Author Archives: M.A.D. LIGAYA
Like A Roller Coaster
Love’s indeed a roller coaster
Treacherous switchback it bestrides
It would throw you up and under
Scary! But stay… enjoy the ride
Be not afraid when love rolls down
Expect to be twisted and turned
Buckle up in delight be drowned
Before downwards the ride returns
Expect the twizzles and the twines
Hold tight… sit tight… embrace the flow
When spun and twirled never whine
Buckle up don’t ever let go
Love couldn’t be any wilder
Than a ride on a roller coaster
Buckle up if you want to try
Be ready to laugh… and to cry
Beyond Schooling
We stop schooling at a certain age but we should never stop learning. Learning is a lifelong endeavor and education is not confined to the four corners of the academe. The process of acquiring the desired knowledge, skills and values should continue even after graduation.
Schooling is not the only way to learn. There are other ways to obtain knowledge, develop skills, and cultivate the values required for us to become the best that we can be and function as productive members of society.
The foregoing assertions should not be construed as an attempt to undervalue schooling rather they should be viewed as arguments against the perception that not going to school to get a formal education is a reason for us not to be able to maximize our potentials and succeed.
Not everybody has the financial resources to afford formal education from kindergarten to at least college and not everybody who has the capability to pay would also have the interest and enthusiasm for schooling.
If parents are well-off, the higher the possibility for the children to finish at least an undergraduate degree. That is if said children believe that education is a key to securing a good future. It is rather ironic that sometimes those who have the money to spend for education are not motivated to go to school and those who have the motivation to do so don’t have the capability to pay.
For some, not having enough financial resources is not a hindrance in the pursuit of a good education. We heard a lot of narratives about people belonging to poor families who worked while studying, earned their degrees, then eventually succeeded in life.
But there are people who also attained success even if they have no university diploma. A few of them even made it to the Forbes’ list of richest persons in the world. The oft-repeated stories of the Bill Gates and the Steve Jobs of the world support the assertion that a bachelor’s degree (or higher – Master’s and PhD) is not the only key that could be used to unlock the doors to wealth, fame, and success.
It can be argued that a university degree does not always guarantee success in life in the same manner that not having it means that a person’s future would be bleak. It all depends on how those who manage to earn degrees and those who did not play the cards their circumstances dealt them and the way they maximize their opportunities and whatever potentials they have.
There are degree holders who could not find decent jobs citing the lack of job opportunities as reason. Conversely, there are college dropouts who do not relish the idea of being under someone’s employ. So, they charted their own destinies and created their own opportunities. Check the list of the Forbes’ list of billionaires and you’ll be surprised to see some how many are actually college dropouts.
There are specific professions requiring prolonged training and certain qualifications that can be acquired only through formal education. This is when schooling becomes a necessity. But there are also occupations where formal education is not required. Artists, athletes, and business men for example need not have a university diploma. The degree they need is the degree of expertise they must exhibit in their respective arts, sports, and business.
It can also be argued that the schools could not possibly teach all of the competencies and skills we need to acquire aside from those required by whatever professions or occupations we have embraced. And even the said competencies and skills we learn while schooling need to be honed and upgraded. There’s more learning that must be done beyond schooling.
And there is one thing that we ought to learn when we start practicing our chosen profession or occupation – live a balanced life.
Life is not all about work and work is supposed to be “earning a living” and not “slowly killing one’s self.” While we may work hard to achieve whatever we want in life – money, degree, fame, and what have you, we should not sacrifice our relationships and health. Don’t work unreasonably hard that you may earn your millions just so you have money to spend for your hospitalization when you get sick. Living a balanced life means taking care of your work or business without sacrificing your health and disregarding the family and friends who need your attention.
The Sounds of the Trail
As the trail steepens
the breeze whistles,
the branches creak…
then the leaves rustle.
Suddenly the birds sing
I even heard crickets chirping
I think from behind the bushes
I heard a hissing.
I could really hear
my heart pounding…
my joints cracking…
my muscles popping…
So I decided to rest
then the huffs
the puffs…
Stopped.
