REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

it is not the first time that i see people getting frustrated, unsatisfied with their accomplishments, what is happening in their career and their day to day life in general. i have a friend who recently purchased a laptop, just after a days of use he was vehemently complaining, and keep saying that he was short changed...

apparently he was expecting more than what the laptop can actually delivered, and that he thought that it was really a bargain considering the brand of the laptop and the price it was being offered. i have to remind him that it is a cut throat competition these days in every facet of the business and the manufacturer tend to come up with product that would be affordable to most of the clientele but of course something has to give...

frustration in my opinion is only a byproduct of expectations that are not achieved.... it is therefore essential that for us to set a realistic expectations in everything we plan and do...

Quotes to live by:
Sometimes it is more important to discover what one cannot do, than what one can do. - Lin Yutang

SECURITY

a lot of people worries so much about their security, may it be personal, their family and even job security.... with all the things taht are happeing around us... with all teh news taht you hear everyday who wouldn't worry?



come to think of it, why do most people really worry about it??? simply because they only think of themselves, this is a very broad subject and very much debatable; i am not opening any debate but merely expressing my thoughts. life is only worth living in my own humble opinion if there are challenges around us... as i keep telling my friends, the humps and cat eyes in teh road are not ther eto annoy us but simply to remind us taht we are no longer in track... otherwise we will simply fall asleep....



in life as i imagine, this will laways be the case, and people will never get the feeling that they have achieved full level of security....



quotes to live by:

There is no security on this earth. Only opportunity. - General Douglas MacArthur

DOUBTS AND UNCERTAINTIES

you ask anybody who has been working overseas for more than five years why they opted to stay overseas will certainly give you the same answer. because there are many doubts and uncertainties that they need to face when they return home... for one the economic situation dictates and most of the time influences our decision making. but most of course things has to be weighed in and find the most suitable and beneficial for everybody

i must admit leaving your love ones back home does not make things any easier, there are plenty of factors to be considered, there are many things that you will hear and many heartaches you have to bear.... but at the end of the day its the family welfare that counts the most

quotes to live by:
Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning. - George Eliot

WORRY

my friend called me the other day, he told me that he is in a bit of a bind, he was having some problem with his supervisor... i asked him what is it? he is being asked t do administration work on a new software, a software that he is totally unaware of...

apparently the new software was introduced during the seminar that his supervisor attended and there were a few training modules that was discussed, and they need to evaluate if they can use it, his boss is recommending the software to the company and his boss wants to him check it out...

i told him to tell him the truth and avoid the consequences, his boss attended the seminar about the software and he should worry about it not him... i reminded him that honesty is the best policy and he should take other people's mesh... i hope he heed my advice...

quotes to live by:
Every morning I spend fifteen minutes filling my mind full of God, and so there’s no room left for worry thoughts. - Howard Chandler Christy

FEAR

it seems to be a dreadful word... and everybody seem to deny that they do fear something one way or the other... i don't see any reason to fear anything, provided it doesn't make a paranoia within yourself...

for me i fear i lot of things.... one thing that i fear most is not to be able to provide for my family's basic needs... the fear of waking up one day that i am no longer capable of doing what i love to do most, the fear of not being able to fulfil my calling, my purpose...

these fear are the things that keeps me on my feet, the very same things that makes me strive ever harder. to cling to my faith and to do the utmost best... though i heard one famous line before "fear nothing but fear itself" i wish i could do that....

Quotes to live by:
Every day I wake up a little afraid. Only a fool is never afraid. - Ron Meyer

GOALS

people used to ask me how do i manage to say away from my family for so long... working overseas entails long hours of being away from all your loved ones... staying alone in your room after the long and tiring hours at work....

i have a simple answer at all times... and that is "i have goals that i set, and this goals are the one that keeps me striving even harder... i must admit there are times that i ask myself how long do i have to endure... why d i have to undertake all these things, times you have to fight the longing, the homesickness that befall me, but during these most trying times, when time seems to be against me, that is the time i envision my goals and ways how to achieve them...

i know that this is only a short lived undertakings, and keeping my goals in the horizon, and spicing it up with faith and prayers keeps me focused....

