Hang Out with VIPs

“Become wise by walking with the wise.” – Proverbs 13:20

“Successful people surround themselves with successful people.” – Jack Canfield

“Inspire”. That was the first talk of the new series at The Feast, “The Spark”. How do you get inspired? How do you motivate yourself to achieve your goals, your dreams?

The first step is to analyze your situation. We were given 3 pieces of paper and were told to write down our goals in life, our dreams, on the first one. Next, we were asked to write down the names of five people we spend most of our time with on the second sheet. Then the questions came: “Does your gang match your goal? Do your companions match who you want to become.” This was important to determine because as Jim Rohn said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

So if you want to be a millionaire, hang out with millionaires. You want to up the ante? Then hang out with billionaires. You want your creative juices to flow, then hang out with creative people. I guess that’s why artists and writers form an artists’ circle or a writers’ community so they can feed off each other’s creativity.

The talk was very timely for me as I had just attended an Authors Crash Couse in Marketing last week. I was awed that I was in the same room as published authors, several of them pretty well known. And there I was, merely someone dreaming of having my own first book published. I felt humbled to be there. 

But with this talk, I realized it was a privilege and a blessing that I attended that course. It gave me the opportunity to hang out with VIPs. Three of them were already friends and colleagues. Another was a community sister. I only need to make one more friend from among the people there so I will average out into what I dream to become – a published author. 

 So what’s your dream? Are you hanging out with the right people?

The Art of Extracting a Blessing

Have you ever felt that getting your prayer answered is like pulling out teeth using a pair of tweezers?

Imagine how that goes. You are sweating and doing all sorts of contortions to get the right grip. You even stand on a chair to get leverage. The owner of the tooth has a mouth that’s already as wide and deformed as that of Batman’s nemesis, the Joker, from all the fruitless maneuvers.

For years, I felt that way about my prayer for my livelihood. I even used to say in jest that if my dream were a person, she’d be about to graduate from college soon. It has been that long.

After over a year of attending and serving at the Feast Alabang (originally South Feast), I learned that I had been going about it the wrong way. I was using the wrong tools. Yes, exactly like using a pair of tweezers to pull teeth.

Let me illustrate. I got my Novena to God’s love in 2007. In it I was supposed to write my 7 dreams and pray for them every day. The novena said they have to be specific. For two years, all that was written in my novena was my name. I could not get my dream for my career/ business down pat so I could not complete my novena.

Before 2007 I had gotten into the habit of writing down my prayer petitions at the beginning of each year. I have pages upon pages of dreams written over the years. My prayers have been constant except for this area. My dream would morph into something else as the year progressed. My prayer for my business would get snopaked, crossed out, written over in red ink, pink ink, orange ink as situations changed. Once in a while I’d modify something. That’s not exactly what I want. Or there’s something else more promising. In short, my vision was fuzzy.

Can you imagine the confusion the universe had in trying to deliver this dream? I can picture God indulgently waiting on the side till I can get it right. After all, He knows the dream He has written in my heart.

It was only this year that I finally wrote down my 7 dreams. The mere act of writing them down in that tiny book gave me laser light focus. Suddenly, things became clearer and I was able to move with a purpose. It was easier to eliminate steps that will keep me from my goal. Like will taking a job as a transcriptionist propel me to my goal of becoming a writer? Not if it will keep me from writing – the difficult accents make my ears bleed and turn my brain to soup. It robs me of creativity and the time to write. Any job I take from now on must enhance my ability to reach my aspirations.

Although I had been frenetically, obsessively working for years to make my wishes come true, the fluidity of that dream prevented it from becoming a concrete reality. When I finally decided on what I wanted, I was able to take the right steps.

In just a few months my novena has become colorful. There are now pink tick marks on it. My prayers are being answered one by one:

My elder son graduated from college. Several months after graduation, he got a job even if it was out of season for teachers to be hired. He had an earth angel in Lui, my Caring Group sister. She referred him to her client who owned a pre-school. He also auditioned for the Feast Alabang Music Ministry. Those are checks for my dream numbers one and two.

My younger son finally finished his thesis after being delayed for two terms. Not only that, his thesis won the bronze for animation in the Digicon. In Jesus’ name, he will be graduating this year. Another check for dream #2 coming.

And, as for my dream about my career, it's finally taking off.

The recently concluded talk series on Wish! How to Fulfill Your Heart’s Desire has been such an eye opener for me.

I realized that my stories and prayers flowed from my woundedness – the different trials life throws at me every once in a while.

The image of what I want my life to be is now in high definition – no longer fuzzy and conflicted.

I finally learned God’s will for me. It is not about the minute details but a vision to love like Jesus. He has given me the freedom to decide the “how”.

And finally, when I bloom where I am planted, God will shower me with all the things that are necessary to make my dreams come true.

The talks gave me the tools I needed. I have discovered the art of extracting blessings.

My Virtual Dream Board

The walls of the center are beginning to fill up with dream boards posted by Alabang Feasters. Some have simple drawings. Some have clipped pictures (I can imagine the piles of magazines with holes in their pages left at home). Others are finely crafted pieces that show the hours spent on it by now sleep-deprived dreamers.

And my dream board? It’s one glorious blank! Pure, pristine, untouched. Not for the lack of dreams but for the lack of time. Oh I did plan it. I wanted to turn mine into an artwork. A watercolor of my dream house with my happy family. Maybe even paper sculpture it like the paintings I used to make. Or how about crafting it like a scrap book with embossed words like the beautiful ones Becky gives as birthday gifts.

But we’re now into the third talk of the Wish series with one more to go and I haven’t drawn a single line nor clipped a single picture. I want my dream board on that wall! So what’s this writer to do? Write about it of course. And print the link for this blog for my real dream board.

First thing that’s in my virtual dream board is my happy family. When I do my visualization exercise in the morning, I picture us on Sundays getting ready to serve in the Feast Alabang down to the youngest cute & chubby future grandchild.

Next is my dream home – a modern bahay na bato nestled in lush greenery. It has a brook that wends its way to the back of the house falling into a serenity pool. I actually have pictures of the community, the house and the rooms in a folder complete with all the details I want. I just need a picture of my writing nook/studio but I have that in my mind already. Bro Bo Sanchez said he reads his dream list every day. I look at my dream folder most days during my prayer time.

I love to travel, so that’s next. Europe with a Mediterranean cruise thrown in. The Holy Land. Revisit U.S.A and Canada with a must see trip to Harry Potter’s Wizarding World plus a stay in Disneyland Hotel this time and not the budget hotels we are used to. Japan and other nice places in Asia. And of course, our very own beautiful Philippine spots.

Transportation is a need and my dream for this is simple – a brand new family car or van that’s big enough for my family. And since that’s too bulky to bring around when I go to the gym, grocery, meetings and other stuff I do when I drive myself, I also want a personal car. A brand new late model Volkswagen beetle in cotton candy pink.

To cap it all is a successful career as a best-selling author and a balanced life coach. This is the only thing I was able to include in my real dream board.

All these can’t be contained in the 10”x13” dream board that we got. I would have needed a whole illustration board for all the details. My virtual dream board is fine by me. After all, these dreams are etched in my heart. I pray for their fulfillment In Jesus’ name. That’s a mighty powerful prayer. I just learned today at the Feast that it means: “If Jesus were in my place, He’d pray the same thing.”

Now I’m off to shake the universe into granting my heart’s desires.