How to Get Laser-Focused – 3 effective ways to achieve your goal

I must say that the ability to stay focused is a great force in what you want to achieve in life. If you can master this skill you are on your way to success. The best definition that I’ve seen about focus is the concentration of attention or energy on something. Another good one is the maximum clarity or distinctness of an image rendered by an optical system. Keywords here are concentration, attention and, clarity.

But how can you get focus in this chaotic world that we live in? In my work as a mechanical cad engineer in a marine engineering industry, it has been a stressful environment. Noise generated from colleagues (even boss) can create distraction from the work you want to accomplish. Life in the MRT can be stressful too specially jostling for a position on your way to the office and way back home.

So here are the top three keys on how to master your focus and achieve the activities that you have set;

1. Write it Down– (Begin with the end in mind.) You must be able to have a clear picture about what you want to accomplish. The best way is to write down your goals. I know lots of ideas have been written about this topic. This may sound easy but in reality it will take some time and a good practice of self-discipline. I still have challenges about this but one thing for sure that this worked out great for me. I’m still in the process of mastering this skill. I am still very much working on a 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. job though it has been a culture of practice to spend more extra time at work. I’m telling you this since I’m practicing this skill mostly outside of my work. Even as I write this article, I am distracted by lots of other things like Facebook, (this is very addictive as tons of information are shared from each of your friends), email, twitter, digsby, IM, YM, and other social media platforms. The best way is to shut off every single form of tools that will not help you in accomplishing your current activity. Never multi task as this can hamper what you want to accomplish. I must admit that this had been a struggle for me but I am doing my very best to overcome this challenges.
2. Make it clear and compelling – (If you can’t then you must.) There is a need to create a compelling reason why you need to do the task. If you don’t do this, imagine what will happen to your dreams or your goal. Say, you want to build a school for the children, what will happen if you failed on this dream. Imagine the thousands of children that will be deprived of that education, there’s a possibility for them to do illegal ways of making ends meet. If you dream on spending more quality time with the family, imagine the pain of not being able to spend with your children the growing years of fun, play and education. If you will not do it then you will never be. Make it a habit to do it now. One of my worst enemies is procrastination or locally called as mañana habit (mamaya na – in Tagalog), means tomorrow or indefinite time in the future. A bad habit that most of the Filipinos have inherited from our Spanish conquistadores. Here’s a good advice from the famous Michael Jordan, “Just Do It”. No wonder, he is considered as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
3. Persistence – (Money grows on the tree of persistence.) This is an act of continuing or a repeating behavior. It is almost synonymous with commitment and perseverance. Repetition is the mother of skill.  I’ve heard this from Tony Robbins a number of times even during his UPW seminar here in Singapore. This goes hand in hand with focus since you got to have persistence before you advance to another level of activity that is in alignment with what you want in life. Never give up on what you want to achieve whatever it takes. As long as you do it in an ethical way. Keep on practicing the skill; master it until you can consider yourself as a world-class player in your own right. Your ability to visualize yourself of achieving your dreams or goals is a key in your dogged pursuit and practicing your skills in a consistent basis.

Frankly speaking, I’ll tell you that this is not an easy task as I’ve told you that I still face this challenge even when I was writing this article. It has been always a battle for me and I will always fight it until it becomes a habit.

Here’s another tip that might help you. As I was writing this article, I am listening to a classical music. I think it helped me in my concentration and attention to this activity. Your environment plays an important role too so create any possible ways of convenience for you as you do your task.

It’s good to post some affirmations on your wall, or post it note. I made this habit of posting some form of powerful quotes or declarations even on my Facebook or twitter to motivate myself. It is a good form of autosuggestion. It’s a great feeling for me and even more when other friends like it too.

Here are some personal selection about focus affirmations and quotes from successful personalities.

