message that’s waiting to be delivered and shared.

Events do not happen to us but for us as we happen to them. From these, we learn how to suffer and overcome suffering. We can allow things to tear us down or choose for them to build us up. There is this thin line between what happens to us and what happens for us. While one creates victims, the other creates survivors. I’d place emphasis on “kick-ass survivors,” those who are ablaze with wisdom, strength, confidence and the desire to transform the bad into good, hatred into love, loathing into acceptance. These people are those who have the power to use their experiences to embolden them and make a difference to the world. These people are those who believe that we are not the result of what or will happen in our life but are the result of what we choose to do next thus they move forward.

I take this moment to thank the World in advance, for I know that not many months from now, we would wonder where Daddy’s wheelchair and cane — went. ɞ

 The streets are quiet. All seemed hooked to watching the delayed telecast or live streaming of the Pacquiao-Bradley match. I’m no expert when it comes to boxing but to me, Pacman won the fight! Many are clamoring for the same–even “the champion” himself.

But we cannot reverse time and change the judges’ ultimate verdict. Timothy Bradley has beaten Manny Pacquiao in controversial split decision. In a short interview, Pacman said he has no problem with a rematch in November.

According to my Twitter feeds, Bradley has also expressed his willingness to bring back the title to Manny whom he also thought to be the deserving winner. He might just have been too excited when the announcement was made. He immediately jumped to the ring corner and screamed to the audiences. Everyone was nearly silent though. On the other side, Manny had his head bowed down. Obviously he was upset. A statement went through my head:

“We’re not built for fame.” 

Manny, through his long and successful career as a boxer, has happened to only glorify God and spread His message recently. And now that he lost to this young opponent, his faith would really be tested; he might put his faith to doubt.

If you’ve watched the telecast, however, you’ll see that he stood there and still clasped his hands to praise God after the announcement of the result. His eyes were almost bloodshot-red though. He admitted he wanted to cry. He was like hiding in the comfort of his humanness.

Point in case is that all glory belongs to Him alone. There the saying comes to life: “What goes up must come down.” In order to stay right, we tip back our heads to the heavens, lift gratitude to our lord and pray to save us from ourselves.

That’s about it. On other news…

My Nerves Can’t Settle With Being Unproductive

I have completed my first week at my new job. I forgot how this week can typically be boring, with no deep knowledge about the company (or team) culture, organization’s standard processes and other active projects. I dislike not getting anything done. (Each unproductive moment in a day creates the opposite of a positive connotation in my mind.) Maybe this holds true for most people? Maybe it’s normal, somehow.

To counter this, I’ve read loads of documents which got my head swimming and my eyes bleary. I’ve worked my brain far long but not to the point when my neurons stop firing impulses. I’ve used this time to find my place, accept differences from my prior working environment, know who’s who (but there are too many names and faces to remember I’m afraid I have short-term memory issues), attend meetings and learn how decisions are made.

Moreover, I often keep in mind that I have to do professional networking; blending with coworkers is essential. I have to spend time with them and others in the workplace to understand what they see as norms, challenges, problems, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.

It will take time to earn their trust and respect; the least I can do for now is listen and be attentive to them while they show me the ropes. On that part, I believe I’m on the right track. 🙂

Countless of times, my mom would hope to win in the lottery game. And on cloud nine, she’d go on enumerating the things she’s going to buy and do with the prize money. Problem is, she buys a card to draw out her “winning” numbers only when she remembers numbers which flashed in her nighttime dream.

She so believes in this and she’s not alone. There are millions of others in this country (or in the world) who wish to win that jackpot to be more financially secure in life.

However, it’s common knowledge that the odds of winning in a lottery is a pretty big and long shot; you can get higher chances in playing poker and other games in the casino. In between though, this got me thinking:

If ever you become luckier than everyone else and win that giant prize of pot money, would you quit your day job? Or if you’re an entrepreneur, would you shut down your business to just tour around the world and have fun?

A resounding yes for an answer is reflective that you have to consider thinking about going after what you really want to do with your life, your passion for a dream job. Generally, regular employees work at least eight hours a day. 8 hours at work by 24 hours in a day is one third of your life in a day.

This is too short a time to spend doing something you don’t have strong feelings for.

During these two months that I’ve been on vacation (another way of saying it: unemployed), I’ve pondered and asked myself if IT is really where I feel home. For starters, I didn’t take up BS in Information and Communication Technology Management as my undergraduate degree for nothing.

