New Year's lists

May this new year bring forth peace, love, joy to me and my family and friends. May it bring to us riches that I couldn't ever imagine. Finally, to find work even though not waiting for employment. Friendships formed and older ones cherished. Goals accomplished. Mission made. Love hungered and given. God be with all mankind!

Your travels in life

Life goes on. Sometimes, there are ups and sometimes, there are downs. Sometimes you feel you're stuck in the middle and you don't know how to find your way. I guess, there is always God to help you. When you don't know what is happening now in your life and where will it turn, sometimes you just have to trust God's guiding hand and wisest decision. Sometimes, you look for what is the meaning of life and you guess whether it is in career or in love or family. I'd rather that God has a will for you and you just follow it or act on it. God gives the toughest of tests and sometimes you wonder whether you can handle it or not. Sometimes, you don't know where to get your energy, in what goals. Sometimes, you wonder what life really meant and how you are so unique that God gave you the life you have. Me, I always ask if life is just about making money? If so, then you can't do anything without money. In a day, you have to eat. And most of life's commitments concern money making. You still have to find your way as you go through life.

The Hand of God

People's lives are a result of what they do but primarily because of God's will. No matter how you plan for your life there will always be surprises that come your way and problems to test your faith in God. You couldn't plan and stick to it in the strictest sense. God will always have a hand in it. You just need to ride along the tide.

The Most Important Thing in the World

People are born in the world not of their own choice but just because it was the grand design of things. I guess the most important thing in the world is what it makes go round - love. People go hungry in the streets. Some are dead because of unwanted reasons. People just make do with what they have and available. People want to be happy. And so, I'd like to encourage the people of the world to give a little love to people. You don't know how far that can go.

Ways of getting rich

People need to work to eat food. In this life one needs to find a source of living he can manage so that he can buy the things the he needs in life. People do it differently. There are actors, there are athletes, politicians, secretaries, white collar and blue collar job workers in all kinds of industry in the world. It all depends on your choice. Kanya-kanyang diskarte sa buhay. It all depends on your strategy. What's important is that you find what you need in your life. And you do something worthwhile in your time here on earth.

To be busy with

I was wondering what people do nowadays. I guess they still do the same stuff like going out on movies, dining out, going to malls and sales and working. Add to that surfing the net and joining social networking sites and getting their news tidbits from the net. Some people are in school. Some people are working. Some have their families. Others busy themselves with family affairs. Some go out with friends. It just goes on. To be out right now in gimmicks you gotta have at least a thousand bucks to splurge. Where will you get that if you don't have work. Sometimes you go out just to be out and to enjoy the world and that has a cost too. The truth is you can't do much if you don't have money. I was sometimes wondering how people could afford things. Why people go to malls? Why people sometimes eat at Sbarros and others eat at McDonald's. How they afford to shop? Where do people get their money. I sometimes think that those who have less high standard in their education have something more than me. The only thing that's happening right now I think are the call centers, but how about the graduates of other courses or those who aren't fluent enough to be call center agents? How will they get jobs? Sometimes you will get jobs but you find it lacking in interest and you wonder if you really are using your talents enough just to do a job. Is it anymore enriching? I am searching and sometimes I don't know where to search. I hope I find my answers. I believe that every problem has a solution. Before, I thought going back to school would give me the job that I wanted. Unluckily, that hasn't happened. What makes you hirable? Where can you get the job that you love? There are so many people in the world today and you're just hoping to find your niche. One thing I have discovered, I love writing that's why I am doing this blog. It makes me feel alive. But there's something missing. I have to find a way to make money out of writing. In other avenues. So that I can keep up. So that I can say that I have a job. And so that I can bring something home.

The difficulty of not having something to do

The opportunities in this country I think are not enough. Maybe, I am trying at the wrong channel. I only apply for jobs, maybe I am not looking for a career. I was wondering how others made it. How others became actors or athletes or artists or writers. They must have made the right moves and now they are reaping their rewards. I am not finished looking. Everyday is a search. Maybe what I would do is to try other avenues, extend my horizons, build new friendships and cherish the old ones. Maybe in my search, I will find something that I love to do. Something I can make money from. And not just search for a job.

