The Core : A Study on Personal Development (2)

Second Part of the series …. (While waiting for my half an hour compilation…)

What then happens if we don’t have a vision or visions?

1. We will wander around much of our time and when the big life-crisis comes, we end up in darkness.
2. We sit too long, too much in the seat of power or responsibility because we see no reason to push while on top.
3. In a team, if the leader has no vision, it will never grow but will eventually regress.
4. Self-Motivation is almost impossible. More so, motivating others.
5. We lose sight of what is really important in the end because without a long term end objective, we will see no more than tomorrow or next month.

Do we really have to be “100% all the time” Vision-oriented?

LIFE HAS TO BE LIVED! Therefore it is not imperative to be 100% vision oriented. Wisdom will tell you that human as we are, we cannot be 100% anything but human. WE WILL FALTER!!!!We will skew from our dreams and ambitions. However before we judge rashly, if skewing is good or not, let me remind you, that it is ONLY in life’s end, that we will eventually realize if the skew was worth it. Sometimes the “skew” can provided us with a serendipitous vision. What I am trying to say is, LIFE IS DIFFICULT AND IT IS UNPREDICTABLE, but it will help you alot if you have charted out a plan for yourself before you proceed on your journey. The plan may be incomplete, just a set of destination points and pit stops, but nevertheless a plan is in place.

REMEMBER : Your vision is your proposal to the fates, it is your heart’s desire expressed tangibly.

Do I really have to have all forms of Vision?

When i graduated college, I just wanted to be an R&D engineer. My first job was R&D manager and eventually CEO. Oh well those are just titles. But as an R&D Manager, i was able to guide all my fellow fresh graduates in creating a commercial level device, outsourced from one of the leading hardware companies in my country and invested in by one major conglomerate. I hope you dont see this as “boasting”, but what I am trying to say is:

When our visions of ourselves come to a fulfillment, what’s next? Some people tend to “not mind” and then stagnate. This is the “I already have what I want” policy.

So do we really need to have all forms of visions/goals. My honest answer is No. What i think is imperative though, is our genuine effort to continuously update our visions and goals. And if you can, once you can, Go for the Impossible Dream first. 🙂 Then build slowly below it.

Why the Impossible Dream first and not from the sub-plot visions?

When we climb a mountain, there are a gazillion ways to plan it. The basic school of thought is to attack it from the base. However, if we had an opportunity, wouldn’t we want to see the view from the top first and then plan from there? To chose a path that is not the usual trail but a path we have selected for ourselves, a “probably” unique path. Who said that there is only one actual way to reach Kyoto Station? So our impossible dreams will be our path’s zenith. And we must plot from the view on top. And yeah, impossible dreams are upgradeable too. 😀

What about people without goals? Are they freaks?

Everybody is a freak. So it is normal to have no vision. However, I think, they are in great risk of squandering the time they have and the gifts granted to them. They are also prone to becoming more and more lackadaisical. Of course there are certain exceptions to the rule, extraordinarily blessed people who became SOMETHING out of a series of fortunate accidents. 😀

Have you seen a carriage horse driven in traffic? They usually have blinders on the side of their eyes. (Check this yahoo answer…) Much like scope of the horses’ eyes, an individual has an almost infinite set of possibilities. If left unfocussed it might wander into oblivion. Visions have the same effect as the blinders for horses. Dont get me wrong, I am not saying you better be single-direction oriented. What I am trying to say is that, when we envision something to happen, usually we spend time and resource efficiently. Or should you be like me who likes to ponder and wander around, our visions will grant us enough strength to stop clowning around with our spaghetti and start eating the meat balls. No pun intended here. 😀

Anyways, what is there to lose if we set out simple or grandiose plans for ourselves. Let me end today’s blog in the words of my father, Vicente Belarma Repuspolo Jr., the Gasoline Boy, “pahinante”, Truck Driver turned Instrument Technician …

“Libre lang naman maghandom sang maayo, nga-a indi ka maghandum sang sobra sa lab-ot sang kamot mo….” (Hiligaynon :: Ilonggo)

“libre ang mangarap, bakit di mo pa damihan at lakihan?” (Tagalog)

Visions are for free, why dont you think of many, and make them greater than life itself?  (English)

夢は無料でしょう。夢を深く考えて無限レベルを目指しましょう!!! (in my imperfect Nihongo)

(Thanks to Sensei Angelito “Gel” Salgado for the Japanese support.)