The Holy Scripture says “Let your eyes look straight ahead. Keep looking right in front of you. Make level paths for your feet to walk on. Only go on ways that are firm. Don’t turn to the right or left. Keep your feet from the path of evil.” Proverbs 4:25-27 (New International Reader’s Version)

“What you focus on consistently, you tend to manifest in your life” -Tony Robbins

“Where attention goes, energy flows and results show” – T Harv Eker

“Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives”. – Tony Robbins

“My main focus is on my game.” – Tiger Woods

“The first rule of focus is this: “Wherever you are, be there.” – Unknown

“It’s not what’s happening to you now or what has happened in your past that determines who you become. Rather, it’s your decisions about what to focus on, what things mean to you, and what you’re going to do about them that will determine your ultimate destiny.” – Anthony Robbins

Post from: Jerome Castañeda

How to Get Laser-Focused–3 effective ways to achieve your goal

Yesterday, I had an awesome experience with my brothers in CFC Servants for Family and Life (SvFL).  This took place during our household meeting at Brother Franco Arollado’s place in Pasir Ris. CFC SvFL is one of the family ministries of Couples for Christ Foundation for Family and Life.  It is a vibrant community of men comprised of: bachelors (single men  40 years old and above); married men who are living apart from their wives and/or children because of work situations (ex. OFWs)  or whose wives are not interested in joining the CFC FFL community; widowers; and separated.In our case, our current membership is comprised of the second category, i.e. married men who are living apart from our family because of our work situation.  Call us “expatriates”, a distinct class of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

In CFC FFL, a household meeting has three basic elements:

(1)      Alive and vibrant worship (singing songs of praise and worship, sharing of inspirational words, prayer of thanksgiving and prayer of supplication).

(2)      A participative discussion / sharing.  The discussion topic could be a gospel reading.  The sharing is experiential and as such is life-giving.

(3) Fellowship – we are nourished not only in spirit but also from the food prepared by the household host. Bon appetit!

I believed that getting involved with this community is one of the best things that happened to me here while I am away from my family. Spiritual nourishment and development are part of  the essential keys to overcome homesickness. It is very tough and challenging when you are away from your loved ones.

Another very vital key to personal growth formation for me is openness. I felt the sense of connectedness when communicating with my fellow brothers (even sisters too to some occasions). There are no inhibitions most especially when we share our testimonies about life’s experience. This is so crucial as we learn how to deal with life from each one’s personal struggles and overcoming life’s challenges. I’ve heard about life threatening experiences, financial struggles, problems coping with children, or just mere overcoming of fear. There were so many kinds of close to tragic stories but there is only one denominator that every one of us had experienced during those trying times, and that is holding on to our commitment to trusting in God.

Can you see from our faces how happy we are?

from lower left:Claus Arriola, Jay Nodalo, Franco Arollado, Aldwin Santos top left: Oliver San Juan, Jerome Castaneda, Carlos Cammayo, Arnel Riovaldez and Hector Millet Coria

Please also check out related topic on Sharing God’s Love to Us!

Post from: Jerome Castañeda

CFC-SvFL Servants for Family and Life-What is more powerful than Trusting God?

Level 5 Hierarchy

I can’t help myself to get excited and talk about this great book by Jim Collins Good to Great (Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t). This is a follow up from my previous post on Hedgehog Concept. First, let me define what does a Level 5 Leader is. It refers to a five-level hierarchy of executive capabilities, with Level 5 at the top. Level 5 leaders embody a paradoxical mix of genuine personal humility and professional will. (A simple formula is Humility + Will = Level 5). They operated first and foremost with genuine humility – defined by a burning passionate obsessive ambition for the cause, for the work, for the company, not themselves. They had this utterly stoic will to make good on that ambition. They channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. A good example of a Level 5 Leader is United States President Abraham Lincoln who never let his ego get in away of his primary ambition for the larger cause of an enduring country.

Here are some few characteristics of a level 5 leader.

Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce sustained results. They are resolved to do whatever it takes to make the company great, no matter how big or hard decisions.

Level 5 leaders look out the window to attribute success to factors other than themselves. When things go poorly, however, they look in the mirror and blame themselves, taking full responsibility. The comparison CEOs often did just the opposite – they looked in the mirror to take credit for success, but out the window to assign blame for disappointing results.

Can you learn to become a level 5 leader in your own field of work? Jim Collins hypothesis is that there are two categories of people: those who do not have the seed of Level 5 and those who do. The first category consists of people who could never in a million years bring themselves to subjugate their egoistic needs to the greater ambition of building something larger and more lasting than themselves. For these people, work will always be first and foremost about what they get – fame, fortune, adulation, power, whatever – not what they build, create, and contribute.

The second category of people consists of those who have the potential to evolve to Level 5; the capability resides within them, perhaps buried or ignored, but nonetheless. And under right circumstance – self reflection, conscious personal development, a mentor, a great teacher, loving parents, a significant life experience, a Level 5 boss, or any number of other factors – they begin to develop. Some of the level 5 CEOs like Darwin Smith of Kimberly Clark fully blossomed after his battle with cancer. Gillette’s Colman M. Mockler converted to evangelical Christianity while getting his MBA at Harvard, and later, according to the book Cutting Edge became the prime mover in a group of Boston business executives who met frequently over breakfast to discuss the carryover of religious values at corporate life.