Just came from being sick

I just came from being sick with asthma. I was four days in the hospital. It was a severe attack. The night before I asked my mom to buy me Combivent nebules for my asthma. She was even hesitant. Good thing there were two nebules in the fridge. I said I was gonna die of asthma. Then the next day at around lunch time, I couldn't breathe anymore, so I asked to be hospitalized. I said I cannot make through anymore. That day, the whole day, I had difficulty of breathing and it didn't stop even if I was so tired of not being able to breathe. The medicines had no effect anymore. Late that night, I finally slept and so the wheezing stopped. I was afraid to move because it might come back again. The second day, I was still tired from the first day. I had ease of breathing only on the third and fourth day but I wasn't totally healed yet. I had to rest and stop from time to time so that I could pace my breathing. It was very difficult. Now, I am recovering.

Education is supposed to be free

MBA - MBA in the streets
MassCom - years watching tv

Education is supposed to be free. There's so much branding around that when you're an MBA, you're king. You get the same lessons elsewhere, maybe in life. You get it practically. I could read about business in my own terms or listen to bloomberg and I'm off to my work. These are my books and the world is my classroom. The teacher is life. Why shouldn't you hire me? I practically have the same experience. There's distrust. Not much hope. If you really want to give jobs to people, you should learn to trust them. Trust their innate qualities. And not something man invented of reinvented. Before it was great to have a college degree. Now they push it a level higher into a Master's. What matters is that they can help people. And I think that's where an entrepreneur is above an employee. Entrepreneurs do it on their own. They start with the basics and get down to the techniques as the process goes. They enjoy getting around with people, helping them. And they make lot of money.

Master the Art of Excellence

You can be good in many things. The more you do it, the more you get good at it. It just takes a lot of practice and a lot of courage. If you're trying to accomplish something, try to connect the points. Solve the puzzle. It's meant to challenge you. It takes a brave heart to do things well. Have a good attitude and things will come your way. Plus, align your goal with divine will. So that everything comes through grace. Nasa Diyos ang awa, nasa tao ang gawa. Pray for a brave heart so that you would do it. Accomplish it. To live your lives to the full.

Try something you've never tried before

Go out of your comfort zones once in a while. It may be hard but it is true. If you haven't done a great thing that you aim for, that means you haven't done the necessary thing yet to achieve it. You don't know what doors will open once you get to go out of your comfort zone. It takes a little while to get used to. But what is important is the drive, the decision to make change. It must be at heart not superficial or you will fall back to where you used to be. But once you get the hang of it, you acquire the discipline to make change often. You don't know what you can achieve. Like there are no boundaries. I've been looking for something to do. Before it was going to the mall, to expand my horizons, reading a book or magazine to engage in my interests, studying in a school or a training center to develop myself but splurging a few bucks of your own, with a meal in a fastfood, coffee, or some dessert, you're done in a day. Go to an internet shop to make friends, to exchange ideas, to learn something. Watch a movie. Buy a get-up, a shirt or a shorts, sandals. You feel a certain excitement that makes you want to do this e.g. like fashion design my own clothes, the only thing that's hindering you is that you don't have the seed money to embark on it. That's why you don't accomplish it. For me, now, embarking on a new business which engages my talents and skills is what's beyond my comfort zones and am willing to challenge myself to start it. Just to get something to do. Just to discover my potential. Just to be serious in finding a profession. I just had to have the will to start it. Sometimes it doesn't come into your mind but when you hear it from others it becomes easier and becomes sensible. Suddenly, you would want to start it. For example, I want to become a fashion designer but I don't know how to get about it. I looking at the blocks. And it becomes wary. Another example, I want to become a photographer, but don't have money for a camera. I have already taken up free photography workshop but I still don't have a camera. How do I go about it? Still another example, I want to be an actress. I want to be a model for a commercial. But I am still in a haze where to go for auditions. So I end up doing nothing, making sense of the day and limiting my costs with the available funds I have. I wish I could make $1 to a $100 like Robert Kiyosaki said.
In my thinking, unless there is an opportunity, you cannot make it. Unless there is cashflow, you cannot ride the wave. I better start thinking of what I can do no matter how much it costs as long as it fits in my available funds.