Why The Lakers Lost to the Suns
What happened to the Lakers in the NBA this season wasn’t the Hollywood ending that many expected. The Suns melted their hope of repeating as champs. But LeBron James (LBJ) and the Lakers have nothing to be ashamed of because if you understand basketball and you’re not a LEBRON HATER, you know why they’re not supposed to get past the first round after what happened in Game 3 of the series. It was a game they won, but ironically, it was when they lost the series. It was a battle they won but it made them lost the war.
Does Booker and the Suns beating LeBron and the Lakers mean that they are the better team? I am of the opinion that it does not. Of course you would say that this is just the LeBron diehard in me expressing a sentiment.
Skip Bayless and his disciples – the legion of LeBron haters – were quick to crucify the leader of the Lakers for that early playoff exit. They will most certainly be calling him again “the washed king,” a label they grudgingly swallowed like a bitter pill when in 2020 he led the Purple and Gold to their 17th NBA title.
Why did the Lakers lose to the Suns?
Go back to Game 3 of the series. If you are indeed a fan of basketball and not just waiting for LeBron to fail, you would have noticed three significant takeaways in that game.
Firstly, it revealed the formula in beating the Suns – inside the paint. Knowing how atrocious is their team’s outside shooting this season, particularly from beyond the arc, Vogel and his coaching staff figured that they have to use their advantage in size. The Lakers outshone the Suns in the paint 58-38 with Anthony Davis (AD) and LBJ leading the charge. Check the statistics of that game and you’ll see also that Chris Paul and company were outrebounded 51 – 35. Now, remove AD from the equation. What would happen to that advantage in inside scoring and rebounding?
In games 1 to 3, AD had this points-rebounds-assists-blocks stat line – 27-9-4-2.
That brings us to the second takeaway from Game 3 – AD’s injury. That happened when he tried to block from behind Booker’s lay-up late in the 2nd quarter. While he may have finished the game, those who understand the nature of injuries in basketball, knew that AD will feel the effects of that injury after the game. True enough, in Game 4, he was not himself, did not play in Game 5, and logged in only 5 minutes in Game 6. That means that the Lakers’ season was pretty much over after Game 3. Why? Where would his team get the 27 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals per game that AD contributed during the first 3 games?
That question leads us to the third takeaway – Dennis Schorder’s performance. In Game 3 which the Lakers won, he scored 20 points. He was supposed to be the third most reliable scorer and backup playmaker. The reason the Lakers acquired him, sacrificing Danny Green and a future draft pick in the process, is to take some pressure off LBJ and AD. But he was surprisingly inconsistent in his performance throughout the series. In the 2 games that the Lakers won, he averaged 22 points per game. In their 4 losses, he scored 10.5 per game. He did not score a single point in the pivotal game 5 where they scored only 85 against the Sun’s 115. And it was that game that AD did not play.
What exacerbated matters for the Lakers was the fact that it wasn’t AD only who got injured in Game 3. Cadwell Pope got hurt as well. In case you haven’t noticed, he was the most reliable defender against Booker. In Pope’s absence and his ability to defend compromised when he returned, Booker averaged 31.33 points in Games 4, 5, & 6.
Generally, those injuries to AD and Pope in Game 3 very much encapsulated Lakers’ injury-plagued season. Don’t forget that LBJ himself was out for a long time because of ankle injury and it was not only in Game 3 of their playoff series against the Suns that AD was injured, not to mention the games that Dennis Schroder and Marc Gasol missed because of COVID-19 protocols. Just imagine how those injuries and missed games by the said players affected the building of team chemistry. Thus, even if they would have eclipsed the Suns in the first round, which they had high probability of accomplishing had Davis not suffered that injury, getting deeper into the playoffs and possibly the championship is almost a losing proposition.
And by the way, LeBron, at 36 and probably not playing at 100% because of the injury he had, was still the Lakers’ best performer with averages of 23.33, 7.16, and 8 (points-rebounds-assists).
Staying Focused
“The successful warrior is the average man with laser focus.”
