The Big Picture We Talked About: Ideas

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5 Cornerstones That Made Me Dream High And Deep

Wherever we are right now in life is traceable to the decisions and actions we made in the past. Therefore, I am a unique embodiment of everything in the past. This got me thinking, why am I this person now and what were the things, big or small, that shaped me?

If you had the chance to read a couple of my entries here on this blog, you may recognize the suggestions of positivism in each of them. Perhaps you see a pattern of me trying (at times too hard) to show to you that there’s a better way – that positivity is just right at the corner. I’d like you to know that I am not the person I am today if it weren't for the cornerstones that I’m made of.

I’d say that I’m proud for these cornerstones for it made me see life differently. I believe that they saved me from my old self who is a depressive guy, waiting for the world to end while hoping for nothing. Don’t get me wrong. I am in no way saying that I’m perfect or better than any of you, I am just here to share how I reach such thoughts and how these thoughts enabled me to lay most of my insecurities and fears down consequently allowing me to dream higher and deeper. In short, this is an attempt for me to reach out and tell you why in the world I think like "this and that." If you’re interested, then read on.

PALS

This is a main turning point for me and I can easily admit that this cornerstone is the precursor why I prefer positive perspectives in life. PALS stands for Personal Awareness Leadership Seminar. You can say that it is about leadership, but what really made an impact on me is the personal awareness part of it. It opened my eyes to many things. In fact, if you join this seminar, you’d be surprised that almost everything I talk here on this blog is based from the things I learned from there.

In this seminar, you re-discover that you have infinite potential. It also teaches you that you are responsible for your life. Furthermore, it imparts very interesting ways on how to communicate with people emphasizing on the types of listening and handling difficult situations. Most of all, it helps you understand the “oneness” of the world. I’m confident to say that the lessons you learn from this seminar saves you half of a lifetime of learning if you were to learn them on your own. It’s a crash course to life.

Books

I am no book reader. The truth is it takes me ages to finish a book. However, I could never deny the importance of them. Self-help books are what keep me motivated. It refreshes my mind and it helps me stay in the right track. They’re great for references when faced with situations. They’re also very relatable.

I continuously read books that keep the dreamer in me. If I were to recommend books, I’d include the following: Rich Dad Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich (where philosophies of PALS are based from), Psycho-cybernetics, and books from notable successful people like Dale Carnegie, Warren Buffet, Brian Tracy and so on. I have to admit, there are a lot of books but you can actually see a clear pattern from most of them. There’s this one message and that’s, “If they can do it, you can do it.“

IF

It’s already been proven that when you surround yourself with positive and supportive people, you get to become one as well. I never thought I’d find them in the Immanuel Fellowship group, a church that I belong with. These church friends of mine, although they may not know it, keep me motivated to do better things in life. You may not agree with me, but the church has a lot of positive things that can keep you going. From what I see it, it’s easy to form dreams just by being part of a group that has a mission to reach out and serve. I don’t want to be bias on this, but basically, you can have any group as long as they support you and your dreams, or at the very least, keep you a dreamer. It’s just that, you’ll find them mostly in such congregations who have a vision mission to reach out.

Immanuel is worth the mention since it’s a venue for me to continuously strive and become better just because I discovered a purpose other than myself. You’d realize that there are bigger things than us, and sometimes the bigger things keep us away from the boring, mundane, and destructive smaller issues, which by that I mean the dramas we think we have, the minor discomforts, and so on.

Ideas

I don’t know if my ideas come solely from the seminar or books, my unique experiences, my “we-are-infinite” way thinking, or the combination of all these. The point is my ideas are now different than what they were before. I discovered that one can meet tons of ideas when one looks at the big picture and think out of the box. I may be wrong, but I think if you have such a thought process, your ideas encompass a lot of things and not just anything restricted.

Formulating positive ideas and acknowledging them as my own is one aspect that I didn’t expect to be a cornerstone. What I know is that you are your thoughts. Thoughts form attitudes, attitudes form habits, and habits form “you” as seen by the world.

Vision and Expectations

Do you know about Pygmalion theory? If you do, then I’m actually setting high expectations for myself. If you don’t, then Pygmalion theory is just the theory that people act accordingly on what society expects from them. Basically, if the people around you expect you to become great, then you’re more likely to become one for you subconsciously try to meet those expectations. The sad part is when they don’t expect much from you.

Actually, I found a hack on this. You just need to set high expectations for yourself and act as a standalone source of expectations. This enabled me to have a clear vision what I will be 5 years from now or even 10 years from now. I can see a clear picture of myself. I know it can be crazy (even delusional) of me, but no, I’m just setting high expectations for I deserve the best even if it is just lies in my imagination. I know eventually that people will see these expectations I set for myself, thus inadvertently you dictate them what to expect from you. And there goes your Pygmalion theory hack.

