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Goals and a midyear pitstop
We're halfway through 2013, and I think this is great time to evaluate how the year has been so far.
I began the Year of the Snake with a handful of goals:
Travel to at least 3 different countries
Pay debts
At least P20,000.00 savings
At least P10,000.00 worth of investments
Avoid t-shirts
Finish at least 50 books
Paint
Start learning food management for my future business
The first goal, I've already accomplished. I've visited Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Paying debts and saving, I'm slowly reaching. T-shirts, I'm making an effort to always remember. The 50 books, I terribly need to catch up on. Investment, painting, and food handling, I haven't started yet.
Having these targets, as simple as they may be, keep me grounded. I'm not exactly the most focused guy around, so I find them very helpful.
I think this midyear is also a good time to recalibrate and make adjustments so as to perform better in realizing our plans and get where we want to be.
How are you faring? How many items have you ticked off your list?
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"Tourists don't know where they've been; travelers don't know where they're going."
- Paul Theroux
April had me going about on wheels and wings for the most part of the month. All my weekends were spent outside Manila, with some trips spilling over the weekdays. While I do not protest against traveling (God bless my soul), being customarily mobile has its downside when it comes to work. I find it especially challenging to get back on track after trips. With that in mind, I'm crafting a system that would help me tune and center myself easier. This afternoon, I saw how mind-mapping does a fantastic job of laying down everything that needs to be done. The second challenge is to actually do it. That, I still have to figure out.
In times like these, I can't help but recall a story in Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist about the wisest man in the world and his secret to happiness. Ultimately, happiness is about balancing leisure and responsibility. Looking at all the wonders of the world and never forgetting the two drops of oil in the spoon. Applicable to me in a very real and almost literal way.
My spoon - my work - is my ticket to the whole world. There are so many places I would love to visit, but I must be careful not to drop it in my excitement to see them all.
Photo taken at Changi International Airport in Singapore last Sunday, April 28, 2013 using my Blackberry 9320. I'm playing with a photo editing application I downloaded a few hours ago, thus the monochrome.
#travel#work#leisure#airport#changi#singapore#paulo coelho#alchemist#happiness#blackberry#mobile photography#responsibility
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Ever wondered what it's like to peep into the crater of a volcano?
This is a shot of the inside of Visayas' highest point - Mt. Kanlaon. Standing at 2,345 meters above sea level (MASL), this active volcano is also the largest in the Philippines.
As a kid, I've fantasized glowing hot lava bubbling in the center of a volcano's crater. Inside the 4 volcanoes I've trekked, however, I've only seen rocks, boulders and pools - lakes, even. It may not be quite what I had in mind, but it is no way less dramatic.
Photo taken last April 7, 2013 using my Blackberry 9320.
#volcano#crater#philippines#kanlaon#rocks#travel#mobile photography#blackberry#visayas#negros occidental
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Sometimes you gotta run before you can walk.
Tony Stark, Iron Man
Taking it slow and careful is not always the trick. While there is virtue in having all systems in check before launch, there are instances where 100% cannot be guaranteed. Times of great risk are games of probability. To win big requires boldness and an unwavering spirit in the face of real failure.
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Deliberate and intentional
Lately, I've been finding some things uneasy to come by. Most require an active and mindful effort on my part to happen. Day by day, I'm seeing that a certain decisiveness is needed for me to create the circumstances I want.
My work, for example, is unconventional, especially in terms of schedule. I am most free on weekdays, when most of my friends aren't. The weekends, which for them are free times, are my heaviest working days. Thus, get-togethers should be strategically planned, and it leaves less room for adjustment than if we were following a similar work pattern.
Then there are the personal projects which is supervised by none other than myself. Saving up is one. I always have to make a conscious effort to set aside a certain amount every week for it. I even opened a savings account just so I'm sure it's untouchable. Going to the gym is another. Like what I mentioned in a past entry, if new shoes is what it takes for me to banish all excuses to go the gym, then I will buy a pair - and I did. Heck, even writing this post is part of my commitment to write regularly. Even if I don't feel like it or it seems like I have nothing to write about (which is never true), I must make myself do it.
And so it is with other aspects of my life. If I wanted to see people, I have to I have to set a schedule to meet them. If I wanted to finish a book, I have to make it a point to read at least a chapter every night. If I wanted to accomplish some work, I have to stop, sit down and tackle it. If I wanted to recalibrate and center myself, I have to quiet down and reflect. Situations are seldom conducive so I must be deliberate and intentional about making things happen.