Quotes to live by:
The one thing worth living for is to keep one’s soul pure. - Marcus Aurelius

MOTIVATION

they say all of us has a reason for being... and i firmly believe that we are all here for a reason and all of us has purpose for being at where we are at any given time.... i also firmly believe that we are only doing what we are doing for a specific reason... and that reason is what is motivating us to survive our daily chores and activities regardless of how difficult and tiring it mat be...

for some it is their ambitions that motivates them, for some it's their family.... and others like me is for both, simply because my ambition revolves around my family.... and they are what motivates me...

Quote to live by:
To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life. - Baruch Spinoza

DOING WHAT’S RIGHT FOR US

have you ever wondered how come we seem to be continuously striving so hard??? harder than what you think is what you are capable of doing??? how many times were you asked to do things for others that you are compelled to do simply because you are afraid that you might loose your job.. has it ever dawned on you that these simple little things that we feel doesn't really matter that much, actually means so much if you sum up all these little things???

a good example was a drifting faucet that i found in my friends house when i stayed there overnight ... i told him that its a big problem if the water keeps on dripping overnight, and even asked him how long has it been like that... he told me that he can't exactly remember but it is more than a month... so i dared him that it needs his attention then.... he told me that it was nothing so i asked him to put the plug on the bathtub before we go to sleep and we'll so next day how much water will accumulate....

astonished as he was, he didn't realised that a drip of water every 3 seconds can fill up a bath tub, short of spilling over in 8 hours time.... so right there and then he called his land lord and asked him to send a plumber as soon as the weekend is over...

i told him that finally he made a decision that is not only for him but for all of us... considering how water is getting more difficult to come by everyday, especially in desolated area.... so its best to do things that are good for all of us... there are other things that we can correlate this...

quote to live by:
Skills vary. We must … strive by that which is born in us. - Pindar

INSTINCTS

the basic requirement for survival, in the world we live in right now is trusting your instinct... many times, based on my personal experiences that my instinct proves me right...

on several occasions that i have encountered, and that i need to decide on things, i have to in my inner self and fortunate enough my instinct proves to be right and saved me a lot of trouble and even saved my live....

some people call it the sixth sense, some calls it the third eye... but i believe it is what we call instinct .... all of us is given this capability, unfortunately not everybody has managed to fully develop it and take advantage of it....

i must admit it takes me a while to trust my instinct, but to date i have learned to listen to my inner self and trust my instinct.... and it was all worth it....


quotes to live by

Systems die; instincts remain. - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

DECISIONS

in our daily life, a lot of things happens around us... and most of the times whether at work, at home or at places we go to there are decision that need to be made...

i remember when i was working as a project engineer in charge of a major project in Mindanao... there was an incident that needs major decision but i was 100 km. away from my home office. and there were no phone available in the site, my two way radio wasn't working because i am in the middle of a ridge... t

i know that if i don't make the decision right there and then, it may mean the whole project, so i made the up my mind and told myself that if not now it will be never, making that decision proves to be worthy as it eventually made a great headway on the project.... fortunately before the day was over the owner of the company that i worked with arrived on site to visit us and check on progress after a month from his last visit, he was really surprised of the progress, he asked me who authorized me to proceed with out discussing it with him... i told him i authorized myself because i can't reached him....

i thought he will be angry because it wasn't what we agreed before, but was surprised to be told that there is really no wrong decision, depending on the situation at hand you need to make up your mind and at that time it is the best decision... and was glad that i made it rather than loosing thousands of pesos in indemnities....

to date, i still tell myself that have i not made up my mind to be decisive, i will not be where i am right now...

quote to live by,
Wherever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision. - Peter Drucker

CHANGE

they say there is nothing permanent in this world... everything is bound to change sooner or later... this is what i keep hearing from everyone i know.. i do agree with them as well, for our life, the country or the world in general, there are things that we need to change.... but that change should come without compromising others, and without disregard to the environment and the community...

it is easier said than done, i do know that for a fact.. but it is nice to know that there are options that we can take.. and i firmly believe that we need to do our own share.... i know that there's plenty of things that i need to change within me... and hopefully i can do my share as well... all in due time

quote to live by:
Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. - George Bernard Shaw

VISUALIZATION

day by day i see myself in the future, i always dream of the days that i will finally spend it with my family at all times... the days that i don't need to go overseas and work alone away from all my loved ones....