– Bruce Lee
In my essay entitled Becoming Purpose-Driven, I referred to purpose-driven as the desire to find your WHYs and knowing what to do afterward. There I explained that it is a powerful driving force in our quest for a better self and a better life. Being purpose-driven is knowing your purpose and be driven by it.
To become purpose-driven, there’s one very important skill required – focus. Focus, like self-discipline, is a simple concept and easy to define. But like self-discipline, focus is also difficult to practice.
Focusing is the ability to give your undivided attention to something. And just like other skills, abilities, attitudes, and beliefs related to self-improvement, the ability to stay focused is easier said than done.
We live in a world littered with different kinds of distractions. There’s no shortage of things that could distract us in our everyday life and knock us off the path that we intend to take. But these distractions are not actually the problem. The problem is we allow ourselves to get distracted. It seemed so hard for us to stay focused.
And nowadays, what do we usually blame for our inability to give our full attention to whatever it is that we should be doing – technology. Right? We point our accusing fingers to our smartphones, to all these different social media platforms and applications for ruining our concentration, for tempting us to veer away from the tasks that we are supposed to be doing. But is it the fault of our innocent gadgets and the Internet if we could not focus?
Think about it.
Technology is not bad if we are in charge, if we make it our slave and not the master. It is a matter of knowing how to use our computer and information technology devices properly. We need to figure out how to leverage them to enhance the quality of our work and life in general and not to distract us from our personal and professional pursuits.
Don’t blame social networking and gaming sites and apps for making you lose your focus. No one is forcing you to use them. Computer programs are designed to tease you into using them, if you allow it. You probably have heard about the process of using learning algorithms to predict human behavior. We got figured out by the brains lurking in the techno-social systems. They know how to seduce us into getting drowned in cyberspace and consume (and be addicted by) whatever they are feeding us there. Now, it’s up to us to make a stand, to make a conscious effort on how we use the Internet to our advantage, of choosing which sites (and their corresponding contents) could help us in whatever personal and professional undertakings we have.
Thus, it is important that you don’t lose sight of your WHYs. Let your dreams and ambitions serve us your anchor. Use technology, not to distract, but to help you achieve your goals.
Another possible reason why we find it hard to stay focused is having too many things in our plate or us spinning too many plates at the same time. Whoever said that multitasking is a great thing is gravely mistaken. Unfortunately, you believed and embraced the idea.
Cole (2019) explained that multitasking is a myth. He argued that concentrating on multiple tasks at once is not possible and that we pay a mental price each time we interrupt one task and jump to another. That mental price is called switching cost which is the disruption in performance that we experience when we switch our attention from one task to another. In short, multitasking reduces productivity and lessens the quality of your outputs.
Simple things like listening to music while doing household chores or working out would be fine. But in any activities that would require concentration to get better results, performing them while doing other things at the same time is a bad idea.
We do multitasking not only on two simple daily activities but also on our long-term goals. It’s a strategy that is bound to fail. People do fail sometimes not for lack of goals but having too many of them. It is but natural to want to accomplish a lot of things but we should learn to identify the most important ones and focus on achieving them one at a time. You need to prioritize your top goals.
This reminds me of Warren Buffet’s “2-List Strategy.” Let me explain it in the shortest way possible.
- Write down your top 25 goals.
- Check the top 5 on your list.
- Focus on those 5 goals and avoid at all cost the ones you did not check.
This probably is Warren Buffet’s recipe for success which made him the multi-billionaire that he is. He focused on his most important goals and avoided those that might just divide his attention and ruin his concentration.
Following this strategy will make you focus your efforts and energy into what matters most. Identifying your top 5 goals would allow you to put together all of your resources on the things that will move your needle of success. The other 20 goals may be important but those items are possibly distractions that would cause you to multitask. Thus, Mr. Buffet recommended that you avoid them at all cost.
Staying focused entails the elimination of all forms of distractions and only you know what are the other things or who are the people hindering you from achieving your goals. That distraction could be a vice or a relationship weighing you down preventing you from giving your best efforts to achieve what you want.
That vice could be an addiction to any substance (or any unproductive undertakings like gambling) that when it spirals out of control would ruin not just your focus but your future. That relationship could be with somebody who does not help at all in bringing out the best in you.
In the end, it’s a matter of choice. Are you willing to give up that vice or that relationship for the sake of your dreams? Decide.
It is hard to break free from a vice, from an addiction. It is even harder to walk away from a person (or people) whom you love. But you’ve got to do what you need to do. You cannot juggle with vices, toxic relationships, and your dreams and ambitions.
It’s also possible that what’s preventing us from staying focused is the state of our overall well-being.
Well-being embraces more than just physical health. It takes into account the entire person, both body and mind. It indicates not just the absence of illness but also the presence of positive mental states (Purcell, 2018).
There’s no doubt that when we have a healthy body, mind, and spirit (if like me you believe that there is such a thing), we are more productive. This is so because we have less distractions and could concentrate more in doing what we should be doing. Diseases can affect our concentration and attention and prevent us from performing optimally.
It will be difficult for somebody suffering from any kind of illness to focus on their personal and professional endeavors. Focusing is primarily a mental exercise. And doing so would be a mighty struggle if physically and emotionally something is wrong with a person. Thus, it is important that we take a holistic approach to life – that while we work hard in the attainment of our dreams and ambitions we should also pay attention to our overall wellbeing.
References:
Cole, M. (2019). Marc Cole: The Multitasking Myth. Retrieved from https://www.johnmaxwell. com/ blog/mark-cole-the-multitasking-myth/
Purcell, J. (2018). The Difference Between Wellness and Wellbeing. Retrieved from https://www.linked.com/pulse/ difference-between-wellness-wellbeing-jim-purcell.
Pintig
Taludturan ay muli kong lalakbayin
Pintig ng puso’y pagtutugma-tugmain
Talinhaga nito pilit mong talusin
Sa kanyang kariktan sarili’y lunurin.
Mga saknong sa tayutay hahabiin
Maraming pagwawangis dito’y gagamitin
Hindi dahil nais isip mo’y guluhin
Nang ito’y maarok puso ang gamitin.
Damdaming dumaloy sa bawat taludtod
Ay laman ng pusong sa pantig tumibok.
Kung isip ang gagamitin – ‘di mo maaarok
Tanging sa puso damdami’y iindayog.
Mata mo sana’y ipikit aking giliw…
Sumayaw tayo sa kumpas ng aliw-iw
Sabihin man nilang ako’y isang baliw
Pag-ibig sa iyo’y hindi magmamaliw.
Pag-ibig ko’y araw na laging sisikat
Tala itong sa gabi laging kukutitap
Pag-ibig ko’y kulay na hindi kukupas
Kawalang hanggan may marating ang wakas
Aking giliw ako sana’y iyong dinggin
Lumapit ka’t masuyo akong yakapin
Pintig ng mga puso nati’y pagtugmain
Sa bawat pantig ng tula’y padaluyinAdvertisements
Developing Self-Discipline
“The first and the best victory is to conquer self.”
– Plato
Self-discipline is a simple concept, very easy to define and explain but difficult to practice.
It is reasonable to surmise that you know what self-discipline means, but I am hesitant to presume you possess this ability. Do I have it? I am still determining. However, if, at this point in your (and my) life, we have achieved some measure of success in both our personal and professional undertakings, then perhaps it is not too much to assume that we have practiced or have been practicing self-discipline to a certain extent. But if our needle of success has not moved a bit, if we have not accomplished anything significant that we can be proud of, then something needs to be fixed with how we live and manage our affairs. Could the culprit be the lack of self-discipline?
One of the most probable reasons people realize their dreams and ambitions, get what they want, and become what they wish to be is by practicing self-discipline. How successful or unsuccessful you are corresponds to the degree of self-discipline that you as a person have. I don’t need to cite studies to prove my assertion because even the simplest of minds would tell you that there is a direct correlation between success and self-discipline. As Lou Holtz said, “Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period.”
What comes to mind when self-discipline is mentioned? For me, there are three things – sacrifice, hard work, and focus. To some, those words make self-discipline synonymous with punishment and boredom. They conjure images of long work and study hours, self-deprivation, delayed self-gratification, and strict adherence to specific standards.
In short, self-discipline is not fun. It’s not fun to sacrifice or deny yourself of life’s pleasures. It’s not fun to work hard. Instead, You would go out with friends and party during your free time rather than pursue lifelong learning and self-improvement activities. It’s not fun to focus. It’s difficult with all the forms of distractions this modern world has to offer.
But self-discipline is the key to those who want their names written in the list of people who achieved great things and attained fulfillment. The potent mix of sacrifice, hard work, and focus is the elixir you need to drink to bolster your chances of succeeding.
Specific knowledge and skills are required to pursue whatever it is you want to achieve. You must wait to acquire and develop them overnight. There are no shortcuts, no magic pills. The process will be long and hard, and the question is – Are you willing to sacrifice time and effort to possess them?
You want to be like the athletes, artists, leaders, and personalities you idolize. You want to be like somebody you know who has accomplished great things. You want to become as successful and accomplished as they are. But are you willing and able to walk the paths they walked to get there? Do you have the perseverance to spend months, if not years, dedicated study and training to learn what you need? Those people you admire made it to the top by their sacrifices.
Sometimes, you would feel like giving up because you are seemingly not progressing. But you have to learn to hold on. The process of holding on is an essential component of self-discipline. An online dictionary defines self-discipline this way – “The ability you have to control and motivate yourself, stay on track, and do what is right.”
It would be best if you were willing to put in the hard yards when you want to achieve something. Don’t expect somebody to deliver your dreams and ambitions on a silver platter. We are naturally wired to prefer either lying on the couch or sleeping. That’s according to neuroscientists. But to become a winner, you must overcome that natural laziness. It will be a mighty struggle; only a self-disciplined person can overcome this hurdle. “Self-discipline (as defined by another online dictionary) is “the ability to control one’s feelings and overcome one’s weaknesses; the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it.”
In pursuing your dreams and ambitions, you need to be able to focus too. Keep sight of your goals, of the things you want to accomplish.
Focusing entails avoiding distractions that could derail you from achieving what you want. Distractions are the people, vices, and activities that (or which), instead of helping, might hinder you from accomplishing your goals. You have to choose between them and your dreams.
To stay focused, you must also lay down a definite plan of action for everything you set to accomplish. Focusing is avoiding all kinds of distractions and ensuring that you have a map that will guide you as you navigate your way toward success.
The main objective of focusing is to become single-minded, driven by the pursuit of your personal and professional endeavors. It is putting together all your resources towards fulfilling your purpose and setting aside whatever may hinder you from achieving them.
To sacrifice, work hard, and focus are things that are easier said than done. It’s like doing what we don’t like and going where we don’t want to go. It’s asking us to get out of our comfort zones. And the problem is we are not comfortable being uncomfortable.
Sometimes, we are confronted with the dilemma of choosing between reading a book and binge-watching movies or our favorite TV shows…. going to a karaoke bar or a gym… between eating healthy or keeping the diet that made us gain weight. We would likely end up picking the choices after the “or.” That’s how we are wired – to take the easier route.
The choices we make determine the quality of our self-discipline. It’s hard to control our desires and habits. We usually need help to make the best choices. And we realize that we made the wrong decisions only when we already suffer from the consequences of what we chose to do.
We should bear in mind that self-discipline is correlated not only to success but to our overall well-being. Merriam-Webster defines well-being as “The state of being happy, healthy, or prosperous.” Now ask yourself – “How happy, healthy, and prosperous am I?” Only you know the answer.
If, in the aspects of happiness, health, and wealth, your needle is not also moving, how much of that can be attributed to a lack of self-discipline? How much of that can be attributed to your unwillingness to sacrifice, to work hard, and to focus?
M.A.D. LIGAYA
M.A.D. L I G A Y A 