From an Introvert to an Extrovert

By nature i've always considered myself as an introvert. I've always wanted to keep things to myself and i tend to be a loner in most occassion. I became anti-social and i wasn't good in relating with other people and often i felt left out from the crowd. My life before wasn't easy especially i had a language barrier problem since i only knew how to speak English and not the local dialect. Still God was faithful that through the hardship i experience in the past i was driven to become a different person when i entered college.

I was still an introvert even during my college days. I still had my language barrier problem and trust me i still suck in speaking Tagalog and Ilonggo (my local dialect in my home province). Most often people would laugh at my weird accent cause it seems like i'm singing rather than talking. Ilonggo has always been know to be very sweet whenever we talk so the accent kinda rubbed in my Tagalog and little bit on my English, not to mention my Chinese.

My college days were great i met new friends and i was able to begin a new chapter in my life. Through my life in college i got to know a lot of different people from all walks of life. Since i was studying in a university of different classes ranging from class A to D i was able to adapt to my environment. I learn how to become more open to other people's opinions and their way of life. I learn how to become more people oriented and i try avoid my shy nature at all times. I learn how to become more confident thanks to my line of work and through public speaking and marketing presentation i realize that i had a knack for speaking in front. I was soon discovering another part of myself, another new chapter in my life. The next thing i notice i wanted to be more involve in gatherings where i get to meet new people and soon my PR was soaring high. I became more approachable to everyone around me then i began to see a big transition in my life, soon i realize that i was becoming an extrovert.

Honestly this was a big change in my life, i never thought i would ever come out from my shell. I never did i imagine myself as the type who would love to be on stage performing and speaking into a crowd. I was driven by the fact i am at a certain phase in my life changing my whole personality from being a quiet artist to a talkative public speaker. I was just amaze on how much i have change since my days in my home province.

Trials are Blessings

"We usually learn things the hard way because the pain is always there to remind us"

I know most of the people reading this wouldn't agree with my title but when you really see the bigger picture, quite often this statement is true. We face trials with negatives reponses because through trials all we get from it is nothing but pain, suffering, hardship and deceit. We tend to become more rebellious towards God because things aren't going according to our wants. But come to think about it why did God put trials in our lives in the first place? Was it just for fun so that God could see us suffer?

God loves us more than anything else but why do we still suffer through the trials we face in life. My parent's often told me that they teach us not to do wrong because it was for our own good but why are we still rebellious toward them? Do we not trust their good intentions or are we just too stubborn to listen? I guess through our stubborness we tend to learn things the hard way. Just like in business we often make mistakes and the results are costly so most often businessmen who has been doing business for a long period of time would tell you that experience is far more fruitful than education itself. As my uncle once told me having experience is like going to college to get an education, our costly mistakes is exactly like paying tuition. We learn from out mistakes and through the trials we face in business we never repeat the mistakes of our past.

How do we see trials as blessings? Well God place trials in our lives not only to test our faith but also to develop our character. If everything in your life was smooth sailing would you consider any room for improvement? Of course not but when everything is against you that where character development comes in. A book that i have been reading for quite sometime is about the life story of the CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, whom i like to consider as the godfather of coffee. Growing up wasn't easy for him but yet he was driven to become a successful person and now he owns one of the worlds most strongest brands.

God set many boundaries in our lives because we develop ourselves through facing our trials. On March 20, 2004 me and my brother were victims of a robbery which happen around 7am in our house. The people who broke in were around 9 people and all of them had guns. They tied us up and they were taunting to kill us if we didnt handed them our money. By God's grace nothing happened and nobody got hurt during the incident. All they took was our computer and small amount of cash. See in a situation like that i could just blame God for not protecting me, my brother and the rest of people living downstairs but instead i praise God that i'm still alive to tell you my story. God did protect me, in fact if he hadn't i wouldn't be alive right now. I even thanked God during that day because He reminded me that without Him i wouldn't be here. He knew i was stumbling and this was his wake up call to me and i pray every morning thanking God that i'm still alive and kicking.

Trials do come and go whether we like it or not but its how we accept and understand His purpose why God place them there. Most often i just couldn't see what God has plan in my life but by entrusting everything to him i feel more secure. Don't get me wrong many times i doubt God that he's not doing his job but whom am i to tell God that what he does in my life doesn't go without purpose. He has a perfect plan set out in our lives but often times we just couldn't accept the answers he gives us. Whenever i do feel doubtful on the plans he has set out in my life i just keep on praying that he would continue to guide me. Sometimes the answers are hard to accept but everything happens for a reason whether we like it or not. The only time we could really see our trials as blessings is when we get to see the bigger picture in God's plan.

