State of Flux

 State of Flux

Except during the time of our forefathers, this world has never been in a state of flux as it has been now for more than a year in fact.  Who could have anticipated this seismic and cataclysmic pandemic.  But then again, we can never point at this pandemic if we remain stalled, passive, immobile, unproductive in our lives.  On the other hand, when this pandemic went all hell broke loose, this should have been our 'wake up' call, assuming some of us were, all along, were still in a deep slumber.  

We don't want to be likened to those rusty, corroded pipes, right ?  Such that, its corrosion may even cause contamination across.  Instead, we got to be cleansing things out and there's no other way to go around that either.  If you gotta 'makeover' yourself, JUST DO IT please because the likelihood is, that's something overdue anyway and with our backs now against the wall, these are moments were we can all challenge everyone that there is NO TOMORROW.  Prior to the pandemic, if you uttered there is NO TOMORROW, you'll end up as the laughingstock.  Not these days.  These are trying times leading to desperate times.

BAD traits.  BAD habits.  BAD discipline.  Dump it all, pronto.  Those things pulled you down.  You went down south because of those.  Got to dump it all because unless you have the intestinal fortitude to throw it out in the window, there's no way you can put your foot forward for the next step.

That explains why in social media, there is an option to BLOCK anyone you wish to BLOCK.  Why ?  That's precisely the point, you need a BLOCKER to BLOCK those BAD traits, BAD habits, BAD influences. Yes, even BAD friends. Remember, all it takes is one bad apple for the whole barrel to get rotten.  Conversely and unfortunately, one good egg will hardly make a dozen.  What this means, if you're the good egg, never expect all bad eggs to become good. 

At the end of the day, what matters most?  It's our ACCOUNTABILITIES to our own families.  All the right things we pursue, our families will benefit.  All the wayward things when we went south, the ramifications and implications are not on you.  It's on your families.  Why ?  Because their future are all tied up to whichever track you take.  Whether it's your actions or your inaction, think of the consequences.

During this pandemic, who's our common enemy.  Hint.  It's NOT  5-letter word spelled C-O-V-I-D.  It's a 4-letter word which can be stretched to be a 10-letter word from L-A-Z-Y to L-A-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Y.  Bluntly, laziness is that creeping creature, that monkey behind our back.  Unless you get that monkey out of your back, I doubt it you will turn over a new leaf.  BE ALL YOU CAN BE, please ✅✅✅

Turning Over a New Leaf

 Turning Over a New Leaf

There's a kilometric-long list of names who did hit rock bottom but through sheer determination and resilience, they managed to turn over a new leaf. Brad Pitt.  Charlize Theron.  Kourtney Kardashian. Miley Cyrus. And going through their respective narratives will gobble much of our limited time to spare now but just to pick up a sampling.  Take Brad Pitt.  He admitted that as he was smoking too much weed, he was turning into a 'doughnut'.  And over at the crime world, there's another list:  Jay Z, Georgia Durante, Charles Colson.  Their crimes were unfathomable but they did 'rise from the grave' after going through hell.

To quote Francis Kong, the respected inspirational speaker, what is more important than the mistake itself was the way that mistake was handled.  Mishandling that mistake is indeed worse than the mistake itself.  Surely, we all can relate to that faux pas because at some point, we could have committed that slip-up.

Too bad, a lot more that's happening is because of our own complicity to it.  Like it or not, often, we are culpable for those slip-ups because of our own undoing.  Being predictive, preventive and proactive would go a long way in pre-empting things that will shape up to our own detriment.  Turn to your being passive and laidback, can you expect what to expect ?  Very obviously, what you plant is what shoots up, what you sow is what you reap.  Too tough to redirect that pointing finger to other protagonists if you are the eye of the storm.

VERIFIED FACT: We all have had our own oops moments in our lives, those mistakes, this and that faux pas.  And BTW, that's fine.  What won't be fine is IF you didn't either rectify your mistake or at the very least initiated a 'damage control' to contain the ramifications and consequences arising from that 'oops' moments.

BUT, regardless of the magnitude of the mistake you may have caused, look deep inside you, find your positivities, your pluses, your strengths.  You'll be surprised that you got more than enough fuel left in your tank, that you can even run through all the remaining pit stops without emptying your tank.  There should be enough reservoir of milk left.  And what you need next is to separate the cream from the milk so you can leverage on your upside.  Yesirrrrre, TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF is not far fetched.  You can do it ✅✅✅

Are You 'Checking all the Boxes' ?

Are You 'Checking all the Boxes' ?

