The Better Man than Confucius

"A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions."
- Confucius


Pero alam nyo ba kung sino pa mas gagaling kay Confucius pag dating sa LESS WORDS and MORE in ACTION ?


....si Mr. Bean.

Kaya siya ang role model ng mga bata, at magiging philosopher siya after ~100 years, gaya ng nangyari ke Confusedsus. LOL



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Seriously, we should do more in action than in words. I learned this the hard way. I also had a talk with a friend of mine, a business partner, and so I am following through with his suggestion / advise.

For now, I apologize for my readers. I currently am in isolation & planning mode. I haven't written anything in quite a while. Not even facebooking much, except for urgent matters. I did not go out the past few weeks (besides the Holy Week weekend, when I kinda got forced to go out for a little vacation at Sariaya, Quezon - although it was time well spent) because I am doing something that to me is very very important. Like I said, I'm in planning mode.

It will take me a few more weeks or days, until I finish my careful planning. I plan to do or set out at least a 5-year plan. This was a bit new to me. Sir Jomar Hilario (the VA & internet marketing guru) taught me this. It was the first time I encountered such an idea. He was not even proposing a 5-year plan, but a 500 years plan (if I remember it right)!

Plans like that doesn't mean building a life. It's about building a legacy. Maybe that was what Dr. Stephen Covey was saying about his "8th Habit" book?


Anyway, I'll follow up on the posts I've promised soon. For now, I am set out to seek myself.
Just kidding. I've already sought myself, I already have a mission statement. I already know (in my mind & in my heart) what I really wanted to do, my plans, my vision for my future. I just have to put everything in writing (although I've already made a few on the current Roles that I have in my personal / professional life).

What I have to do now is to lay-out my plans for my MISSION. It's high time to follow-through on the mission statement that I've made, I understand that I've put in some pretty big statements in there.. so I'm now set to plan (and plan well), to visualize, to put everything in writing, and then next in line is to EXECUTE this plan.



You know what the best advise is that I can give for people like me who has made a decision or set out an intention (or more like a "New Year's Resolution - except that today is not a New Year) and want to make sure that this decision, intention or resolution is REALLY REALLY going to be made true and followed-up on?

Look out for Dr. Levinson and his book "Following Through: A Revolutionary New Model For Finishing Whatever You Start."


For more info on the book, look here:
Following Through: A Revolutionary New Model For Finishing Whatever You Start by Dr. Steve Levinson & Pete Greider

Excerpts:

I am not here to sell that book. But I've listened to an audio recording / interview about this book.. and it simply blew me away. It offers a real solution, some really doable steps and strategies. And so I highly highly highly recommend it!

This book tells us, for example, why New Year's Resolutions generally don't come true. It's not anyone or everyone's fault. Like Dr. Levinson said, it's a SPECIE's problem. It's not even an ATTITUDE problem. It's a problem in our evolution as Man. We have some serious natural faults or issues as members of the Homo Sapiens (and we don't have to beat ourselves up for these faults - it's part of God's gifts & plan for us), but we do also have serious benefits - like, as Stephen Covey puts it: being being able to choose our response to stimuli unlike other species in the Animal Kingdom, being self-aware, or having the ability to work on our Circle of Influence (as per Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People). The serious benefits that Dr. Levinson and Pete Greider is talking about is what they call our "Intelligent Guidance System", and the natural faults or "faulty wiring" that we have within us are our "Primitive Guidance System".

As I have posted before on my mission statement, I want to show only the best when it comes to resource persons, gurus, books, tools, readings or education on Success and Financial education. So pay attention.. this guy (Dr. Levinson) and his book "Following Through" is one of them. I will do a follow-up post on him later on.


Anyway, thanks for now. I hope to post again anew very soon!

God bless and Good luck to everyone on their business, work or their personal endeavors!
Live a Happy & Abundant Life! ;)


Photo Credits: http://acelebrationofwomen.org/?p=47794

My Review on the Franklin Covey "The 5 Choices" Seminar Overview

As promised on my last post.. here is my review of the Seminar Overview of "The 5 Choices" by FranklinCovey Philippines.


7 Habits and 5 Choices

The whole idea of the 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity is all about thinking long term and following through with your goals. It successfully integrates the 7 Habits of Hghly Effective People (the higly-acclaimed book) but focuses more on productivity - and doing it extraordinarily!

Thus, the main focus is on how you are going to be able to realistically & effectively achieve goals – not just getting mediocare results – by doing Q2 activities (focus on the important but not urgent) & scheduling the Big Rocks (things of higher value) first. This, for me, is the essence of FranklinCovey's 5 choices. By knowing and clarifying your roles and goals, you are able to practice Habit 2 (beginning with the end in mind), and Habit 3 (First Things First).

To know more about the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", you can check on Amazon.com:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

This paradigm by FranklinCovey offers a panacea for a realistic & effective Time Management and ensures high Productivity for ordinary people, employees, managers, and business owners – and maybe even investors.