I believe this course interests me because I want to gain more knowledge and experience dealing with people and technologies upfront. I also thought that opportunities waiting in line would be bountiful for graduates of the college of computer studies because (hello?) we’re now living in the technology era. Technology helps employees in any organization keep pace in the workplace, and it just revolutionizes businesses regardless of type and size.

The area of IT is wide in scope as it covers software engineering, network engineering, programming, database and systems administration, network administration, security and systems analysis, technical support, technical writing, website design, and a lot more. I was baffled where I’d be specializing in.

Thankfully, I got my chance to experience bits of almost each one and from there realized what I like most.

I’m happy and proud of all my past job experiences. I thought I’d try technical support (Mandarin) for an multinational company here next when I came back, as I already passed all the exams and interviews for the position.

The compensation and benefits package was also okay–in fact, one that matches my most recent job’s. But my mom advised me to stay put with one company and choose a role which would not frustrate and stress me out so much that I’d quit abruptly. (We know that call center jobs are totally frustrating.) So I had to let go and proceed on active job-hunting.

There may be too many “fishes in the sea” that the HR department has got not enough time in reviewing, screening, scheduling interviews and responding to applicants.

Pacing, to me, is very slow. Good thing I work as a part-time writer at home. Writing research papers, business papers, SEO articles and blog contents kept me mostly preoccupied; else, I might have died of ennui.

Over and hard, I waited and prayed for that suitable job to come.

Today, I have just accepted a job offer, formally joining the company who’s got it…(see the title).

As for the Q above, my answer is no.

God is good awesome.

Long ago and faraway, enamored of my own voice (ahem), I began my odyssey of writing–in my personal handwritten diary and after a while in private, public and commercial typewritten blogs.

The number of views by my visitors from around the world in a day is decent enough to suggest that I’m not talking only to the mirror. But I am no Xiaxue, on the other hand.

Anyway, somewhere in between, I realized that though I might be expressing myself good enough through this medium, I have not practiced to speak up verbally with total confidence upon an audience.

In my third year in secondary school, I remembered famous inspirational broadcaster Francis Kong came to our school as an honored guest for a program. He gave us enlightening advice about overcoming shyness and the power of communication. He conveyed that getting noticed and making a mark is very important in all courses of life and that staying mediocre will never get us to success. So moving forward, I thought I should repackage myself and get away from this shyness that once enveloped me.

That happened mostly in college where I headed almost every group assignment and project we had, when I led and represented teams and presented in class with [fake] sheer of tenacity, and when I opened up to more social groups, organizations and forms of media. More verbal presentations, trainings and speeches came my way after graduation when I worked with corporations, as required by my job post. I became more confident in speaking in English as well as in Chinese.

When I returned home from Singapore, I saw an opportunity for me to grow in this ‘speaking’ / ‘self-presentation’ field once again. I saw one episode of Chinoy TV and thought maybe I can also qualify to become one of the hosts of the Filipino-Chinese program. I sent my application through email and later was invited to attend a workshop.

That was three weeks ago. Today, I completed the TV Hosting and Personality Development camp and also auditioned (VTR) to be the next star of Chinoy TV 菲華電視台. Yup, I just did. Hahaha. Here’s the program flow:

1. Invocation and Welcome Remarks by the President of Fil-Chi Media Productions, Alvin Tan;
2. Inspirational Talk (about success) by Motivational Speaker, Wealth Coach, Author and TV Personality, Chinkee Tan;
3. The Perks of Voice Acting and Dubbing by Creativoices’ the voice master himself, Pocholo Gonzales;
4. Importance of Mandarin by a Filipino who studied Mandarin for two years in Beijing and now can fluently speak in Chinese, a teacher and coordinator of Confucius Institute of ADMU, Cris Garcia;
5. Open Forum on TV Hosting and the Showbiz Industry by GMA7 TV Host, Valerie Tan and Editor-in-Chief of WhenInManila.com and Radio DJ on Mellow 94.7, Vince Golangco;
6. Sound of Music excerpt (Act 1, Scene 1: “16 Going on 17”) by Marvin Ong (Rolf) and Tanya Manalang (Liesl); and
7. The Main Activity: Integrated TV Hosting and Personality Development Workshop by Archie Geneta of John Robert Powers (JRP)

Venue was at the Ramada Hotel, beside Binondo Church.
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For lunch, butter vegetables, pan-seared cream dory with lemon butter sauce, leche flan and ice tea were served. Here’s a screen cap (together with Val and Vince):

From the program, we learned how important it is to have a vision to turn our dreams to reality, how to do ad-libs and banters, project in front of a camera, take in character as a performer on TV, improve our voices and postures, brand ourselves to be remembered and stand out on a much bigger stage.