I'm beginning to understand that this is how things are going to be from now - that if I wanted to create meaning and get where I want, I ought to be proactive.
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"Sana saan man patungo sa buhay, may pag-ibig, may pag-asa, may saya at saysay."
- "Sana" Coke TVC circa 2005
My favorite line from the song. It's good enough to be a blessing, simple words of well wishes for one who journeys. Wherever you go in life, may you have love, hope, joy, meaning and purpose.
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"Ibon mang may layang lumipad, kulungin mo at umiiyak."
- Bayan Ko
Having lived my early years in Leveriza, the Manila Zoo has been a significant part of my childhood. I have always been fascinated with animals and zoos have fed my appetite for seeing them up close, especially the wild beasts.
Last January, I went to Cebu for the Sinulog Festival. In one of our spare nights, my friends and I tried the Sky Walk Extreme in Crown Regency Hotel. Apparently, that thrilling activity is only one of the attractions offered by the hotel. In the floor leading to the entrance of Sky Walk, a corner was set up for photo sessions with lion and tiger cubs, and pythons. For a fee, one can pose beside and even embrace these fierce creatures.
On our way out of the hotel after walking round the tower's edge, we came upon a most disturbing sight: A bright stage was set up right in front of the building's entrance. In its corners stood tall speakers booming with the most frantic Sinulog music. Smack in the middle was a platform where a lion cub lay, its eyes wide and glazed, as if it came from an intense pot session. Instead of looking grand and terrible, it looked dazed and stupid. On another part of the stage was a white plastic box housing a python that is lifted and passed around by people eagerly wanting to have their photos taken with the snake sitting on the shoulders.
Now, it does not require specialized education to understand that these animals are not meant to be handled in such a way. Being creatures of the wild, their natural condition is away from bright flashes of the camera and booming stereos. These things stress animals.
Instead of amazement and delight at the sight, we felt anger and pity. I'm willing to bet that lion cub was sedated in one way or another. The experience got me thinking about zoos. I know many of the animals found in zoos are kept there for protection and preservation, but perhaps making a show of them can be reconsidered.
I snapped this photo of a sick Brahminy Kite last October 7, 2012 in the churchyard of Betis Church in Pampanga using my Blackberry 9320.
#animals#zoo#bird#brahminy kite#manila#leveriza#cebu#sinulog#crown regency hotel#lion#python#snake#cage
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Recalibration
Another video (or series of videos, rather) circulating around the web and being shared relentlessly in my Facebook and Twitter feeds the past few days is the commencement address of Archbishop Chito Tagle to Ateneo de Manila University's batch 2013. Even before the speech was uploaded, live tweets and retweets quoting His Excellency popped here and there.
It's excellent, I'm sure. I haven't watched it or read the transcript despite it's ubiquity, but I have a good guess on what it is about: purpose, passion, love, and service - things that have been fed to Blue Eagles from the onset and one would have known by heart after a 4- or 5-year stay in the university. There was a time when I used to breathe these ideas.
Having come down from the hill for a few years now, I have undergone many changes, and so did my general perspective in life. Back then, service was the primary concern: how can I help? where am I needed? It did not completely disappear, but the priorities have changed. The questions asked now are: when can I be stable? how can I fulfill my ambitions? The bigger world demands practicality and I must comply to survive.
I am now focusing on building my business and appreciating my country and the world through my travels. Although my work allows me to share with others the beauty of the Philippines, or help strengthen the local economy (albeit in a very little way), it is a far cry from my service in college and the passion I carried then. At this moment, stability is the goal.
Pondering on what could have changed, it points me to the Face - or the lack thereof. Before, I had YFC; it was clear that I was serving a community of angsty, issue-ridden teens. I was a kuya and a mentor, who listened, gave advice and helped navigate. Thrown into a bigger ocean, I am but an overwhelmed fingerling, knowing little and seeking guidance. With the tables turning, and the carpet being pulled underneath me, I was unconsciously made to switch to a different mode of living. The Face was forgotten; in its place stood the mirror of the world reflecting the I and the wants and needs of the I. Service became a mere ideal, because who can serve and help the world?
My conversation with my best friend G has led me to an answer I had always known, but shoved at the back of my mind. It's not the world that we serve, but people. The world doesn't have a Face; it is not a person so we cannot help it. But we can help the people in it. My descent from the hill was a descent from the realm of ideas to reality. As I went down, however, I must have forgotten that I should bring the ideas with me and make them real.