In everyday living, they say we have 5 Choices for us to achieve Extraordinary Productivity. Checking on their website and doing screenshots of their website, we will see that in everyday living we have 5 Choices:

Here is Step 1:

From the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, we can identify our daily activities into 4 Quadrants or what we call the Time Management Matrix:

As a rule in effective Time Management, we have 4 Quadrants - we separate them by Importance and Urgency. When you are feeling like your life as an employee is running you over, or that your business is owning you instead of you owning it – that only means one thing: you are focusing most of your life and your time in Quadrant 1.

From being able to clarify what’s important to us, may it be business, family life, spouse or love one, son / daughter, your role as president of your company, the project manager, a salesperson, an investor or entrepreneur – and knowing what activities are in Quadrant 2, relative to these various roles that you have in life, you can then set realistic goals.

Here is Step 2:

Step 2 says: Decide now. What are your roles? List them down.

What do you want to be the outcome (the “end in mind”) for your role, say as a business owner or investor? Okay, I want financial freedom. Check.

But don’t be contented with just getting ordinary results. Get Extraordinary results! Okay, I want to be rich but be spiritual / religious at the same time, and be able to give willingly to my fellow Filipinos especially my family, my katribus, and then the impoverished, once I am financially free. Check. 

Now set your goals and activities to reach that outcome. Okay, I wanna learn how to acquire foreclosed properties and have it rented out so my tenants will be paying for the mortgage, while at the same time the property is slowly gaining equity. Check. I want to know how to do technical analysis in stocks investing. Check! I want to know more about investing in MLM and opening my mind to the possibilities, accumulating wealth while at the same time helping out my business partners. Check!

To know more about the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", you can check on Amazon.com:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Here is Step 3:

From knowing your goals for every role in your life, you can then proceed into renewing yourself every week, resolving to schedule and do high-value activities first, you will be able to accomplish more in life. This requires serious amount of discipline. I mean SERIOUS discipline. So expect that. Don’t fool yourself believing you can go far even without hard work and discipline.

But knowing that you have already set goals and listed your activities, you will find that you are finally getting some direction in your life! You will see & feel this when you are slowly transforming your life week after week after week by constantly revisiting your roles & goals (the goals you’ve set & written in the first place). You will see that by scheduling the big rocks (which is similar to what renowned business author / guru Brian Tracy refers to as “Eating the Frog”) first, you are able to accomplish more things in less and less time.

Because if you really understand the importance of Q2 (important/not urgent) activities, of "eating the frog" or scheduling the big rocks and finishing what’s important first (w/c is usually the hardest thing to do), you will end up having MORE TIME in the END! Hey, this week, I’ve finished doing that presentation slide and made sure it effectively and clearly shows the benefits of going Solar. Check. Hey, this week, I got a very satisfied customer! Check!

Now I can really enjoy life and enjoy some real recreation!

It only gets better. Because the faster you finish those Q2 activites, the faster you will have more time so you can enjoy & relax, or do the things you realy love doing while not being pushed on by any urgencies or pressing activities.

Here is Step 4:

This only means 1 thing. Use that iPad to show the Business Plan, or that Meeting Agenda, or that Sales Presentation more effectively! Not play Angry Birds or DOTA and end up getting Angry Management courses.

Here is Step 5:

The real great thing here is that this paradigm will give you more and more balance in your life. Short-term thinkers won’t see the impact of this because all they do is act on what they feel like doing, or what they are being pressed on doing - were they easily end up feeling victimized, or get easily tempted doing unimportant escapist activities. They tend to put up the important things they really need to do and easily choose the gravels in life instead of the big rocks, feeling more pressure, procrastinating.. the list goes on and on. What you end up having is a life where you are not in control - but rather, a life that controls and owns you!

It's not a "purpose-driven life".
It's an "autopilot-driven life".

A life without a purpose! 

That’s why some people say, own your business – not your business owning you (because they don’t do the Q2 activity of careful planning and handling of finances)!

By understanding the 5 choices and the 7 habits of Highly Effective People, by acting based on principle-centered time-management, you will end up overcoming fear & procrastination without thinking about it.
It's a wholistic, tightly-integrated approach not only applicable to productivity - but also to living your life, I repeat.. YOUR LIFE, in general.

You will not only end up freeing yourself, having and spending more time on what matters most to you - your relationships, enjoy reaping what u sow: the fruits of real & lasting success born out of your hard work; and ultimately… you will get to attain true contentment, true health, true wealth in all areas of your life - not just financially (if that is just your goal).

Who wouldn't want a life were you get to reach your goals, your dreams, while at the same time being genuinely happy inside & out? There's a higher plain out there, higher than attaining financial freedom. It's called Balance. It's called Inner Peace.


If there's something you realy need to invest wisely on, it's this. Investing is not only applicable with using your money wisely. The wisest investment is investing on wisdom.

Practice the 7 habits. Be aware of your 5 choices and act on it.