As you noticed, I never included my formal education in the list. I think my formal years of study have not developed me much as the person I am now. It’s ironic to say that what I learned in college is not so helpful to me now. However, I would never forget the great mentors that contributed along the way. If I were to choose my own path, I’d rather had done self-study (or a more focused form of study) and learn from actual experiences and people who really made it. But it’s also important to note that we’re better off with no regrets. We don’t have to be too radical. It’s important to consider that each step, no matter how useless or long it may seem, is necessary for anyone to reach the now. Your past tenses are essentially what bring you to your present tenses.

After sharing all these cornerstones to you, I’d now like to ask you several questions. What do you think are the influences in your life that led you to think the way you think right now? What are the cornerstones of your life that built who you are right now? What will you do if no one stops you from becoming what you want? What will you do if you can be what you wanted 5 or 10 years from now? Will you still settle for less? I hope not and I hope you continuously strive and build a firm foundation. I bet my 25 centavo that it’s better to aim high. Therefore, I’m going to leave you with this, “Always dream higher than the sky and deeper than the ocean.”
(All photos used in this post copyright of Kevin Abad)

This post is not for everyone. I mean if you already know how to manage your money and really save up, then kudos to you for doing a great job! But for the rest of us who don’t seem to value money to an extent, or to those who don’t get why they are always broke and looking earnestly for the next pay day, then we might consider that we have a spending issue, which is the matter I wish to tackle in this post.

Money, as what I mentioned on a previous post, is a fickle thing. It disappears easily. We may ask the following: Why is that we lose money so easily? Why does it seem that we have no control of money? Instead, it’s the other way around that which money controls us. By asking these questions, we somehow see that money is alive. It may sound absurd but if money has a power to control us and is able to spends itself on its own, then it got to be alive.

To ponder on money as sort of a living thing is, rather, a grave matter. Imagine being controlled and always at the mercy of money. It’s like having a new set of parents dictating our every move. The point is this should not be the case. We should reconsider our concept of money.

The better concept(s) of Money

The concept of money is one we usually fail to consider. It is not just money for money’s sake. As you add value and meaning to money, you will gradually see it as something alive, and thus, it is one you can befriend or make an enemy with. Let me remind you that money as an enemy could overrule you once you give in, and it’s a type of ruler that has the power to enslave your time and needs.

So how can we befriend money and try to manage it? I may not be an expert or anything, and to be honest, I am quite amateur on this concept of money as well; however, with my years of research and discoveries, I have reached understandings that might be of real value, or if not, are still considered worthy of thoughts.

First is, money is everywhere

I remembered telling a friend that money is one of the most abundant resources today. I don’t exactly know what I meant at that time, but I solely based it on the fact that almost every single thing in this world already has a corresponding value. As you think of it, you can give a price of anything that you have right now, which includes your clothes, your computer, your house, your gadgets, and sometimes, even our selves. People seem to price everything. Viewing it in a positive light, money is certainly everywhere, and by that, it is quite abundant.

Money is hidden in each one's pockets

I also keep an idea that money is just in the pockets of people. If you stand in a crowd and ask them to lend or give you money (say 10 pesos) for a reasonable cause, I think most, if not everyone, of them have the amount and are willing to offer it.

This leads us to two points. First, people are actually willing to offer the money to you, especially if they like you or they think you are worthy of it. Second, scale this scenario up to a thousand or even millions of people and suddenly the “ten pesos” won’t be the tiny little penny you thought it was - you now accumulated thousands or even millions.

These two concepts, that money is abundant and people are willing to offer you money if you just do something that makes them to, unlocks a secret - the secret of managing, or even, making money.

The many ways to make money

There’s a lot of ways to obtain money from somebody else’s pocket. It could be in a form of investment. You should know that you could obtain money from companies, like what others do in stocks or Mutual Funds. It could also be in a form of business, like creating something that generates money such as selling goods, offering services and so on. Of course, there are many more ways, and it’s basically up to you if you want to make more money.

With these concepts, it won’t take long for you to develop an attitude that enables you to manage money and prevent it from controlling your life (I really hope it does). Money should stay at its rightful place, which is to kneel at your mercy and disposal.

I know that these thoughts of money might be too ideal or hard to imagine, but I don’t expect you to grasp everything, even I don’t grasp it, well, not that much yet. But at least, we somehow tried to think of the possibilities and thus (which I strongly believe) make us better in handling money.

“Random acts of kindness, senseless acts of beauty” has been one of the alluring concepts I’ve encountered in this life. I would like to share how this concept might change your life in little ways.