NEXT: A sharing of experiences on “Vision”

“Ang batang nangarap” : The kid  who dreamed : 子供の夢
“Trabahong Outsourcing sa Nihon” : Outsourced in Japan : 日本の仕事
…

The Core : A Study on Personal Development (1)

As I am already 31 years old, I find myself thinking and dreaming for the young people I had been working and communicating with in the past few months. I am delighted with the spirit and energy they possess, fascinated by the variety of “kangaekata” (“way of thinking” in Japanese) and their optimism which shines brilliantly in their eyes and their smiles.

For the majority of my life, I dreamed only that someday, in the most microscopic of ways, I can be a form of inspiration for those whose paths may bear semblance to the path I have chosen. More so, I also dream of coming across somebody who can either verify my path or somebody who can make me learn more.

For some who know what I have achieved at 31, I have achieved much. To be honest though, I feel that I am still “half-full”. Either way, half-full or not, that remains to be seen in the days left for me to wander this earth. But for the most people to whom I am a stranger, I am practically nobody.

Be it so, I hope that what I have written here be of use to people who might be in a tight spot and might need some amount of focusing. And should you find it useful, and should you believe in a God, I hope you just thank him for granting you the chance to come across my site.

I wrote this blog to share only 5 things. These things in my perspective are by far the most important to me, as far as ZENTAITEKI (“holistic” in Japanese) personal development is concerned. I guess at 31, this is my formula of whatever little successes I have had in life. I am not yet in any way finished building myself, so I too am a work in progress. That being said, though I am no expert, no saint nor genius, I want to share whatever little I have learned over the past 31 years.

The key ingredients and in no particular order to  better personal development are as follows :

1. Vision / Goal – the ability to dream for oneself
2. Character – the ability to do what is right and to correct oneself
3. Wisdom/Knowledge – the ability to judge what is right and wrong as far as one can
4. Compassion – the ability to dream, hope, empathize with others
5. Faith – the ability to believe in others, to believe in something

As this is like my personal quasi-magnum opus, the above items might be too much and too long just in one writing. So for today, I would like to talk about Vision.

VISIONS : A dissection

(Dreams / Goals / Aspirations)

Most of the young people I meet have rarely screeched out their visions, their dreams, their heart’s deepest aspirations. In this light, I feel that I should talk more about visions so that the young within my circle of influence should dream more, than old farces like myself. The importance of this key element cannot be underrated. Vision provides us an infinite source of motivation. We never tire nor burn out for as long as we keep some form of goal within our heads.

What is it that you aspire for? Who do you want to be? What do you want to be?

It would be useless for me to preach about vision if I cannot share some things I have learned about it. So here goes what I have in mind. Visions or goals can be classified in my opinion as such :

a.  “Impossible Dream” (from Man of La Mancha)– Forgive my copying of the song’s title. But envisioning something beyond yourself is not bad for the spirit. In my current learning I have come to the conclusion that an individual, should he possess an impossible dream, (for as long as he controls his path) possesses an indomitable spirit. He or she becomes virtually infinite in terms of spirit and intensity, though he or she may express it in silence. However, as I have said, one has to be careful of pushing for this dream since the body is not so indomitable.

b.  Segmented / Paged Visions – Pardon the play on technical terms, but A BIG IMPOSSIBLE-DREAM VISION has to be compartmentalized into smaller dreams. For example,  dream “professionally”, dream “family-wise”, dream “individual-wise”, dream “spirit-wise” so on and so forth. Our Segmented visions make up and streamline our Impossible Dream/s.

c.    Episodic Visions – Like a television mini-series, a story arc (ala Onepiece) or a season, is built on top of sub-plots and episodes. What I want to say is that our bigger dreams, are built on top of small goals, which can be achieved over very short-intervals of time. Like the Great Pyramids of Egypt, which are built on bricks, which in turn are built on sand.

d. Serendipitous / Spin-off Visions – This one is what I like the most. Sometimes, in our lives we meet very wonderful people who can influence us very much. In their presence we sometimes end up getting influenced by their natural or not-so-natural gifts. In the process our original vision becomes a bit skewed or what I can honestly say as mutated. These serendipitous (watch the movie SERENDIPITY!!!) moments, or fortunate accidents, which trigger spin-off visions may come from the television, the blog site, your multiply.com friends or probably even from your very own family. Serendipitous visions at surface level may not seem to contribute to fulfillment of the impossible dream, but I believe they do.

Tomorrow : A sharing of thoughts and experiences on “Visioning”

What then happens if people don’t have a vision or visions? goals?
Do I really have to be “100% all the time” Vision-oriented?
Do I really have to have all forms of Vision?
Why the Impossible Dream first and not from the sub-plot visions?
And some of my most memorable personal experiences …