From the time we first plunge into real life [after school], that's the time we got that chance to be learning through the fire hose.  For the pampered and protected ones, they prefer the velvet gloves rather than the rough and tumble world across the ground.  Too bad, these are the pampered ones who probably grew with a silver spoon on their mouth.  For the hardened lot, those who went through the wringer, they are were cut and ready for all these.

Are you 'checking all the boxes' ?  As in any endeavor, even in sports [e.g. NBA] when the recruiter is evaluating candidates for a role, even before they decide to arrange for an interview with the candidate, on paper, they wanna see if the candidate is 'checking all the boxes', meaning, if on paper, are you already meeting all the pre-listed criteria and pre-qualification requirements even before you can reach the 1st round of screening.

Are you 'checking all the boxes' ?  As in any endeavor, even in sports [e.g. NBA] when the recruiter is evaluating candidates for a role, even before they decide to arrange for an interview with the candidate, on paper, they wanna see if the candidate is 'checking all the boxes', meaning, if on paper, are you already meeting all the pre-listed criteria and pre-qualification requirements even before you can reach the 1st round of screening.  

For the role you're aspiring for, what's in your sales pitch ?  What are your selling points ?  Skills and competencies, obviously to meet the job role's needs.  What comes next ?  Your accountability, attitude, diligence, energy, self-motivation which, when all are summed up, it all boils down to WORK ETHICS.   

Question is, are you 'checking all the boxes' ?  What does all these tell us ?  That even at work or in your business, the proven formula is all encapsulated and summed up in your WORK ETHICS.  Which means, there's no other way for us to go.  If you want your career or your business to "go up north", you gotta 'check all the boxes'.

Not to be complacent. You may not be job hunting now.  You may not be in dire straight.  Nevertheless, you need to ensure that you always 'check all the boxes' because when your need arises, everything goes back full circle, nitpicking each of your attributes and traits but if you're a damn good product, it won't be a tough job for the next salesmen to pick you up as their next product as long as you 'check all the boxes' ✅✅✅

Don't Break the Bank !

Don't Break the Bank !

These days, everyone has one too many priorities, one too many MUST-DO's, MUST-HAVEs, MUST-BUYs.  So what's next ?  Do what's best based on your best judgment but here's the non-negotiable caveat:  DON'T BREAK the BANK, please.  Unless and except you are part of the top tier lording over our commercial markets, then please DON'T BREAK the BANK.  Too bad, there's this basic economics mantra that when demand dives, prices dive as well. And that's when the monied investors 

will gobble up properties now priced at least 20-30% less than the pre-pandemic market.  But that's fine with them because even if they lose out in those greedy buy-outs, whatever they will lose will just be a drop in the bucket.  But such is not case for 98% of our population where we're either part of the working class or we're just owning small proprietorships so if and when you that temp arises, DON'T BREAK the BANK.

Obviously, it is easier said than done.  But the thing is, it is what it is.  In this very stubborn pandemic, only God knows when this will be over and the scary and speculative note here is that, before this gets over, this has to turn worst, much worse than where we are now.  And when that piggy-bank gets filled up, just human nature, we may be soon tempted to  BREAK the BANK.  With the end not in sight now, it cannot be avoided that quite a 

number of even our relatives and/or closest friends may now be feeling the ramifications of the financial crunch that has exacerbated after a year in this pandemic.  And don't get me wrong here.  By human nature, helping is part of our natural inclination.  We have seen accidents happen in the road and people will rush to help in any way the injured ones.  BUT this pandemic is unprecedented.  Unlike other 

fiascos, emergencies and unknowns that have indeed happened in our lives, surely for almost all of us, this is the very first time we got caught flat-footed by this pandemic.  So how do we cope with it ? It all boils down us asking ourselves how fit and ready are we to survive the worst of the worst scenarios ever.  

Now for the tough test, I'll share with these recommendations for us to hue:  ENGAGE in NON-DIGITAL activities, AVOID reading forwarded and unreliable information [even if it comes from people you know because they themselves were in the receiving end too, TAKE CARE of your LOVED ONES and that starts with your IMMEDIATE FAMILY.  Let's hope for the best but prepare for the worst folks.❗❗❗

When the Waters Get Rough

 When the Waters Get Rough

HAPPY EASTER folks ! Throughout my life, the high seas have always frightened me.  To me, those immense sheets of waters can gobble you up in a bit and that's it.  Of course, similar risks are there with air travel but if I have fears with sea travel, I have that exact calmness with air travel.  That explains why, for every year of hard work, I reward myself and  my family with those holidays which I meticulously plan down to the last detail, including the type of in-flight meals to be ordered, no single detail is missed out.  Then, kaboooooom, this pandemic broke out more than a year ago and we are all left stalled here in our homes. So, where do we go from here ?  After a year, I realized we are left with three priorities, e.g. WALK AWAY from the PAST, FOCUS on the PRESENT and PLAN for the FUTURE [for whatever is in store for us].