And soon the phrase "live happily ever after" will be transformed from fantasy to reality.


JCV


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Next time. I will tell you about how at one very low point in my life, the 7 Habits book changed my life and saved me from Tuberculosis.

And how, with God willing, it seems that it is saving my life again.

To know more about the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", you can check on Amazon.com:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Insights from the Free Overview Seminar: The 5 Choices by FranklinCovey

    
Big big thanks FranklinCovey for the wonderful and inspiring (not to mention FREE) overview seminar about your 5Choices program!!!

I went to the venue yesterday January 18, 2012 by myself. I commuted right from Quezon City through the MRT, stopped at the Buendia station and set on foot towards Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Makati (my map shows it's just a few blocks away from the station), so yeah, it was a delightful walk.

Anyway, I arrived there just on time - and honestly, I don't really know what to expect. I haven't been to a FranklinCovey seminar, or to any official talk or conference concerning my ever-favorite book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. But it has always been my dream to attend one. If I have the money, I would surely go to their 7 Habits Signature program (but of course, I'd like to attend only here in the Philippines). But if there's a chance for me to meet and talk to my idol, the great mentor and one of the greatest Business Consultants that Man has produced, Dr. Stephen Covey, well.. I'd certainly go! But not now, that's for sure. We're still establishing our business and kicking off (do check our facebook page - Your Ideal Partners in Properties, Incorporated or YIPPI) - which is precisely why I went here: I was hoping I'd get to learn some great insights on the seminar (for such a prestigious company such as FranklinCovey, you would expect only the best, the time-tested and proven methods that would work with any body and any culture). Hopefully, some quick points I would be able to easily do to improve productivity - especially now - with all the crazy things, great ideas and the seemingly-endless business activities that has been going on in my life lately. Well, that is certainly what I came in for. I need to learn productivity, and learn quick. (Later on, I know for a fact that they did not disappoint - I found out first hand how very intact and integrated they are as an organization. They don't just make or create methods. They have scientists and scholars who study and test them.)

To know more about the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", you can check on Amazon.com:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Upon my arrival on the venue, I was asked promptly by the usherette if I have my company ID with me. I said... "sorry po, we don't have one yet!" (or should I say "we're still a startup and we haven't planned about that yet - but thanks for reminding!"). LOL.

Here is the ID they gave me.. which you can assume I will be putting in a frame and hang it on my home office wall preeetttty soon! :)

The place was full of great strangers. I'm not a fanatic or anything, but I know that the book 7 habits really gave great insights and brought great changes in me during troubled times - and I got excited in having the opportunity to talk to people who may have possibly (in one way or another) experienced great paradigm shifts in the same way or manner that I have experienced with the 7 habits book.  Unknowingly, I met Harold - my colleague and friend who is also the president of our newly-established company, at the venue. During the seminar, I thought I'd text him and see if he was able to attend. Fortunately, he was indeed at the venue and didn't even notice him just a few tables from me. That's well and good - he was the one I should be thanking for inviting me and informing me about this wonderful event.

Well, I'm sorry to say that it's goodbye for now.. I gotta sleep. Coz I did put to good use the things I learned from the seminar. And because there was so much "gravel" going on in my life, it took me some time to really reflect on my goals and choices and the productivity patterns that I have been doing. I started assessing myself using the lessons I've learned and I did apply it even if it's just an overview, and it turned out really really great! For such a short and broad overview - a 3-day seminar rolled into 2 hours - it did give me a huge impact and edge on the way I do things! It's exciting and invigorating. It's like my vision got clearer. It feels like any big heavy stone can actually be divided into smaller chunks so that it doesn't become any burden at all - it injects balance in your life that you are indeed going to be effective in all areas of your life and be genuinely happy or in control of your life despite any troubles. It's interesting to note how the paradigm or perspective taught here by Covey slightly differ from other self-development gurus like Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Napoleon Hill, or even John Calub here in the Philippines. They have different methods and ways of presenting solutions - but they all put prime focus on productivity, goals and action.

To know more about the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", you can check on Amazon.com:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Coincidences? or by Design?

Things really do happen for a reason. I was searching for answers these past few weeks or months - getting into dead-ends and cycles of disappointments. But just as I was not expecting it - things are beginning to come to it's place. And just as I have expected - when your character is put to the test, that's when you would be able to see the things that are essential in life, the important aspects in life that are crucial to your private or inner victory and to your very own personal development. Like what Stephen Covey said on the book - Private Victory precedes Public Victory. You cannot have lasting success if you have issues within you that you haven't resolved.

And just like what the famous line on The Little Prince said:

And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery


I leave you for now with this quote from the great business innovator, Steve Jobs:

“.. almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”


More on the things I learned, tomorrow!

We'll review what great things did I get to learn and apply from the seminar overview of The 5 Choices by FranklinCovey Philippines. God bless!


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To know more about the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", you can check on Amazon.com:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey