Hi Prof. Jorge,
Here's my reflection paper 3.
What is your passion?
This is a tricky question. If this simply means what do I love doing, I could give a lot of answers – I love to eat, I love to play badminton, I'm starting to love running, I love venturing to places, I easily fall into solving problems and take pride in providing solutions, I love hanging out with my family and friends and like any other girl I love shopping. However passion must be more intense. It is something that can drive one to work 24 hours, or it is something that one loves doing day by day, month to month and year on year. I love to eat, but would only indulge occasionally that sometimes I even skip meals. I love playing badminton but would not do it in two consecutive days. I love running but does not see myself going for a marathon (for now I feel it would be a punishment to my body). I love shopping but if I have all the money to buy anything I want (a test of determining passion), I don't think it would be as thrilling as when I save months to afford buying it. I enjoy the noise and the jests when hanging with friends, I love the serenity of spending time with my family but doing just that all throughout my life, make me feel self-centered and futile. So what could be my real passion? I went blank….
To help me figure it out, I did a little research. According to Mark Sanborn (from Fred 2.0 by Mark Sanborn), there are five ways to figuring out your passion. I wanted to take this chance to really reflect and discover my passion so I have assessed and replied to these five critical questions to uncover my one true passion:
1. What would you do for free?
I think this question equates to – "If I have no time, financial or priority constraints, what will I do without expecting anything in return except for the joy of doing it". (After 5 minutes of thinking) There are two things that I would like to undertake. I am someone who gets bored doing things the same over and over again, so I like to be working on one thing and occasionally shift to the other to break the ritual.
First, I like to be working in a/with a community. While others may enjoy catching up with their hundred friends in the web world, I like to connect and interact traditionally with people like we used to, when folks from our barangay gather in front of our sari-sari store and chat about their daily lives and other topics affecting them from politics to commodity prices and others. Though this time apart from listening to their stories, I want to work with them to try to alleviate their struggles given what I have learned during the period I was out of town. Now that I know so much, learned so much, I feel that it would be fulfilling to go back to such communities to introduce solutions, organize tested and successful undertakings to improve their lives.
Second, I want to learn the nitty gritty of investing in financial markets and immerse in other financial or investing disciplines. I was thinking what to do if I have all the time and money, apart from the above, this will likely keep my mind active and keep me upbeat. The idea of reviewing companies, their leaders, decisions and circumstances and based on that bet on their (future) value excites me because I like analyzing situations, people and processes. On top of that after being equipped with the education and become successful in it, I will like to share and hopefully help fellow Filipinos especially those who have no access and those who essentially need it to properly manage their finances, like the overseas Filipino workers, their families and those planning to source out income by leaving the country. I would like to work around these people because I know that the majority of OFWs leave the country due to economic reasons. If they are able to manage their finances they should be able to set a timeline to settle back to our country and stay with their families.
2. What riles you?
Because I like analyzing situations, people and processes and thinking how they should have been and should become better, I am frequently irritated by inefficient community structures or processes or decisions. During the rescue operations for Yolanda victims, Dinky Soliman was seen busy packing up and distributing goods – what a waste of government money, in my thoughts. She is not paid for the skill of handing out a pack of goods to the victims, she should have been spending her time strategizing, organizing and aligning her people, the machineries and the process to effectively and immediately reach the victims.
3. What interests you?
I like reading success stories of Filipino and foreign entrepreneurs especially those who later graduate into philanthropy.
I love looking and reading their biographies, how they have become successful in their chosen field or ventures and now devote their time and money in helping alleviate the lives of others like Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett and lately, Mark Zuckerberg.
4. Who interests you?
Apart from the above, I like people who project a strong-will and strong command power. I admire the likes of Hilary Clinton, despite not having the perfect circumstances she was able to keep her family intact and come out strong out of it.
I am amazed by diplomatic speakers but with convincing power. They who could settle people down to listen to their words and convinced them to his personal position like (to me an effective one) Ben Carson, a republican US Presidential candidate for 2016 and the likes of Steve Jobs.
Without going far, someone who exemplifies a diplomatic speaker and a philanthropist is our very own Dado Banatao. He is a Filipino american known as the "Filipino Bill Gates" and the "Father of Semi-conductor". He is based in Silicon Valley but committed in developing the Philippines. He is the Chairman of Phildev providing hundreds of scholarships to Filipino science or engineering students.
5. What will minimize your regrets?
According to the article, there are two main kinds of regrets: things we wish we hadn't done (bad decisions) and things we wish we had done (unfulfilled desires). I believe that my life's journey should be assessed on two things. I hope to succeed on these two to say that I have fulfilled my true purpose in life. First, that I have adequately provided time and support to my family and raised a God-fearing and a good citizen child/ren (with a concern for the welfare of others). Second, that I have been able to contribute to uplift or touch the lives of others. I would not regret committing mistakes or bad decisions in the pursuit of these.
How it is reflected in your work, daily life and life's journey.
I aspire to be able to join or organize a group with an advocacy to help others. However, I have yet to find one that is aligned to my focus (assisting the OFWs). In the meantime, I am trying to connect to people in simple or in any way possible, like this year in celebrating my child's birthday, instead of inviting my friends and officemate's kids whom I consider privileged, we decided to invite a number of kids from our barangay. I hope to be able to do it annually – travel to the different rural areas, organize the event and invite the kids for a simple celebration.
What is the new learning? What is the relation to what I already know?
When assessing the question number 5 above (what will minimize my regrets), I was about to state, "At the end of my life's journey, I will like to assess two things to determine if I have lived a meaningful life". And then it struck me "I wouldn't know when my life's journey will end. I hope it would take thirty-five years from now, but it could end after ten, five years or tomorrow. Then I realize, time is of the essence. Whatever I want to accomplish, I need to start soon, I need to do it now because at anytime, tomorrow might not come in our lives.
What have I done, am doing, will be doing for this topic?
Thanks for this exercise, I can now certainly answer what my passion is. And learned that equally important to discovering this passion, I can now direct my life to achieving a specific purpose in life.
"True happiness comes when you do what you are most passionate about." (Life coach Cheryl Richardson)
No comments:
Post a Comment