The Author of Life

I think the author of life is God. And we are just all actors in this big stage of life. We may become writers of our own story in our life but God has the overall design, the overall picture. He gives us what we need. To others He gives more, to others less. So, we are all different. But we have to act upon it so that we may get what we want, too and we have some sort of control over our lives and we live happy and fulfilled lives like as we should. God gave us our minds to know what is right for us or what is wrong for us and He gives us gifts which we can make use of in our everyday lives, to live intelligently, to do the things we're interested in, to create and to develop ourselves more so that we could attain our total selves like God intended us to be. God, in His glory gave each of us our own personalities, our own gifts, to give glory for Him in this one community of God where we all live and share with each other to partake of God and all His goodness. He gives us everything we need and it is up to us how to use it to share, to love, to care for each other and to be good people as His sons and daughters who are like their Father in Heaven for we are made in His image and likeness. It is up to us to try to be happy and to live fulfilled lives according to God's purpose. If we are actors and God is the director, what character would we play?

Continuing On

Everyday you face a set of challenges and you continue to roll with the punches. You look for what life throws at you and you try to do whatever best you can with those challenges. You continue to look at your life and live the most out of what life gives you. And you ask yourself what you can give back. I'm a bit money conscious and I think that every move you make in your life needs money. Your tranportation fare, your food, your health bill, your education, your insurance, your savings, your leisure, your investments, your needs. But what if life stops giving to you - well, in my case, life stopped giving money to me. For quite a while. Where does the next drop of rain fall? How are you gonna keep your plant growing so that it will give you produce?I think some really have super abundant blessings while others kapos or lacking. I try to compare myself with others I know I'm still lucky but it just all the more gives me the challenge to make more and provide solutions to my problems. You sometimes ask yourself, am I not bold enough to get what I want or need in this life!? Why do the others get what they want? Money, fame, glory. You'd want them all. But also there's love. I hope I get the answers to my questions in life and share it with friends and family who are maybe searching too.

Street Smart vs. Book Smart

I'm gonna write again about my favorite topic of making money. You see, I may have this money consciousness in me because I am an accountant. And my prolonged problem of having no work. I guess to find work I want to go back to the basics wherein you find the work that you love and you do it. You take note of your inventory of talents and you find out what makes you feel alive and then, you pursue your passions. I guess that's what work is all about. I guess you find something that you do in this world and you do it and you make money on the side. I think what is important is you do your dream. I've definitely experienced doing something I didn't love and it becomes an everyday chore, like you're just sitting at your desk and you find out that it doesn't make you feel alive or maybe you should do something else in your life. It was definitely like a waste of time and you somehow start to search what it is you really want to do. For me, it was always applying for a job that I think I wanted. But I always failed. You would think that it is easy to find something you love but it wasn't in my case unless you have some small budget to spare for a class that you really, really want. Searching for a job, at least in my case, was a very frustrating practice. You would know they are searching for one thing and if you don't fit in what they are searching for, you would automatically be out of the list. I've grown old searching for a job, but I am still hopeful. It's very surprising that sometimes they would prefer those who have recently graduated to those who were already there in the job market for so long for certain reasons. I don't know anymore what makes a person qualified for a job?!? If your resume states a certain amount of experience they would agree to it. If it has a Masters, they would agree to it. I have so many plans unfulfilled because they didn't hire me. When I was younger, I would plan to have a job and to study. But because they didn't hire me, I wasn't able to go on with my studies. I tried to study MassCom, Law, even took the NMAT for I thought I would be able to find a job, save up for my plans to study my desired course and go on with my plans to study. Unfortunately, I was always stuck in the wanting to have a job phase so eventhough I had grand plans of pursuing a career in a different field, it would not always come. I thought I could become a working student until I finish a desired course. But, wanting to have a job dragged on and I have nowhere to go. I loved studying and so with the savings that I had, I attended an acting workshop, hair science and beauty culture, free photography classes and others because I was able to afford those. I studied again computer classes for Web Technologies and Java with my own savings for the hopes that I can make a career shift to IT. But in the hiring process, they would always look for a CompSci degree. Again, I didn't make use of what I studied. Maybe, what I absolutely wanted even before was just to have a job and use my skills and talent and make money for that is what's important, I conclude. All those years of having no work, I would ask money, of course, from my parents, and it was easy for me,then. After all, I was young, in my twenties, hated my accounting job, and all I wanted was to study or to shift careers. I would go to a nearby mall and ask for a hundred or a hundred and fifty bucks, and it would be enough for my meal, internet and a reading material because I love to read. I would read Entrepreneur magazine or some business and leadership books just to learn how to get rich. Sometimes, I would buy my mom pasalubong - food or a showbiz magazine. And all those years, with the small money that I got, I would never fail to give my mom a gift on her birthday or on Christmas. With the money that I got from my mom, I would go to the different malls around the city I live in and always try something new like new food, new magazine, play billiards, bowling, or go to a place I've never seen. When it was time to go to Makati or Ortigas, I'd ask for 250 and it was enough just as long as you hit two birds with one stone, applying for a job and at the same time pasyal in Makati or Ortigas. I got through with just a small amount of money. And I was happy. I would always buy but I buy cheap. In the internet, I got a few friends from an association of entrepreneurs and website for law students. Sharing your ideas with them definitely makes you feel trusted and understood. In my wanting to learn about business, I attended different business opportunity seminars regarding products such as IT products, real estate, insurance, loans, cosmetics. I guess, I have an inclination to sales but I still sort of shy about it, and I wanted to be trained by somebody whose good at it. In my internet buddies, I sort of pitched in my accounting services and a lot has responded but because I wasn't serious about it, was just toying around the idea of making money from accounting on my own, I didn't pursue these potential clients. Anyway, it was a learning experience. Right now, I would purchase business books I could afford and learn from it. Sometimes, newspapers, but I'm sort of wondering if those who advertise could be trusted. Some are from blind ads and you would think if they could be trusted. Anyway, I continue to learn from everyday experience. There was a time when I asked my mom for 50 pesos just to be able to test my selling skills on the street, I would try to sell cosmetics, hoping to make money for the day, but I guess I was shy about it so I didn't make anything. Sometimes, when you go out for example in the mall when you already run out of money titiisin mo na lang ang uhaw mo, makauwi ka lang. Before, I would go to Powerbooks just to read for free. I would drink Starbucks on very few occassions. Now, I just live with the few hundred bucks I receive each month from my aunt and mom. Sometimes, I hope I could put my years of watching tv as a MassCom degree in my resume for I learn a lot from watching tv. Or my years in the streets as an MBA in my resume. I definitely hope, I could find money soon. For the others, they definitely have talent in making money. For me, maybe I am just learning. But it's fun to learn and so far, all these years, I have never made making money as serious as I am taking it now.

A Birthday Blast!

Just had my birthday. I celebrated it with family and was very happy. Had a few beers which was very seldom and food and we enjoyed each other's company. I hope I have a lot of these moments. My family lives far away from us and we just seldom have these kinds of reunions. These are the times which I treasure a lot. Some wishes I have for my 34th birthday:

1. To be rich.
2. To use my talents in work.
3. To help the needy.
4. To stay in touch with family and friends.
5. To have a (even) closer relationship with God.
6. To find the one that I'll love.
7. To have kids in the future.
8. To have peace.

Just to name a few.

I guess, in my 34th year, i'd be more wise and bolder in my efforts. Continue to find something useful in every journey I take in this life. Learn life's lessons very well and share them with others. And just be happy.

May God take good care of me and my family.