What if Martian's could speak Venusian?

"If all people could speak in one tongue imagine the possibilites man could achieve..."

Man could achieve many things as long as they work together as one. Imagine if each person living on Earth could understand one another without any language barrier would the world be a better place? Could you just imagine what man can achieve without having the problem of miscommunication? A prime example would be a story from the Bible, the great Tower of Babel. During those times man spoke in one tongue, so there wasn't any problem of miscommunication. They were united as one working together and through that they decided to build a great tower that would reach towards the heavens. They believe that by building this tower they would be able to talk to God. God saw the wicked ways of man and was resentful of their actions. God confuse man with different tongues and the construction of the tower could never be completed because man couldn't understand one another. From there man spread out across the Earth and began building their own nations.

If man didn't have any language barrier or the problem of miscommunication they would have completed the tower in no time. Imagine the great possibilites if people could understand one another.

"If a Martian could speak Venusian, what could possibly happen?"

Man and woman are two different beings. Men are considered to be more practical, straight forward and rational while women on the otherhand tends to be more emotional. These are two different people but are also alike in some ways. The question is why do male and females often argue with each other?

The inspiration of this article was from the book entitled "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus". This book talks about the differences shared between man and woman and how they often argue and fight. If man could understand woman and vice versa could hurtful confrontations be avoided?

In this article i would be siting out a few examples on how good communication and by understanding our opposite counterpart could help avoid fights and achieve growth in the same time. I believe that this book is very helpful especially for couples and would also benefit to the singles as well. By understanding our partners we would learn to love them more, respect them for who they are and become more appreciative to each other.

"Women seeks attention while men seeks appreciation..."

The tendency when women get upset over something they become very aggravated and finds a way to release their stress by talking to someone they love. Women by nature loves to talk and releases their stress through conversations and girls are always very supportive to each other (emotional support that is). But sometimes when a girl tries telling the guy about her bad day she tends to flare up not because of the guy but because she's unhappy. Guys usually get defensive by her actions and reacts to her. A guy feels blamed but honestly girls just want that certain someone to listen to their problems rather than lecturing them for what they did. If a guy knew why her love one is feeling agro (short term for aggravated) he would try to listen to her problems and give loving support to her which at the end the girl feels love and important.

Women loves having attention while men loves being appreciated for what they do. When a guy loves someone they always give their best and always go the extra mile. Because when a guy loves someone he never thinks of himself but for the persons he loves. The tendency for men they want to feel appreciated for what they do because its important for us guys that the person we love feels comfortable and happy in the things we do for them.

These are just few examples of what this book has to offer. Just by understanding each person differences we could achieve growth and learn to appreciate each other more. By talking things out could avoid hurtful confrontations but we must also remember that fighting could also promote growth between couples. I used to believe fighting in a relationship can always be avoided but fights do come and go whether we like it or not. Fighting in a relationship could only lead to two things. The growth of your relationship or its death, you decided (this doesn't just apply with couples but even with our relationship with our friends and familes as well). How we communicate with each other is very important because communication is the key to a successful relationship.

So remember whenever when we talk or argue with our female/male companions, be open to one another and be patient on each other short comings. No ones perfect even i have my number of short comings as well and so does everyone else but understanding and appreciating our differences we can attain a more positive outlook in life.

Public Speaking

Speaking in front of an audience is like dying right there on the spot. Well look at it this way, what could possibly go wrong if you tried public speaking? Well definitely your legs begin to shake, your palms get sweaty, you might have anxiety attacks and the worst thing that could ever happen to you on stage...is that you have a complete mental black-out. Definitely not suitable if you have big presentations but no need to fret cause there are some helpful tips that could help you get rid of your stage frights and boost up your confidence.

1. Always prepare before every presentation. Be sure to get enough practice on what your gonna say, on how you're going to say it, on your gestures during on-stage and always practice your voice modulation.
2. Be sure to always have cue cards to help you out but remember being a good presentor you don't pay too much attention on cue cards. The presentor should always have eye contact with its audience and should try to relate with them at all times. Cue cards should only have outlines about your topic to help remind you. Remember your not reporting your presenting.
3. Get enough rest and never stress yourself out. Being too stress on yourself would only make you more frantic on the day of presentation.
4. Practice punchlines and jokes. Cracking jokes is very helpful breaking the ice with your audience if they become bored and stiff.
5. Your the person holding the mic so you are in authority. Remember that people are listening to you and put in mind that you have something to share which they may benefit from. Always be confident on your topic and yourself at all times.
6. My final advice always pray every step of the way.