There is a potential of Level 5 leaders that exist all around us, if we know what to look for, and that many people have the potential to evolve into Level 5. So how can one grow in level 5 direction? There are no specific steps to become one but an understanding about what you can become with your decisions is a great start. Imagine yourself walking in a path and a decision is needed. In the right hand path if you make that decision is about yourself, your ego, what you will get and on the left path is different decision that reflects more ambition for the cause, or the work. In some point you are confronted with that actual concrete decision and you are pulled to the right but you step to the left. This might be the start of what you can be in this process.

I suggest that you read the book so that you will understand what I am trying to share. Honestly, I wrote the key concepts about level 5 here so that I can just go back here and understand the process and besides I have to return the book to the library (haha! )

Please check out Jim Collins audio about can you be a level 5 leader?

Post from: Jerome Castañeda

Level 5 Leadership Characteristics–an understanding of what you can be

In the famous essay by Isaiah Berlin “The Hedgehog and the Fox” the world is divided into two types. The fox knows many things. The fox is a very cunning creature, able to devise a myriad of complex strategies to sneak attack upon hedgehog. The hedgehog knows one big thing. That is rolling up into a perfect little ball thus becoming a sphere of sharp spikes, pointing outward in all directions. The hedgehog always wins despite the different tactics the fox used.

Just recently, I managed to read the book and also listened to the audio book  Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t by Jim Collins. This is a highly must read book even though it was about business companies but I found that individuals can learn especially the Hedgehog Concept of Chapter 5. I actually kept on listening the audio book a lot of times, it was like having Jim Collins as your coach by your side. That was priceless.

The Hedgehog Concept is a simple, crystalline concept that flows from the deep understanding about the intersection of the following circles:

1. What you can be the best in the world at (and, equally important what you cannot be the best in the world at). This basic understanding goes far beyond core competence. A core competency does not guarantee that you can be best in the world at it. Conversely, what you can be the best at might not even be something in which you are currently engaged.
2. What drives your economic engine? Most of the good-to-great companies discovered a single driving denominator as profit per x, which had the greatest impact on their economics. For social sector, instead of economic, resource engine – which is broken into three parts as time, money, and brand.
3. What you are deeply passionate about. The good-to-great companies focused on those activities that ignited their passion. The idea here is not to stimulate passion but to discover what makes you passionate.

To understand more simply about the 3 questions so that we can apply to our personal understanding, here are some guiding statements. First, you are doing work for which you have a genetic or God-given talent, and perhaps you could become one of the best in the world in applying that talent. (“I feel that I was just born to do this?”) Second, you are well paid for what you do. (“I get paid to do this? Am I dreaming?”) Third, you are doing work you are passionate about and absolutely love to do, enjoying the actual process for its own sake.(“I look forward to getting up and throwing myself into my daily work, and I really believe in what I’m doing.”)

A Hedgehog Concept is not a goal to be the best, a strategy to be the best, an intention to be the best, a plan to be the best. It is simply an understanding of what you can be the best at. This distinction is very crucial.

Here are some exercises that you can do to be able to find and understand your hedgehog concept. Get 3 sheets of paper. On the first sheet of paper, do an analysis of yourself. What I am truly passionate about? What do I love to do? List down as many things that you love to do even when you are a child. Start with, I love to… On the second sheet of paper, what am I genetically encoded for? I feel like I was kind of made to do this. What fits your capabilities? What fits your psychology? What fits me why I was put here on this earth to do? On third sheet of paper, what are all the various things that you can think of that will allow you to have an economic engine? What are the things that you can do that make you a living if you’re allowed to do that?

Give those sheets of papers to your trusted friends and ask them for the thoughts where do you see the intersection across these 3 sheets? What kind of direction do you think that this might help me see as the right direction for me?

Please play this audio advise by Jim Collins on How to Find Your Personal Hedgehog Concept?