I’m happy to have experienced this first-time event and to have tried auditioning for the TV hosting opportunity. In or out? I’m totally clueless but I’ve done my best and of course I’m hoping for the best.

Just like what my lock screen states:  

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”

So yes, I’ve just built one!

Sometimes people contact me for advice, whether it be about love life, career, technical gadgets, software choice and installation procedures, phone applications, household and other life decisions.

I would love to be an old wise person who knows everything, but most of the time I feel like I am only as good at some things as I am at assembling some furniture. Without instructions. Red-cheeked. In the desert. Alone submerged underwater.

My closest friends know my weaknesses: doing super simple things like…stapling a huge chunk of paper together (how much force do I actually have to put forth?), untying a tight knot (come on, I’ll just use the scissors and cut it out altogether), opening canned goods using a can opener quickly (or maybe, it’s the can opener’s bad?), opening candy wrapper and a pack of junk food (maybe because my mom did not allow us to have these unhealthy stuff during childhood), biking, rollerblading, ice skating, playing ball sports, chopping small pieces of vegetables, etc.

So I do not feel I am in a position to be doling out advice but I give them anyway. My main tips for life are, as you probably know by now, if you’re an avid reader of this blog: be positive and have faith, always.

I’ve met with my friends last week for a quick catch-up, and this got me thinking: Should I work so hard just to possibly fail? You know, these sort of doubts come creeping in every once in a while.

Honestly, there are days when I’m afraid to walk out the door, meet with people, keep up with technology and current events. And yes, there are days when words and my ability to wield them frighten me.

After our looong night-midnight-early morning conversations, I was reminded that we should be willing to fail. It’s SAD but it’s natural (self-affirmation here!). We won’t gain much in life by holding back because we’re afraid we’ll fail. We learn from things we do; all the advice from all the world there are will not make us brilliant.

If we don’t give ourselves the opportunity to succeed or fail, we’ll be constantly uncertain and self-doubting. There might not be anyone in the world who’s born brilliant. The transformation and achievement of this title takes time. But to get it, we have to have something to start with: the boldness, the intensity, the motivation, the motive, the push. Expect the best and you’ll get it?

Let’s see. Three weeks from now, I’ll be trying out something I’ve never done before. Change you say, surely for the better, right? Not if you’re a creature of habit. I am one but as much as I don’t like change, I resent the “boxed in and giving up” option even more. I’m fond of experimenting on things a little close to my comfort zone and progress from it. I like to make myself believe that my prison guard of fear has allowed me to escape against the bars…and give me the license to fly.

Updates and Prayers

• We had a simple celebration of Daddy’s birthday last weekend. Relatives came to our house and we just had mighty fun. We’re praying for his recovery still–he has tried to walk without a cane very slowly and stepped up and down a flight of stairs.
• My sister is finally on school vacation. She’ll be in her third year next term (four terms to go before graduation). Now that I’m here, I can provide more guidance to her studies. We pray that she pass the succeeding courses smoothly.
• I’ve just got my NBI clearance after like a month of waiting for its release. I have complete document requirements now for employment, yay. I have at least three good pending applications with big companies. I’m praying for good outcomes this week. Meanwhile, I’m writing online articles and business papers here and there and doing chores at home (a lot of help for my family).
• Louie has came back from Europe last Monday. We pray for him to overcome whatever that is bugging his mind. We pray for a sound mind and good health.
• The west coast of northern Sumatra has been struck with a magnitude 8.7 earthquake, leading Indonesia to prompt for a tsunami warning last Wednesday. We pray for the safety of their people.
• Janine Tugonon, a pharmacy graduate of UST, was crowned Bb. Pilipinas Universe 2012 at the Araneta Coliseum last night. She has defeated 29 other contestants for the right to represent the country in this year’s Ms. Universe contest in Florida, USA. We pray for her to (not necessarily win the international pageant but) bring honor to the Philippines in ways she can.

“Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.”

~Johann Wolfgang van Goethe~

Maybe so, but I think I would like luck and fate on my side, too.

There are days when I emerge from this thicket of self-doubt, scratched and bleeding searching for myself. It’s a dark hollow into which I think I see my fate carved into walls of mile-long grave of better judgment and best intentions: a mountain too high for this small me to climb.

For as long as I can remember, people in my stream of consciousness have held several occupations at once. When my mom is an accountant, she also dabbled in helping my dad do business—laising with clients and organizing delivery schedules, helping my grandfather translate Chinese to English documents and performing house chores (cooking, washing, ironing, cleaning–you name it).