Remember just to be yourself when you speak in front. You must always make yourself comfortable with the audience and let them feel comfortable with you. So in everything that you do just be yourself and remember public speaking should also be fun so try to loosen up and just enjoy being on stage.

My Insomatic Self

A normal person would sleep 6-8 hours of sleep for him/her to feel completely rejuvinated. For a normal person is takes them about 5-10 mins. to finally achieve dream state which no disturbance or any forms of distraction would be able to wake them up. If you are that person which i just describe then you are very bless that you may sleep soundly every night. For me on the other hand is a much complicated story.

Many times i couldn't achieve 8 hours of sleep instead my normal sleeping habit is sleeping around the wee hours of 2am then waking up early around 7:30-8am. Torture isn't it and trust me that's my normal sleeping time i had worst nights.

Here's another contradicting thought, i love drinking coffee and i couldn't start my day right without a nice hot cup of coffee. I usually drink coffee in the morning if i really need it but often i drink around noontime or in the late afternoon (which would be another probable cause for my insomia). But then again being an insomaic has its perks.

As an artist we never get that much sleep because our work loads (in art school we call them plates) would take most of our time. I would say that fine art students doesn't get as much sleep same as medical students taking up their proper. The work loads kills us but hey i'm not complaining actually most creative ideas comes from staying up late or not sleeping at all. I could remember working 3 straight days without sleep and on the 4th day i crash in my room for one entire day (just imagine how wasted i was back then).

Most of the time i deliberately stay up all night whenever i'm working on my artworks. I could draw for 6 hours straight and only leave my chair just for meals and the bathroom. Once i get stuck working on something i never leave it for tomorrow unless i have the time to spare.

Even group work was fun staying up all night trying to figure out the marketing plan for our next ad campaigns . Working 4 hours on the designs and sketches which are to be submitted the next day for approval, usually i wouldn't sleep in situations like these cause once i hit the shack there's no coming back.

Always in need of Him...

As Christians we often have problems in our lives especially our spiritual life. When problems occur we always seek the Lord's help and prayer would be like our first-aid kit. We often pray during problems and always ask for God's help and when God helps us in our given problems we tend to forget what God has done for us.

See whenever things are going well for us we tend to forget God and what He has done for us and get on with our lives but trouble stirs up we call to Him. Why is that? Why do we consult God with our problems today and forget Him the next day after helping us out?

Sometimes i even asked myself would i be better off being in need of God rather than neglecting Him. By being in need of God always i wouldn't be depending on my own abilities but on God himself. Many incidents and problems that happened in my life was because i never seek God's help but depended on my own. I became stubborn and to proud to accept the fact that i need to depend on God in all things but i didn't. I became more selfish and arrogant that it has affected my life especially my spiritual life as well. Thanks to good friends and my church I was able to get back on track but whatever happened in my past reminded me what could happen if i didn't seek God's help.

Being in need of Him i become more closer to God because the more i give myself to His ways and teachings i became more interested to know more about Him. It's amazing what God did for me and right now i'm still getting back and being more involve with my ministry and i pray to God that i would always be dependent on Him whenever, wherever and forever.

Are you an artist?

"An artist by hand, an artist by mind and an artist by heart"

To those who may be reading this please remember that me being an artist doesn't represent the notion that all artists are alike. As artists we are all unique and special in our own ways whether in the field of fine arts or music. Each artist has its own unique blend of creativity and sense of style.

"If a picture could paint a thousand words...then the artist has more to say"

Expressing ourselves through paintings, writings, poetry, songs, music and etc. is how we speak from our hearts. Emotions are express deeply through our works for example like a poet who express his sorrows, joys, disappointments through words could touch the hearts of many. An artist could express beauty through colors, drawings, sculptures and photography. A songwriter could set our moods through music and as for writers they would inspire us with their words of wisdoms and fascinating stories. It is an expression of ourselves and those people who knows how to appreciate works of arts are artist themselves.

Most people wouldn't consider themselves as an artist because they couldn't draw or paint. An artist isn't just all about skills and talents its about how we preceive and appreciate beauty. I would believe that no artist would be able to produce such works of arts if he or she wasn't inspired by another artist or by art itself. Sure some people are gifted in the field of arts and music but it is even a greater gift for one to appreciate the true beauty of art and for that you are an artist by heart.

As they say beauty comes from within and it's starts right there from the heart.