Let's get down to brass tactics.

The PAST ?

Let's not go back and harp on it, that's down the drain.  Example, a year ago, you planned for a cruise holiday but that plan just fell through because of this pandemic.  So, walk away from the past.
The PRESENT ?

Live the moment NOW with your loved ones. Cherish every day, hour, minute.  Despite the constraints of being stalled in

our homes, be creative how our family will appreciate when we live the moment and that's NOW !

The FUTURE ?

Plan ahead based on both best and worst case scenarios.  Awhile ago, I read this CNN article datelined today, about Ricardo Ramirez who himself got admitted for nine weeks in New York.  Being a medical worker, he knew 

when the tide of the water was rising and stemming that rise was the last thing he want to think of.  Instead, in his hospital bed, he was frantically calling his son, verbally giving him his passwords of his important accounts as he has to take over the reins when he passes away.  And that was nerve-wracking and touching just reading it.

Indeed this pandemic is [literally] killing us.  No one is shielded from this crisis.  What's more threatening is that our global pandemic will worsen before it gets better.  Looking at the charts, those spikes should surface out not just as an spike but instead, a legitimate upswing.

With  all these heart-stabbing realities, please consider our PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE approach.  Which means, live the moment with your families and to take care of our family's future, exert your best BUT anticipate the 'worst' because we never know, honestly.  At this point, whether you are God-centered or not, everything is beyond our control.  Meanwhile, DON'T unbuckle your seatbelts yet, please❗❗❗

Easter is Coming [BEWARE of Easter SCAMs]

 Easter is Coming [BEWARE of Easter SCAMs]

It's Friday night [U.S. time] and as we all look forward to the Easter Holiday, be forewarned of scams that easily prey on the hapless population, so please bear with me if, at least for today, this narrative is more of an alert notification and advisory.  We just feel that we owe it to forewarn you ahead.

IMPORTANT DON'Ts:

DON'T click Easter-themed e-cards from unknown senders.

DON'T click malicious links in the email.

DON'T click emails on social networking sites requesting support for phony cases.

DON'T click & buy those bunnies, puppies and kittens which fraudsters will lure you.

DON'T respond to social media messages from senders you DO NOT KNOW offering free-membership & subscriptions to phony services.

DON'T be lured joining contests in Twitter [even if the link twitted to you comes from your BFF [who knows your BFF got lured by that impending scam].  Once you click that link, you'll be added to a LIST of ZOMBIES [which are the compromised computers].  

DON'T get into sites with no "ABOUT" pages.

DON'T get into sites with no "CONTACT US" pages.

DON'T get lured by sites offering hugely discounted prices unless they are confirmed LEGITIMATE sites.

DON'T give personal information [e.g. SS Number] unless you have verified & reverified the legitimacy of the site itself [preferably by calling the hotline].

DON'T reply to emails with generic salutations, e.g. Hello Dear or Dear Customer.  100% they are phony.

DON'T click attachments unless you have verified the sender to be legitimate & if it's your banker, call the hotline to validate.

In a nutshell, when, where and how are we most vulnerable ?  It's when it involves matter of our heart, our finances and emergencies.  Dating sites will send you a genuine picture based on IDENTITY THEFT.  And once the fraudster seemed to have gained a headway towards you, the $$$ narrative kicks in.  How about this script:  I'll be sending you a full 24-k jewelry set worth $1,000 but according to FeDex/UPS, there is customs tax to be levied amounting to $1.  And since $1 is obviously 'peanuts', once you say YES, he comes back to correct that it's $100, not $1.  There goes your $$$.
As we are locked into this pandemic, please continue to be alert, cautious, wary, watchful & suspicious.  You won't lose a penny by being this circumspect.  HAPPY EASTER folks 🎪🎪🎪

The More I Learn, the more I learn that I have more to learn

The More I Learn, the more I learn that I have more to learn

For Christians, today is a Good Friday but whatever the day is when the calendar flips over, my thirst for learning remains unabated, unrestrained, unperturbed.  So I concocted this kilometric-long quotation [hehehe, I can secure my copyright for this]:  THE MORE I LEARN, THE MORE I LEARN THAT I HAVE MORE TO LEARN.  But this is exactly how I feel, how I breath life, how I lead my life.  Everyday that dawns upon me is another opportunity I grab and leverage on BECAUSE I am fully cognizant that if that slips past me, that is a LOST OPPORTUNITY I cannot recoup by all means.  BTW, I don't take TRAININGs simply for compliance.  No Senor.