How to get accepted

I have tried a lot of times but to no avail. I haven't found the right job yet. Right now, I am just willing to accept anything just so I can make money. I'm not getting any younger and I don't know maybe the opportunities these days are hard to come by. I've sent 50 e-mails of resumes at one time this year to different companies and only 3 have responded. I have come to the interviews and exams but when the final decision is to be made I always don't make the cut. I think I have applied to a total of a thousand companies but only has been successful with four. Unfortunately, I was too picky at the time so I declined them all just because I wasn't serious yet in having a job when I was younger and that I wanted something else to happen in my life and I don't know how that will happen except maybe through study of a different field or going to auditions. 4 goals accepted while 996 misses. That's tough. I don't know what happens but I always pass the exams but and the initial interview but when the final interview comes they would always have to accept those with ideal resumes like continuous long years of experience in work and maybe a Masters. Ever since I've been out of work I had a hard time applying. I don't know anymore what they are looking for and as I've said in my previous article I hope what they look for in an applicant is if they can do the job and not what their resume says. I haven't proven myself in selling yet or in entrepreneurship so basically I just continue on applying for employment and continue on trying to learn about sales and entrepreneurship until I make the capital for a business. Others have the talent for making money. Me, I don't exactly know how to start but I continue on having ideas and I just have to try and try until I succeed. Surely others have lots of money and I only have a few of it, I know. But, I try to live within my means and I continue to try and hope that I will finally land a job or finally learn how to sell and have my own business for my own keep.

Tryin' to make a few bucks or trying something worthwhile

I've been out of work for a while. I've tried different works. But one thing I can say, i didn't like accounting that much. I said to myself I would be serious in work or in business, in having a career when I'm already matured. But that hasn't come yet. I've wanted to work for a long time but just hasn't found the right work yet for me. I think I've applied with a thousand companies but hasn't found work yet or at least something that I love. I'm beginning to think that dreams are just dreams and it means something else to be practical. But I don't want to give up yet my idealism. Not just yet. Not until I can prove that dreams do come true. I've been accepted to two accounting jobs but declined them just the same because I didn't like to work accounting jobs when I was younger. For me having to accept an accounting job means saying goodbye to my pursuit of my passions such as being a writer or reporter, a masscom career, being an actress or an athlete. I had too much high hopes before. Eventhough I wanted to become a writer nobody would take notice of me or my resume just because I didn't have a MassCom degree. It was very frustrating. If you could write, why would you need a MassCom degree just to become a writer or a reporter. I even tried to apply as a production assistant to some of the networks in our country. But of course, there are also hundreds who did the same. How could you get noticed? I passed time without work just because it was hard to find a job that I really liked and sometimes it is also hard to apply for jobs that you don't really like. The job application process was just too frustrating and repetitive. I'm beginning to believe that you have to know somebody to get in in a company. And not be taken for what you're truly worth. Sometimes I feel that my talents are wasted by not having work. Just too few opportunities in our country, very competitive job market, or maybe there is too much trust in branding and strict requirements in a position. Sometimes, you can do the job eventhough you don't have 3 years experience in something but they follow the requirements as it is written. I was wondering when I could really be accepted in a job. It's hard not to have a job these days especially if you don't have money just to keep up. I hope they don't have to see your resume to the letter. I hope what they find is what you are able to do even if you don't have an MBA.

Just doin' nothing

I welcome myself in the web with this blog. I hope to meet friends and connect with old friends with the blog I'm making. I'm a thirtysomething person who is happy with her life and just enjoys the things that she loves doing. I like surfing the net, watching cable, movies, studying and hopefully working. I am starting this blog because I want the world to know about my thoughts and ideas which I like to publish on the web. I haven't found the chance yet of publishing my own book. But I love to write. I love to do a lot of things like engaging in the arts and knowing other people. But I found out that sometimes it costs and sometimes it doesn't come cheap to be able to enjoy the finer things in life and the comforts and conveniences that other wealthy or financially blessed people enjoy. But then, there are things that you value the most and you hope you frequently do like reuniting with family and being together for good just to be with them and be able to help out each other in this life. I hope also to connect with friends that you value the most like the ones that you spent time with before but don't have contact with as of the moment because everyone's been busy with life and you just hope these treasured friendships will go on and get a connection with them maybe for good and do stuffs together. Life goes on and I do hope definitely this blog would be the start of something worthwhile in my life and others. To family and friends, welcome!