Post from: Jerome Castañeda

Hedgehog Concept-an understanding what you can be best at

It’s been more than 3 years since I came here. Being a father working and leaving away from the family is tough emotionally. Last year was great since I was able to spend it with them and at the same time celebrate my son, Justin Daniel’s 7^th birthday last June 18. Oh, I want to greet my son a very happy birthday. I’m very proud of what you are and what you will become in the future. I love you Jed. I’m hoping and praying that I can bring them along here soon in Singapore. It’s been more than 2 years since my wife; Helen submitted her birth certificate to Manila City Hall for correction of her misspelled name as Hellen instead of just single L. We’ve been persistent to the point of not giving in to any form of extortion. I hope and pray that this culture of corruption will be minimized significantly, if not eradicated by the new administration of Philippines President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

Since I can’t celebrate both Father’s Day and my son’s 8^th Birthday, I have to find some creative ways to celebrate. Bold and crazy as it may seem I decided to sing a special song from one of my favorite performers, “The King” Elvis Presley with the song Can’t Help Falling in Love. I shared this video just for my circle of friends in Facebook. Now, I’m sharing here in my blog.  I remember singing this song way back in college during my stay at University of the Philippines Narra Residence Hall. Bold and crazy at that time, yes we are, we used to serenade (in our term “harana”) the ladies’ dormitories at Kamia and Sampaguita Residence Hall.

So to all fellow fathers (even mothers) who are away from home, never give up. There are countless of ways to keep you moving. It is ok once in a while to spend most of your time at work, but no too much, as stress can be fatal in your health in the long term. There are great things that you can’t find within the four corners of your office. Depending on your preference, you can join your school’s alumni organization, a sports club, or photography enthusiasts, or a religious or spiritual community, personal development group, and thousands of groups. In my part, I would like to thank my circle of friends from (CFC-SvFL) Servants for Family and Life (also CFC FFLers lah), from my Personal Excellence and Growth Meetup group, from internet marketing circle of Fabian Lim’s friends, fellow UPAAS (University of the Philippines Alumni Association Singapore), fellow PEN friends (Pinoy Entrepreneurs Night), and of course my fellow social media friends in Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Linkedin.

Post from: Jerome Castañeda

Happy Father’s Day–a special song to you Dad!

Lately, I’ve been exposed to financial education about how we can better manage our financial resources. First, I got the chance to learn from my Christian community, CFC-FFL Singapore on one our Covenant Recollection on Financial Stewardship with Carlos Cammayo as the speaker. I want to start sharing these very powerful passage from the bible (mine is New International Version) Luke 21: 1-4 The Widow’s Offering (more popularly known as The Story of Widow’s Mite) 1 As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts in the temple treasury. 2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. (Greek two lepta) 3 “I tell you the truth,” he said,” this poor widow has put in more that all the others. 4 All these people give their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”  The lesson is about the enduring value of faith. Her modest gift of two mites represented all that she had compared to the pretentious contributions of the wealthy. I must admit that for me this is a hard act to follow or perhaps my faith is that small compared to her.

There are 3 basic ways we can make use of our finances in the Lord:

1. Almsgiving – giving money or goods to the needy and poor both in and out of one’s community. Such is an outright grant.  Proverbs 19:17 – He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done.

2. Resource sharing – means sharing our material resources to meet the specific needs of our brothers and sisters. An example given was a brother who voluntarily share his car for fetching a guest or a couple who make use of their home for teaching and gathering purposes.

3. Tithing -giving ten percent (10%) of an individual’s income after taxes from whatever legal source, i.e. wages, rents, bonus, commissions, business, retirement pay, etc.

• It is a priority over everything else we need to spend on.
• It is given to the immediate body of Christ of which one is a part, and where one draws support for one’s Christian life. For us, this is our community (CFC FFL) and our parish.

a) Scriptural basis: Malachi 3:7-10 ⁷ Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.  ”But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ ⁸ “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. ”But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ ”In tithes and offerings. ⁹ You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”

So we are robbing God if we do not tithe yet everything is own by God. We owe God whatever we presently have and what we will have in the future. Psalms 24:1 says¹ the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.

b.)  Tithing is an essential part of our life as a growing Christian.  How we respond to tithing can be a measure of our spiritual growth, i.e. a measure of our conversion to being self-less.  It conditions our heart and mind to be generous, to think in the mindset of abundance and not on the scarcity mentality. Be a happy giver or a go-giver.

c.) The proper perspective – tithing is God’s way of giving us the privilege of being His co-workers. We give tithe to support God’s work to develop/train leaders, the resource to create a new heaven for new disciples. Focus not so much on the 10% we give, but on the 90% we keep for ourselves.