The person I am today has gone quite a distance from who I was a few years ago. It is not necessarily bad, but a few recalibrations once in a while can make it better. I see that my values should always be in check in order to remain grounded on the important things.
I already know where to start, but I'll save that for another post.
#ateneo#tagle#commencement address#service#values#passion#philosophy#recalibration#face#levinas#yfc#life#stability#love
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Laging may sapat na liwanag para sa susunod na hakbang (There is always enough light for the next step).
Eddieboy Calasanz
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"The cure for anything is salt water - tears, sweat, or the sea." - Isak Dinesen
I'm more of a sunrise person, really, but this lovely sunset was just mesmerizing. This was taken at Tanjung Aru beach in Sabah, Malaysia during my first ever trip abroad a month ago.
My work allows me to be with foreigners all the time. In those six days, however, I was the foreigner. Walking down streets with wide-eyed wonder, supplementing most of my words with gestures, exchanging stories with anyone who'd care to listen - ah, incomparable! Something I really found awesome was non-Filipinos speaking Tagalog. Sabah, being so near the Southern parts of the Philippines, is home to many Pinoy migrants. Their presence have locals throwing around Tagalog phrases like "kain na (eat)" or "upo ka dito (sit here)" here and there. I thought, so that's how it feels like being talked to in your native tongue by a person from another nationality.
One of my goals for this year is to travel to at least 3 different countries. To be honest, I felt deprived for not having been outside yet and getting my passport just last year. The first one's already ticked off the list. Two more are lined up for the summer and I simply can't wait.
Shot using my Blackberry 9320 last February 24, 2013.
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Of death, compassion, and a challenge
The past days have been filled with news of a girl who committed suicide after being forced into filing for a leave of absence because she could not pay the university's tuition fee.
Many (activist) groups blamed the university's policies, emphasizing the fact that the girl, Kristel Tejada, was a student of the state university of all state universities in the Philippines. Others condemn the general administration for the widespread poverty victimizing many of our citizens. Some, meanwhile, point to her family and peers, stating how thing would not have culminated with suicide had she a proper support group.
This morning, a note shared on Facebook caught my interest - not because it finally identified the culprit for Tejada's death, but because it brought the issue down to a personal level. Setting aside the political structures that bind us all, and the inability to aid by the characters in Tejada's life, the note written by Aya Tantiangco directed my eyes to the diminishing compassion in our society. It particularly hit me when she gave an example of people's usual response to hearing rants and drama from friends.
I honestly dislike listening to rants, and even make an effort to avoid people who seem to have a warehouse of them. My excuse, like what's said in Tantiangco's note, is that I have problems of my own and I don't need more, thank you very much. Also, I have very little patience for people who come to me with their problems, but never do anything about them afterwards. A part of me believes that the mature thing to do if you have a problem is to deal with it. Change it if you can; if not, stop complaining and live with it.
Tantiangco's note, however, reminded me of the negative impact of my seemingly harmless act of elusion. After all, it stops the bad vibes from spreading. But many people are living day by day, carrying heavy loads which they keep to themselves. At some point, when things are no longer bearable, when the burden no longer seems worth enduring, these people just give up the struggle and whither away. A single gesture of compassion, showing them that somebody cares, can make a huge difference - even if it's just enough to get them through another day.
So I'm not gonna end this post with a promise to put myself in the front lines of whiny, disturbed folk who's got more issues than a fourteen-year old. But I will try to be more open in hearing people out, especially to people I'm not necessarily close to. I mean, if I can make myself available on call to a select few of my friends, then I guess a few minutes (fine, hours) with others wouldn't be so bad.
I will try and I hope, if you're like me, you do too.
#kristel tejada#aya tantiangco#life#death#struggle#burden#depression#news#compassion#philippines#government#university
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Sarap to the bones.
What bones?
One cannot claim to know me without knowing how much I love food. This is a photo of Cebu's Original Lechon Belly, aptly called the "boneless lechon." At P400.00+ per kilo, this is a bit on the upside by Cebu standards. Regular lechon in the market is barely P300.00/kg. However, once you realize that this hunk of pork is all succulent meat, light fat and crackling skin, it, by far, gives you more bang for your buck and belly. Plus, you can buy in 1/4 and 1/2 kilo servings.
I recommend the spicy version, with at least 3 helpings of puso per person.