During my early years in the university as an undergraduate, I know I had to keep up with my academic classes but aside from that, I had to have other things going on as “sidelines.”

Whether it was maintaining my regularization as a writer in our university paper, being an active officer in our college’s professional org, or participating in significant school events, extracurricular activities made me feel whole and elated as one productive achiever.

I’ve pretty much kept the same outlook when it comes to my own work and career: have as much on my plate as possible.

So, suffice it to say, whenever I feel lethargic and all I want to do is stay in bed and watch movies on my laptop while snacking along the way, I tend to feel guilty. Whenever I skip my to-do list, I experience some sort of existential inner debate. I can’t remember the last time I felt like I’m in one of those moments, though, because I know I can do things and finish them as planned at the end of every day even with occasional resting. (Slower-than-usual moments may be productivity boosts that’s just right around the corner.)

Right now I’m in the middle of active job-hunting (I haven’t yet decided to accept the existing job offer here) and enjoying being back to my dearest place {Manila, Philippines, home} and my dearest people who can just magically make me feel happy.

What a great movie to start the year!

1 hour and 49 minutes and I’m done watching In Time.

1 hour and 49 minutes and I still could not stop thinking about it.

The movie has an unusual storyline, something like a psychological experiment. Some critics say that it is a stark baloney with flat-footed plots and silly scripts. But overall, it is super interesting (at least to me)! It twists the concept of life and challenges viewers to rethink how they live their own. How so? Let me give you a brief introduction of the story.

In the future, time is the new currency. Human beings are bio-engineered to stop aging when they reach 25 but the catch is that they will only have a year to live unless they prolong their life. On the day they turn 25, each human will have a neon clock tattooed on the left forearms (like a watch) which starts ticking and marking a countdown of the time they have left to live–in years, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds.

Like currency in the real world, time is earned through working (i.e. 8 hours of work in day will earn you 2 days) or in the case of the wealthy, inheritance. It is spent on commodities (i.e. a can of soda costs 10 minutes), transportation (i.e. a ride home costs an hour), utilities, leisure, or in rare cases of benevolence, donation.

Also like currency in the real world, time can be robbed away and passed down onto others unwillingly. So imagine living life knowing when yours is going to end and knowing that others can easily steal the remainder of the count from you.

Movie trailer:

The idea of time as currency has huge metaphorical and thematic potential. It makes me ponder on the investment of time as a life or death matter while realigning my perception of what’s worthwhile. And suddenly, I have this little jolt of energy that makes me want to jump up.

Formed are molecules of courage that may become a potent mix of heady belief and a sense of invincibility. The right tools are all we need to convert those molecules into action and transform the mundane into fascinating. Matched with the right energy, our relationships with the right people are drawn and all the productive output drinks from that oasis of energy.

The bottom line here, I think, is that (pardon me for this cliché, but) it’s important to live it to the fullest and happiest because the sands of time cannot be stopped and once the clock stops ticking, it can’t be restored.

Use your time well. Be a greater version of yourself. Appreciate life’s ups and downs. Make every second count before you run out of it.

I’m motivated to be both a bowl and a spoon (hey, not literally). I’m inspired to invest my time in others, to fill their lives, to share and give what I can and seek nothing in return. If in all ways I can’t be of any operational help, I’d just look into their eyes and let them know they’re not empty but are loved.

Are you ready for 2012? Even if you’re not, say yes! To quote Neale Donald Walsch, one of my favorite book authors, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

I believe that when we (as student) say we’re ready, the “teacher” appears. So take a leap of faith with me. We’re on the verge of something wonderfully beautiful.

Ending notes | Other awesome quotes by Walsch:

“Do not waste the precious moments of this, your present reality, seeking to unveil all of life’s secrets. Those secrets are a secret for a reason. Grant your God the benefit of the doubt. Use your NOW moment for the Highest Purpose- the creation and the expression of WHO YOU REALLY ARE. Decide who you are- who you want to be-and then do everything in your power to be that.

It is not nearly so important how well a message is received as how well it is sent. You cannot take responsibility for how well another accepts your truth; you can only ensure how well it is communicated. And by how well, I don’t mean merely how clearly; I mean how lovingly, how compassionately, how sensitively, how courageously, and how completely.

If you think your life is about DOINGNESS, you do not understand what you are about. Your soul doesn’t care what you do for a living-and when your life is over, neither will you. Your soul cares only about what you’re BEING while you’re doing whatever you’re doing. It is a state of BEINGNESS the soul is after, not a state of doingness.”

“If you want the best the world has to offer, offer the world your best.”

Our motto for the year: Believe you can and you will.