Albert Einstein, one of the greatest physicist ever, said: 'ONCE YOU STOP LEARNING, YOU START DYING'.  I'm sorry, this is neither a THREAT nor a WARNING.  Do take this as a 'WAKE-UP CALL'.  Unfortunately, this pandemic is used as a reason by many to stop learning.

If you're in a very bad shape, if your house is 'on fire' [figuratively speaking], you could be facing ten top burning priorities all at the same time but hey, we're just humans, we can just execute one task at a time.  BTW, even those supercomputers who swag and swank their MPP [massive parallel processing] but from a technical jargon, their multi-threading still means one execution at a time.  Difference is, their execution is a thousand times faster.

If there's one major DON'T, DON'T FOCUS ON WHAT YOU CAN'T FIX.  That simplifies the equation and that restores order to the mess you're now in.  Akin to that picture where you're caught up in a ring of fire, the TOP PRIORITY is NOT to fight that fire but rather, how to extricate and wiggle yourself out of that inferno.  It's all SETTING PRIORITIES.

Borrowing the favorite keyword of Former US President Bill Clinton, it was 'KISS' [i.e. keep it simple, shit].  In a topsy-turvy world, you gotta clear things up before you clear things up.  Where there are one too many priorities pulling you across different directions, first things first, you gotta take things in control.

Problem is, some [or rather, MANY] of us, just think too much, OVERTHINKING in fact.  But as Chinese martial arts expert Bruce Lee said, IF YOU SPEND TOO MUCH TIME THINKING ABOUT A THING, YOU'LL NEVER GET IT DONE.  In two blunt sarcastic words, that is ANALYSIS PARALYSIS no less.  Before you know it, it's GAME OVER, zero time left for you.

On the other hand, there are times when we want to just do one too many things which is laudable and understandable especially when there are multiple TOP PRIORITIES.  Hmmmm, let's look how those tournament standings are all tied in total points and they had to break up those ties.  But you might ask me, when we're at home, locked out because of this pandemic and we got ten priorities, how do we break up those ten very top priorities ?  In basic accounting, we call that the 'T' account wherein I use the 'T' table to list all benefits on the left, disadvantages on the right.  Obviously, you factor-in the impact to either side of the 'T' table.  And that's when you can simplify a rather complex equation.

At the end of the day, you gotta 'MAKE THE GRADE'.  Don't settle for something less than the best performance you can give but as the old cliche goes, 'IF YOU AIM FOR THE SKY, IF YOU FAIL, YOU WILL FALL ON THE TREE TOP.  IF YOU AIM FOR THE TREE TOP, YOU WILL FALL ON THE GROUND'.  BTW, 'falling on the ground is spelled "M-E-D-I-O-C-R-I-T-Y' and that's a blot of ink we should avoid because eventually, that blot can become an stigma.  You might get tagged for that MEDIOCRITY.  And this brings us full circle back with LEARNING LEARNING LEARNING because that is a life-long process we can't just get away with folks. ✅✅✅

Tough Times DON'T Last. Tough Ones DO,

Tough Times DON'T Last.  Tough Ones DO.

It's Maundy Thursday.  In the NBA, the games are just too tough even for the hardened and battle-scarred stars.  The Houston Rockets endured a 20-game losing streak before they eventually notched a win.  The Miami Heats, which gradually clawed back towards the Eastern Conference's top tier, suddenly went on a 6-game losing streak but today, they finally notched that 'W'.  In the post-game media conference, Jimmy Butler summed it all in seven words: 'TOUGH TIMES DON'T LAST.  TOUGH TEAMS DO'.  Exactly, that's the truism.  The adversities in life don't last that long.  Even this pandemic shall pass too.  If you need to embed something deep within you, it is RESILIENCE because that will carry you through the adversarial phases in life.

Naysayers may rebut that if TOUGH TIMES DON'T LAST, can they just wait to pass out into the night ?  Sorry folks, if that is your mindset, yes you can let those TOUGH TIMES pass behind your back but no one loses more than YOU !  Because you thought problems just die a natural death ?  Because you thought problems just dissipate in thin air, leaving you unscathed ?  Frankly, for such a loathsome mindset, at the very least, you will end up scarred and bruised.  At worst, you'll end up black N blue.