Photo taken last January 20, 2013 with my Blackberry 9320.
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Singletasking
I used to take pride in being a multitasker.
As a college student, I tossed my acads with my orgs and drizzled leadership tasks all over it. There was a year when I joined 8 orgs, actively participated in 5, held officer positions in 2, alongside being class beadle in a couple of subjects. In my track, I found Events Management attractive due to its nature of running a hundred facets of a project all at the same time.
When I started working, I was thrown in the marketing field where I was allowed to do events. It was intoxicating. I loved the excitement of having many things clamoring for my attention, seeking to be done all at once. Looking at the list of infinite tasks gave me a sense of responsibility and, as I eventually realized, a dangerous, premature sense of fulfillment.
Fortunately, the projects I handled fared well, but not without kinks. In retrospect, my projects took off because at some point in the game, other people stepped in and helped out. I see now that had they all been left to me, the results would at best be short of disastrous.
Although the work I do on most days spares me the adrenaline of events, it is as multi-faceted and complex. Many tasks of different natures clamor to be done, and I have to be strategic in responding to them. The best approach - as I'm being affirmed everyday - is not to start them all at the same time, but to take each one aside and let it go only if I have properly addressed the concern. Of course, it's not applicable everytime, particularly to tasks that depend on schedule. But the single, laser-beam focused approach works for most. I always find it dragging at first, but with a little discipline and persistence, it never fails to bring me forward. Studies showing the downside of multitasking are increasing. Experts suggest that "singletasking" may be the real key to efficiency. And I agree. It may not necessarily take you to the finish line right away, but it guarantees to bring you a few yards closer.
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Community
A while ago, I met with Marco, a good friend and brother from Youth for Christ. Like how most conversations go with friends my age, we cannot help but look at our college days and point out how much we've grown and changed.
One of the biggest changes now is the lack of a support group. Back then, our org took up a huge chunk of our student lives. Almost all free times were spent in the org room playing cards and board games, jamming, or sleeping. Classes (for the hardcore members) were scheduled such that it makes way for org activities. After graduation, many have not crossed over to Singles for Christ, the next stage in the CFC program. I'm not speaking only for myself when I say that perhaps we outgrew the loud, charismatic method of YFC. No longer students, and being acquainted with real life responsibilities, we now seek a spirituality that's more in tune with the bigger world we're navigating.
We agreed that even though a YFC setup may not be suitable for us, getting together with people we grew with, whom we shared our discovery of faith with, would be an enriching thing to have. A simple gathering to foster and restore the community we had would be helpful. As Marco put it, the worst that could happen is we get to see each other. And that's not entirely a bad thing.
My work exposes me to many different people. I see that most of the time, clients who join our tours begin the day as strangers to each other and go home with a parting hug. I see this also in myself when I travel. I arrive at a place and try to know the names of the faces I see. I introduce myself and hope that the person I had just spoken to would be a friend. While I recognize the fact that some people are more sociable or more shy than others, it goes without saying that each one appreciates making a connection.
I think that regardless of how we are or what we do, we all seek to connect with each other. Being part of a community we share values with affirms us. And it feels great.
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Commitment
Last night I told myself I will buy new crosstrainers if that's what it takes for me to go to the gym. So today I did.
I'm also staying up late writing this entry because I said I'd write everyday, even if it's only a single sentence. I'm up late because I just finished finalizing two itineraries for Culture Shock PH's upcoming trips, which I promised to email the team today.
This means that I'll get less sleep tonight because I have to be up early and hit the gym in the morning.
My nugget of learning is this: Make adjustments if necessary. Eliminate all excuses not to do something you said you would. It's challenging but it gets the job done.
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Picking up where I left off (or finding time to write again)
When I put up this blog, it was mainly a tool for me to get used to writing regularly. I succeeded for about a month and completely disappeared for a year.
In between then and now, it is unnecessary to state the obvious that many things happened. And big things at that. School, for one, has finally been let go. Business has improved greatly, although much work has to be done. New places have been visited and a lot of people have been befriended. Ultimately, many lessons have been learned.
But I'm not about to talk of the past year or even bullet point its highlights. No gap is required to be filled. Rather simply, I'm only saying I'm back and I will be pouring ideas here again.
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Smile!
It's surprising to see patterns like this occurring in nature - a simple reminder to smile and see joy in the world.
Taken last March 23 in Mt. Ugo using my Nokia 5320.
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