The Value of Personal Development

Posted by jerome on January 26, 2012 · 2 Comments

The Value of Personal Development

It has been four years since I committed myself seriously to personal development. It is my desire to keep growing and learning until the day I die, not only for my own benefit, but for the benefit of others.

Last year during my vacation, I had a chance to witness the effect I had to my son, Justin Daniel. In a conversation with my wife, she shared how curious was his teacher about our son’s behavior and why he always excel in their Values subject. She was surprised how he managed to get high grades with very minimal effort of study. My wife told my son’s teacher, “Oh, my husband is into personal development and writes about it in his blog.” The teacher even went further by visiting my Facebook profile down to my blog site. “I wish most of the parents should practice the same values as you did as parents to your son.” remarked the teacher. “I hope he continues to write in his blog”, she further added.

I personally went through with his test results and did a sign off for the first time. He got only a mistake and I asked him about his reason for his answer. The statement was “I return books from the library on due date.” He drew a sad face and told me that it was possible to return before the due date. I asked him if he did ever borrow a book from a library and told me he never had an experience. In my opinion he was partially right. In my experience, I returned most of the books in the library before the due date.

It gave me a sense of joy and fulfillment whenever I hear this kind of story. I had been away from my family for almost 5 years but I never missed the chance to communicate and be available as possible to my son and my wife. I am even more inspired to continue in my personal development journey. The more I grow as a person, the more benefits it brings to the people around me. This means I will continue to read daily to grow in my personal life. I will listen daily to broaden my perspective. I will think daily to apply what I learn. I will file a daily journal to preserve what I learn.

As I went through the other scores from his other subjects, they we’re not as closed as his score with the Values subject. I am sure he will be able to improve his other subjects with more practice. I actually went through with his mistakes in Mathematics, showed him the correct answers and the process of solving. I was surprised why his teacher never gave them the correct answers considering there were only 5 students in the class.

As I reflect and as I try to recall when I was at his age, I was never close to being at his level of his awareness. I had a different environment, my parents was not as passionate in the personal development. Nevertheless, I had no regrets and I am more thankful for the choices that I made and for the person that I become. I am also thankful for the values that my son had and also for the person he will become. I am also grateful to my wife for being so patient nurturing our son with love and affection in his studies.

One last advice that I want to share with you my co-parents, never miss a day to say “I Love You” to your loved ones. I would like to share also our Family Values that are worth fighting for.

Here are some of his scores from his Values Education subject.

Values-Education-Score-Justin-Daniel

Filed under Family, personal development, Values · Tagged with Family, love, personal development, values

Family Values worth fighting for

Posted by jerome on January 24, 2012 · 2 Comments

Family Values worth fighting for – Lessons Learned

Last December 2011 has been a special moment for me not only did I spend quality time with my loved ones but it reinforced my values that I am willing to fight for. It gave me a chance to reconnect with my relatives from my father side – cousins with their families, nephews, uncle, and aunt. It was fun and unforgettable since it was the first time that we organized a formal event. After the successful event, our father had to gather us for family meeting and this turned out to be the exact opposite of the fun event that we experienced earlier. I can’t give you much specific details here for confidentiality. It gave me a deeper look about my beliefs and values that I am willing to fight for. It helped me understand why he was not present in the event. I love my father but I hate his excuses and blaming attitude. I am sure I will never be liked him. To be fair, he brought us (his 4 children) up just like a normal father will do to his children, worked hard to meet our basic needs – food, clothes, shelter and education. If I asked myself, was there an event in my life as a child that was worth to remember of a father and son bonding moments. As for my mother, well yes, there were lots of unforgettable moments. I tried to recall for quite a while when I was a child but I hardly remember of any cherished moment about my father. I have no intentions to demean my father, I am grateful for bringing me into this world with my mother.

This experience gave me a perspective about what I can become as a father to my son and a husband to my wife. Here are some values that I am willing to fight for;

1. Responsibility – this will be challenging but I will try my best to take 100% responsibility of my actions. I will try my best not to be in the finger pointing department. I will not make excuses nor blame other people for the mistakes or failures of my actions.

2. Forgiveness – Matthew 6:14-15 (NASB), For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. I believe our ego and pride will stop us from deepening our relationship with our fellow human being. This is tough and I must admit I have my ego too and I am still in the process of learning how to handle. Awareness is the key and being able to admit your mistakes will help you ease the pain. I’ve learned that “letting go and letting God” will help me get through the healing process. This is a very important value after our last family meeting and it gave me a different view based from my father's experience. He was unforgiving and I can't say much. I still hope and pray for his change of heart someday.

3. Trust – this sums up all the other values and if you don’t have trust, the other values don’t matter much. As Brian Tracy said,” Trust is the glue that holds all relationships together – including the leader and the led is trust, and trust is based on integrity.”

I must admit that these are not easy tasks but I am willing to learn the process of becoming the person I intended to be.

I am grateful to my father because he gave me a perspective about what I can become as a person. A choice of what I want to be and I don’t want to be. I am most grateful to my mother for influencing my faith in God and her undying love to her children.

Filed under Values · Tagged with family values, lessons learned