For A Student,
To
For A Parent,
To See One’s Child Live A Better Life. To Be An Excellent Provider. To Succeed In Having A Complete And Happy Family.
For A Soldier,
To Serve The Nation. To Fight For One’s Belief. To Fulfill The Call of Duty. To Die In the Name of Honor.
For A Businessman,
To Seek Success. To Earn Profit. To Showcase One’s Business Talent and Skills. To Reach The Dream.
For A Dying Person,
To Do The Right Things. To Appreciate Things That have been Ignored. To Seek Forgiveness. To Enjoy Life as What It Offers.
WHY ASK?
I was watching BBC’s Special Documentary “A Story of People In War And Peace.” It was about the life of the Soldiers and their Family during and after the Armenian-Azerbaijan territorial dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
One Sniper caught my attention when he said that the only goal at that time was to finish the war. Once the war ended, he went back to his civilian life and he dreamt to be successful but he was unlucky. He went back as a sniper and said,”What have I Accomplished?”
He was asked about how was his life. He would say that it was ok but deep inside it wasn’t. Most of the time, he would just be silent when he was asked about his life but he didn’t want to be silent in his surrounding for in a quiet surrounding gave him a torture of thoughts.
REFLECTION.
It made a flashback on my life with his thoughts. When I was a student, my goal was to finish school with a high grade. Once I was asked “what have I accomplished?” the answer was simple.
Then a following question was asked “WHAT'S NEXT?’ I was caught a little off guard. I replied “Magtrabaho ng Mabuti.” That answer wasn’t from my heart, it was based on Logic.
The Next Logical Thing for most newly graduates was to find work. Thus, the answer was just scripted.
It made me think that once a goal had been accomplished then one must be prepared for the next question “What’s Next?”
THE ROLE OF LUCK
I hade seen and heard about Valedictorian, Salutatorian and Other A-Students who were obviously academically excellent performers in High School but would somehow flunk in College, wouldn’t finish their degree on time or would have been a victim of vices. Their good high school image had been shattered in their college life.
Remember that the Sniper said that once the war ended, he went back to his civilian life and he dreamt to be successful but he was unlucky. That was like life after high school and life beginning in college – it all would start from scratch again.
I said to myself that the reason why such thing had occurred was because of pressure from expectation, unwilling to adjust, too much confidence and other psychological reasons – but as I grew older and eventually finish school way way way back, I had seen how LUCK played a vital role in our life.
Like an old saying, “Swertihan lang iyan.” No matter how good you are in one thing, luck shall have a part on the say of what the outcome is.
NAKABIBINGING KATAHIMIKAN
There are three things that would make me crazy
(1) Too much Thoughts
(2) No thoughts at All
(3) Egg or Chicken – Which came first?
The first and the third items were self-explanatory.
The second item was interesting. Once again, remember the sniper said that most of the time, he would just be silent when he was asked about his life but he didn’t want to be silent in his surrounding for in a quiet surrounding gave him a torture of thoughts. It was obvious that there were a lot of thoughts that he wasn’t thinking throughout the years - “the what if” “Regret” “should have and could have” thoughts had just caught him on the latter part of his life.
A silent environment could also give No Thoughts at All. I could remember that there were at least 5 times in my life where I heard the “Nakabibinging Katahimikan” significantly and it wasn’t good because No Thoughts At All would flow in my mind. It was just really such an awful state.
ACCOMPLISHMENT. LIFE. ACCOMPLISHMENT.
No one said that life was easy – life had, has and will be hard. However, “all life is fair because life is unfair.” No matter what life had brought, there was still a sense of completion and a notion of accomplishment.
Perspective gave such sense and notion however, if one couldn’t be ready after what he had accomplished then one shall be in a rollercoaster ride.
As I am writing, a question pop in my head,”Was it worth accomplishing what I had accomplish?” Yes, because it had molded my life and made a path to live on. No, because I had experience failure … but I saw failure as an opportunity that was given to realize the essence of doing better and of doing the right things and doing the things right.
Let me end this article with one question ,”Are you happy and satisfied with what have you accomplished in your life?”
Have you encountered a Boss who seems to be irrational and to be unreasonable with his decision making? I HAVE. I used to have a boss who makes such things. I am puzzled by my former boss’ repetitive horrendous decision which ends up with dreadful consequences i.e. flight of the bumble employees, bad blood spilling around, slippery tongue licking in my ears and the list just goes on and on and on. I ask myself if my former boss’ inexperience, young age and ill-equip management skills can be attributed to such action pero HINDI RIN, dahil kung paulit-ulit ang decision with almost the same situation then the attributes are illogical. I guess hindi dapat maging dahilan ang inexperience, pagkabata at kulang sa management skills kundi may problema on a certain area - I have shifted my focus on my former boss' work attitude. There are two things that I’m sure of – first, not all excellent sales people can be an excellent operation manager and second, my former boss is an MBA – Management By Accident – for I don’t know how my former boss has been put in that position – mahal ata sya ni Lord at binigyan sya ng Divine Intervention, habang kaming mga empleyado ay pinarusahan at sinumpa dahil sa aming pagkasala, hehehehe, I’m just joking Lord… Bad Joke, Very Bad Joke… Anyway, it took some time to analyze my former boss until I have been transferred to a new boss and I just realize the area to be concern of. The problem is that my former boss makes irrational and unthought-of decisions without implying critical thinking and having too much confidence (I'm THE boss and your ONLY the slave attitude), kaya pala mahilig mag-on the spot decision making contest, as in who comes up with the decision first wins. Whenever we talk and come up with something with my new boss, my mindset is “My boss doesn’t need a QUICK DECISION. He needs a QUICK THINKING” Based on my experience, Most of the Quick Decisions that I’ve made end up disappointing and frustrating while most of the Quick Thinkings are having a better result than the former. At the end of the day, it’s hard to achieve an excellent quick thinking ability but time, willingness and experience shall be a superb foundation to train oneself… ika nga, Practice makes Perfect… it’s cliché, but its true.
"If you know your enemy and know yourself,
you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not your enemy,
for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself,
-Sun Tzu-