Lastly, within those times I had an opportunity to connect with another set of friends to play Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow 101 board game. The first objective is to be able to get out of the rat race by exceeding your total expenses with your passive income (cashflow you get from your investments in real estate, stocks/dividends, and other business).  There was a time where I landed on the charity spot whereby you have an option to give 10% of your total income in exchange for the use of 2 dices instead of one. You will have this option on each of your next 3 turns. I managed to roll a higher total of number and this prompted me to get 2 pay checks in just a single turn. So my point is that even with just a game, the rewards of giving in this case 10% charity enabled me to get my pay check two times. I was actually the first one to get out of the rat race because of the other strategies that I had done with my investments.

For our reflection, 1. Do you understand that everything belongs to God and you are just a steward? 2. How do you see yourself in terms of the measures of spiritual growth?

Post from: Jerome Castañeda

Financial Education Planning – Our Way or God’s Way?

It has been a while since my last article and many things had happened. So I’m back here what I’ve learned to love doing and that is writing. It has been also more than a year since I started this site after attending an Internet Marketing Boot camp by Fabian Lim. I actually started my personal development blog just after 2 months from the course since we did an exercise on creating a landing page.

Why create a blog in the first place? It was a great start for me to start on my journey about internet marketing and learn how to use wordpress at the same time. Now, why blog about personal development and not about internet marketing or make money online? During those times I was actually doing network marketing and I’ve immersed myself a lot about self improvement materials. So I made a commitment after learning it from Tony Robbins Unlimited Power about this word ‘CANI’ which means Constant And Never-ending Improvement. This inspired him to create an English version of Japanese term kaizen that means improvement or change for the better. The closer meaning is continuous improvement since I’ve worked with Japanese manufacturing company for several years. That’s how I came also about my never-ending personal development story. Oh by the way, I’ve ranked number 2 on google for the keywords – personal development story.

I believe that personal growth is the best decision that I made.  Here are some top 3 reasons why.

1. The person I become – tremendous changes have happened to me ever since I took this path. If you can ask my mother, before I think I have a very negative attitude among the 4 siblings even I was the eldest. Now, it’s the other way around, I have a positive mental attitude as the most dominant. I see my environment as a reflection of myself. I am more open and expanding my view to the world of unlimited possibilities.

2.  Attract and inspire – If I developed myself ten times more imagine how much I can affect my family and friends. Just recently, I gave lots of personal advice and some inspirations to my brother who was at his crossroad after failing an exam for 3 times. After sometime he was very thankful to me for introducing him to Jim Rohn and other inspiring references. A friend of mine was also inspired and started his own blog after reading some of my posts. I must say that the law of attraction really works. Here’s a great attraction, someone from Michael E. Gerber Company (He is the best selling author of the E-Myth books series just for your information) contacted me to do a joint venture in one of his projects. How cool was that?

3. Time Value – time is the most important and precious resource that we have. I have a television in my room but I seldom turn it on. I spend most of my time on reading books but more often listening to audio books from my iPod. It has been a habit every time I travelled on a bus or MRT (Mass Rapid Transit here in Singapore) to listen to my audio books, even in my workplace.  Also I love to spend my time in the public library every time I have run out of audio books to listen.

Post from: Jerome Castañeda

Personal Development Blog – Top 3 Reasons Why It Is The Best Decision?

goku super saiyan in dragon ball z breaking barriers

Do you have the power to believe in your goals and dreams?  You have the power to achieve anything.

Last Thursday April 22, 2010, I attended the monthly Personal Excellence and Growth Meetup.  It was fun and engaging experience as facilitated by the inspiring Patrick Yc Lim.  We were given this questions and made us write down.

1. What is Your Dream? an example is what lifestyle do you want to have/live when you retire? We were divided into groups and made us to share our dreams. When you share your dreams with another person it becomes a commitment. This will make you more accountable. The goals and dreams should be as specific as possible.

2. Why is your Goals and Dreams important to you? You need to ask this question, Why? The more it is emotional to you the more likely you will motivate yourself to achieve your goals.

3.What could stop you from achieving your goals? There were lots of reasons and sometimes can be considered as excuses such as your job, friends, money, limiting beliefs, procrastination, health (sickness), out of focus. If you noticed these are mostly about oneself. So the old age saying by Socrates,“Know Thyself” is something that we have to start with.  A great book reference is Thick Face, Black Heart by Chin-Ning Chu

We need to keep on asking deep questions. Say, when you say no money, what do you really mean no money?what are the ways of finding money? Is there a way to do it? Do I know someone who can support my ideas? Are there venture capitalists or angel investors that can help? There was a suggestion of about asking Google for help regarding the common questions.