But first, we should understand the reason behind kindness. The word itself lets me imagine opening a box of questions. Questions like: What is kindness, really? Does the world deserve kindness? Do people really return favors? Do we do something beautiful even nobody notices it? These and so on…

I’ll be honest, I considered myself as a selfish person. It seems that being selfish is my second nature. I want to grab all the attention, I want to win so badly, I try to be right so hard that I don’t mind what people feel. This is pretty much the story of my life well, for a while. I’m very much hopeful that one day I’ll totally liberate myself from that image.

Here’s the thing, after a few seminars and books, I realize that there’s no point in being selfish. We live in a world shared by everybody. No one can really be at the top. No one could really win all the time. Once we think selfishly and pursue our selfish desires, everything becomes more like a pursuit to nothing. Selfishness leads to emptiness.

On the other hand, I realized that kindness is one aspect that solves a lot of problems for human race. A few benefits you might have thought are reconciliation, courtesy, and prevention of conflicts. But there are actually more.

Kindness to others can actually cure depression, a study show. Kindness to ourselves helps us cope and become a better person. Kindness to the world, somehow (sometimes in ways that we don’t see) returns kindness to our lives as well. This is something really important.

Kindness is beauty in every aspect

Genuine kindness is one that we do good things and not think of any reward. If you ever tried giving without asking anything in return then you may have experienced the miracle of kindness.

Now this concept of random acts of kindness, senseless acts of beauty is a practical method that helps everyone become a better person. I’m not saying it’s rocket science, but I do believe that a few episodes of random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty makes people feel that they are a part of something - a communion of contribution.

How it works?

One can do random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty just by doing things out of the blue. Paying a fair for and old person or a blind person is one. It could be hugging your mom before going out or as a surprise first thing in the morning. It could even be treating someone for lunch just because you’re happy that he/she is part of your life.

I don’t aim to change the world. My voice wouldn’t be loud enough anyway. But I do know that I can help one or two people in a week or perhaps even just one person in a month. It might not matter to me, it might not even matter to you, but it could mean the world to that one person.

From what I understand, we should never stop believing in the goodness of people and of the world in general. Sharing and being kind just to let others know they matter is one of the best things we can offer to this world. I’m starting to believe this is one of the reasons why we’re here to begin with.

Anyhow, what are your random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty that you made recently or that you think you might be able to do? Share it in the comments below.

I have a problem with writing that is, I don’t know how to write. I always feel unskillful with the way I put my ideas to words; and I’m going to be honest I don’t know how to construct a sentence, effectively that is.

I came to know myself as more of an idea guy who can’t relay his message properly. I see this because when I speak, people either don’t get me or don’t listen.

Furthermore, when I had a writing job before, I always get negative feedbacks from the copywriter. They said that I just don’t sound well, the voice, it’s not native sounding, improper use or not using idioms the right way, ideas are not cohesive or congruent, etc. Unfortunately at that time, I got so overwhelmed with the comments that I dwell on it and eventually lose the job.

This became like a disease to me. Each time I want to say or write something, The thought of me spreading inferior grammar and all comes to my head almost automatically. Because of this, I decided not to write instead. Well, as you might have guess, the results are unproductivity and eventually depression. This goes on a cycle.

How I manage to get off the loop

However, It wasn’t long that I realized that there are reasons to keep going and to write no matter what. It’s amusing that recognising my lapses and the process on how this got me depressed, both allowed me to think. Eventually, I tried to find meaning in my incompetence and learn to acknowledge them. As of the moment, I still suck in writing. But one thing is for sure, a year ago, or even a month ago, I was suckier.

Thanks to my reading of uplifting books and having an open mind while listening to moving speakers, I discovered that there are many more reasons to keep on going. Here are some of them that applied well to me.

Laughing stock

I learn to laugh at myself. Sometimes when I look back from the past, and thought of my wrong decisions, I smirk (sometimes alone) as I realize how awful a decision maker I was. This also goes true to my writing. I know I’ll look at this 5 or 10 years from now. By that time, I’ll be “better” and I’ll see these posts and laugh at them. How I was such a loser and all. But if weren’t for those stepping-stones, I wouldn’t be here.

There’s nothing you can’t learn

One thing about us humans is that we adapt and learn things. As long as we keep on doing things, we continuously learn and improve on doing those things. So if I keep on writing, then probably I’d get better. There’s no telling when, but it’s already sort of certain.

A higher purpose

I discovered a higher purpose. I really wanted to share my thoughts about the world. I am also a fan of success stories and I want my life story to be successful someday. This is why I share strategies, learning, and secrets I learned from mentors, YouTube videos, Google, blogs and so on. I want to share these to people, especially to those who want to improve too. You might say I am a wannabe financial advisor as you look at my recent posts. But hey, I don’t see anything wrong with that; and probably I don’t care what you think at all.