If have that 'monkey behind our back', get that out of our back !  Over time, that passive and retrogressive habit [a.k.a. LAZIness] will get embedded as part of your persona.  Hate to say this but I pity people who are just too damn stubborn to correct themselves and be on the right path.  The pitfall lies wherein TOUGH TIMES are compared to typhoons, twisters & tsunamis.  But they are NOT apples-to-apples !  Just GET THAT MONKEY OUT OF YOUR BACK now.

Who claims that those dark clouds will continue to hover all day-long for the next four weeks ?  Sooner, the sun will shine from behind it.  Meanwhile, the $64 question is, would you still wait for that sun to breakout ?  I'm sorry, by then, there could have been opportunities which have already slipped past from you because you [wrongly] thought that BY DOING NOTHING, you would still end up the WINNER by DEFAULT ? Frankly, these are NOT the traits of a WINNER.  We just need to 'kick the tires', climb back in the swing of things till we end up as a WINNER !

If there's an overly used adjective for us to survive the tough times in our life, it is spelled R-E-S-I-L-I-E-N-C-E.  Being focused and NOT withdrawing from that acid test in life are just the starters.  Avoiding negative people is a must-do, else they are the very ones who will bring you down deeper.  And reaching out to your helpline, that one you must leverage.

Miami Heat's star, Jimmy Butler, is RESILIENCE-personified.  Not having the star players to complement him, for the past two years, he has single-handedly anchored the team, ending up two games short of the NBA Championship last year.  He just didn't quit even if he was there lunging on the sidelines, gasping for air within the few seconds he can leverage.

In the midst of this pandemic, these are very unprecedented times.  2.8 million deaths worldwide and still counting, we are too scared to compare this Covid-19 pandemic with that Spanish Flu pandemic that lasted for three years from 1918 to 1920.  Nevertheless, we cannot just ride on the coattails of this pandemic.  We gotta be the straw that stirs the proverbial drink.  We gotta ignite a dumpster fire to trigger that surge.  Run our narratives ✅

Are You Just Humming [in Life] ?

 Are You Just Humming [in Life] ?

Not too bad, everyone hums I guess. And now, with Google Assistant, you can find that song by just humming.  Indeed, that kind of song search is a quantum leap.  BUT, we deter and discourage everyone to end up humming in life.  Why ?  Because a lot more stuff in our lives needs a stellar approach, a focused approach in everything we undertake.  Humming is fine BUT you shouldn't be humming every step of the way.  That 'humming' attitude has always been flagged down as one of the distractions in our lives, distractions that help us and instead, resulting in us veering away from the focus we need in life.

Work ethics, anyone ?  Obviously, every culture will defend its own work ethics.  My very first job was with one of the biggest global entities till to date.  And lucky enough, I had the edge of having bosses from The Netherlands, U.K., Venezuela and even a U.S.-bred Filipino.  With such a basket of cultures exposed to, I had to roll with the punches and dance with the tune BUT if there's one thing that's non-negotiable, it is your work deliverables.  NO ROOM FOR COMPROMISE.

Oh, we luv Mr. Bean but we just don't like everything about his traits, behaviors and discipline.  In one curt and blunt word, we loathe MEDIOCRITY.  In the hoops game, if you allow a score for every score you make, you're a moot point.  Your efforts will simply go for naught because it's negated.  And that's MEDIOCRITY.

You can even be a dancer but to be a professional one is least expected of you.  You can't be less than that.  You can't just be riding on, buying time so when a dancer calls sick, you could fill in.  You could be a worker or a student, if there's something common both must have, it's that fire in the belly because you must be able to lit a fire.  You can't just be going through the motions.  And by the way, we're not in a galaxy because we're in the universe though.

Life is beyond semantics. At the very least, we gotta 'walk the talk'.  We gotta live on what we preach.  We need to manifest everything we are pushing for.  And if there are dominoes to tip, just don't leave a single domino un-flipped. If there's a common culprit in our mediocrity, it is DISTRACTION DISTRACTION and DISTRACTION. 

In our digitally connected worlds today, researchers in cognitive science and neuroscience have concluded that media multitasking interferes with one's attention and memory.  We tend to be shallower, spottier.  Multi-tasking and other demanding tasks draw on that same region of our brain called 'prefrontal cortex'.  To quote clinical studies, "UNDER MOST CONDITIONS, THE BRAIN CAN'T CARRY OUT TWO COMPLEX TASKS SIMULTANEOUSLY'.  What's the fix for this conundrum ?  Social scientists advice that we intentionally remove 'extraneous devices' from one's workspace because that will drastically limit distractions and resist that 'itching urge' to respond to the device's every buzz or ping. Final fix? FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS in life folks❗❗❗