people say that we are more fortunate than people who stay back home because we are better off because we are more financially secured.... I'd say there are some advantages and there are some disadvantages... for i myself has not seen how my son has grown to what he is now... has never been part of all his accomplishments....

nevertheless, i believe that soon enough we will be spending more time together..... and i can see that coming soon enough... it is much clearer in the horizon, now that i started my preparation to do so...

quote to live by:
We all live under the same sky, but we don’t all have the same horizon. - Konrad Adenauer

HOPE

one of the thing that keeps me afloat most of the time... people has a tendency to be depressed at time, simply because they start loosing hope, starting to loose their interest in things...

for me i always keep my hope in the highest level in everything that i do... and make sure that it never dies... for i firmly believe that by hoping, you will keep aiming for your dreams... and that you will always be striving, aiming and working hard to get to your goal...

quote to live by:
Hope is putting faith to work when doubting would be easier. - Anonymous

SELF-CONFIDENCE

one thing i learned through the years, of course with the help and guidance of my elder brothers is to believe in myself and capabilities... that i can do things if i believe that i can do it and put mind to it.... i would say that without the prodding of my two older brothers before, i may not have made it this far in life....

what inspired me further is when i met my wife, we were still in college then... life wasn't easy for both of us having came from a lower middle class family.... we have to strive harder than the rest of our classmates just to survive college....

and i sincerely believe that it is the fact that we believed in ourselves that we managed to get to where we are.. with God's grace of course...

Experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it. - Stan Smith

SELF-CONTROL

one thing that i learned through the years is to control myself... this applies in many facet of work and daily life... when i was much younger i easily loose my temper.... and times i just leave what ever i was doing if i loose control of my concentration and get weary or angry for what ever reason... when i become a teenager, and started mingling with others, then i realized that it is a wild world out there and you need to control your temper not only to be able to survive, but to earn respect and friendship as well...

having learned that in early stages of my life has proven to be worthwhile, when i worked in Mindanao and eventually here in the middle east, it is one of the key factor that really helps me on day to day existence... not only because we live in in a multi cultural environment, but it helps you make the most out of your earnings as well... with so much to buy here at cheaper price... without self control you'll end up broke if you don't control yourself...

Quote to live by
Self-control is the quality that distinguishes the fittest to survive. - George Bernard Shaw

HAPPINESS....

I always believe in the saying that "Happiness is a state of mind". it's odd to think that statistics shows that a lot of few are unhappy all over the world when it is simple a state of mind.... what seems to be making people think so much that they are unable to leave themselves happy???

there are many things in my opinion that should make everybody happy. for me despite being away from my family, i can still make every single hour of the day almost as happy if not as happy if i am with my family.... happy thought of our happy moments keeps a smile in my face... the thought that all the hard works i am doing is to give them a bit of comfort and a better future makes me happy... but nothing makes me happier than opening my eyes in the morning and seeing the ceiling above me; for it meant another happy day ahead of me.... and i can look forward to the day that i will be taking my annual vacation and spend every single day of it with my loved one...

quote to live by:
There is no duty so much underrated as the duty of being happy. - Robert Louis Stevenson

PEACE OF MIND.....

everybody deserve to have peace of mind... but unfortunately this is something that seems to elude most of us if not all of us ...many factors affects our state of mind.... and the sate of our mind affects every single thing that we do single hour of the day....

i always tell my friends who asked me for advices "never do anything that you will regret in the later stage of your life" therefore it is always important to think things over.... as the saying goes "think before you act"

i always get asked by my friends and relatives why do i seem to be unaffected by many things that happens around me, the country and the world in general... my simple answer to them is why should i get affected??? i always tell them that my simple principle in life is that God has given us the wisdom to change the things we can, and accept the thing we can't.... and having this in mind at all times gives me a bit of peace of mind....


Quote to live by:
The mind is never right but when it is at peace within itself - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

cracked pot.....

i got this in one of my e-mails. in my humble opinion this simple story can vividly shows the many things and people that we tends to ignore everyday, the many simple things and people that makes great contributions but are overlooked and taken for granted by many.....

A water bearer in China had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of it's own imperfection. And miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you. I have been able to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said.

The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there weref lowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw. So Iplanted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house?

Moral: Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all crackedpots. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make ourlives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just gotto take each person for what they are, and look for the good in them. Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent outof shape. Remember to appreciate all the different people in your life.