As usual thanks for reading this post. Hope you always keep in mind that we can become who we wanted as long as we keep on moving forward.

This post tries to answer frequently asked questions about Stock Market, Truly Rich Club, and COL Financial. These definitions and answers all come from my thoughts, understanding, as well as experience. Feel free to tell me if you need to add a question or even answers and/or clarifications.

What is Stock Market?

Stock market is a mode of investment that any Filipino can venture. It involves buying shares from companies by following a simple law of trade, which is buy low sell high. There are various investing strategies out there one can try. But basically, buying on enduring companies gives a higher chance of profit.

Some people may say investing in stocks is risky and they never bother to consider it. Indeed, it is risky as to any investments. Don't just be anyone, try learning more of it and rid ignorance. The choice is yours in learning more of investing in stock market today.

What is Risk Management?

Risk management is the weighing and managing of risks so that events or results turns out beneficial or in favor to you. Investing always involves risk. Therefore, you should check modes of investments and see what fits for you. Try to identify and analyze risks before making decisions but keep in mind that you have to take actions too.

In stocks, you may go with a strategy with higher or lower risks. For example, with a high risk strategy you go for daily trades involving huge-value shares. This may lead to immediate and big profit but it could also be instant loss. Low to moderate risk, on the other hand, involves investing a small amount each month or quarterly and letting it grow for the long run. It may take time but the risks of losing your money decreases.

How much do you need to start investing in stocks?

The online broker COL only requires single investors an initial deposit of 5000 php. If you have that amount then you can start right now and enroll. However, you should keep in mind that to enjoy the benefits of stock market, one should consider investing on a regular basis. This means sparing any amount of your income flow to let your stock portfolio grow. I suggest 10% of your income flow each month (I'll talk more about this on another post).

Can anyone join?

Yes (at least from what I know). The head of Truly Rich Club even opened accounts for his kids.

Do you have to check the stock statuses/trades all the time?

This depends. If you consider joining truly rich club and get stock updates from them, you don't need to frequently check stock status. This also goes the same if you invested using EIP (Easy Investing Program) or long term investments. However, if you are a day-to-day trader, then you'd want to check your stocks status frequently.

What is Truly Rich Club?

Truly Rich Club is a good aid for your investment venture in the Philippine stock market. Learn more about it here.

Why COL financial/ CITISEC Online?

Despite the fact that they are online brokers, which means they have 24 hours access; they also have fairly priced transaction fees. Fees are only applicable after a succeeded trade.

COL FINANCIAL fees: commission fee - 0.25% of Gross Trade amount, VAT - 12% of commission, PSE Transaction FEE - 0.005% of Gross Trade amount, sales tax - 0.50% of Gross trade amount. Minimum fee of 20 pesos per transaction.

Since it is online, you can check the latest stock information anytime, make some changes anywhere or contact them anytime. Help desk are prompt in their replies for queries as well.

How to enroll to COL Financial?

Watch this video.

How do I put money in COL

You have a lot of options to do so but basically it involves depositing in the bank. Instructions are found in COL Financial Website. You might as well enroll to online bank such as BPI express online. I do this to save the hassle of going to bank whenever I need to fund my account. Enrolling is easy.

How do you withdraw?

You might be wondering how to withdraw with COL financial when you finally decide to get your gains. You can actually do so by submitting a request. They have a form for this that you get from the site. It usually requires a personal appearance in their main office in Pasig City. However, there is an option that a representative can get the cheque for you provided they authorization and proof of identification (usually including a photocopy of your ID). Take note that the cheque will only be payable under the customer account holder's name.

Tip: If you're investing in stock market you may want to withdraw your money less often and only if necessary. Letting your assets roll for a good time may give you better returns.

How do you buy shares?

Once you have a money deposited in COL Financial, you will get a an actual balance and a buying balance (called buying power). You just have to check (also called getting the quote) the STOCK Company you want to buy using their stock code. Once you know the current price of the company you then make a trade buy stating the amount of shares and the price. Make sure you do your trades while the market is open this is from 9 am to 3:30 pm Monday to Friday. I usually do my trades around 1 pm or in the afternoon so that I'd have an idea how the stock price would likely land for the day.

Stock prices are volatile and change every minute (specifically 15 seconds). Consider trading with the last price of the stock share to get a better chance of successful trade. You'll get trade confirmations the following day to let you check if there are any discrepancies or errors. Just go ahead and confirm with your password if your trade was all correct.

Take note that your trades may not push through but there's no charge for this. This happens when the price of the stock changed by the end of the day and your selling or buying price was far off.

P.S. This list is constantly updated. Please feel free to comment or even suggest answers or questions alike.

The Big Picture We Talked About

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