4. What will happen if you did not achieve your dreams? The key is to associate with some sort of emotion such as pain say if you did not achieve your goal of creating the Personal Development School for the children, they will suffer the consequence of ignorance or poverty.

The Master-Servant principle -  the idea is the master determines the goals and dreams. The master orders the servant to do or carry out the activities.The servant also looks for other partners who can help him with his tasks.

Another Principle is the Big Yellow Circle – the idea is to close your eyes and imagine yourself achieving your dreams and goals when you step inside the circle. The color intensifies by changing the color to orange as you become emotional with what you feel using all your senses. In my case,  I imagine my self as a Dragon Ball Z character Goku turning into a Super Saiyan. If you don’t know what I am talking here take a look at his picture above. I used to watch this Japanese anime back then. I remember doing this kind of exercise that I attended at Unleash the Power Within Event.

Some words of wisdom that can help to motivate were;

“Success is Not What you Know – It is What You Do with What You Know”  The key here is your ability to take action.

“Failure is not because you lack ideas or knowledge, It is because you lack courage.”

Ask yourself this question, “Are you afraid of the known or the unknown?” You can make similar analogy in life as the level of your comfort zones. You have to embrace the challenges in life because it means that you are stepping out of your comfort zone. Be afraid of the known because it is where you are now, your comfort zone. Go into the unknown where the infinite possibilities lay waiting for you.

Jerome Castaneda sharing with PEG group what his dreams are

Personal Excellence and Growth - Breaking Barriers Group

Post from: Jerome Castañeda

Achieving Your Goals and Dreams- How To Overcome Barriers?

Myth – I can’t be a leader if I’m not at the top or a title is needed like CEO, president, manager, supervisor, team leader. This is definitely a fallacy. Anyone can definitely become a leader without a title needed. The most important thing you need to do before you can lead other people is to lead yourself first. To become a great leader, one must first become a great person. To attract other people you need to be attractive first.

Personal development leadership is challenging yourself  to become someone more than mediocre. Here are some fundamental ideas that I can share with you to develop your personal leadership.

Continuous Learning – to quote the great Jim Rohn, “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” So make it a habit to read books or in my case listen to audio books. I make sure that I visit the library as often as I can or when I have finished the books that I listened. Read books that will inspire you, strengthen your character and get to know and model the life story of the greatest leaders of our world.

Positive Affirmations – another habit that you can practice (though it may look weird) is to get in front of the mirror and talk to yourself with positive statements. In my case, I say to myself “I’m the best; I like myself “over and over again. It is best if you reinforce the statement with intense emotions. Gratitude is the best affirmation you can give to yourself. Everyday I make it habit to thank God for the day he had given me like when I finished working.

Book Journal – this is a must have. This is your book of life. Write down your insights, feelings, dreams, and goals, ideas from a seminar, mission, or purpose.

Visualize – close your eyes and envision yourself achieving your goals or the person you want to be by playing at your very best. The mind works best with pictures of yourself in the future.

Goal Setting –  Goals make you move forward. It generates hope and positive energy. Definitely you need to write down your goals because it works.  Believe that you can achieve and exercise concentration and focus. Begin with the end in mind.

Exercise – you need to sweat it out. Doing something physical each day boosts brain function and fuels high energy levels. Everyday I walk a kilometer long from office to the MRT train station. I do also a 2-3 kilometer jog just along our home vicinity and some occasional aerobics at my room.

Nutrition – your performance depends on the food you eat. Be organic as much as possible, eat green in moderate amounts. Just like an automobile you need to feed it with premium oil and gasoline to maintain its peak performance. Take nutritional supplements as necessary.

Here’s an experience that I want to share with you during one of my son, Justin Daniel, swimming lessons when he was still 5 years young. At that time his coach was teaching older batches of teenagers on how to jump on a 10 ft diving platform. The coach took him a lot of time convincing or motivating the student to jump. This is part of their training to conquer their fears. His coach noticed my son where we are on the other side of the pool to come over the platform and to show how a very young kid can jump over the platform. Without hesitation, Justin Daniel climbed up and jump down the board. This scene inspired the student to finally dive down the pool. My point is anyone can become a personal leader. You just have to start to conquer yourself first before you can influence others.

Here’s how Justin Daniel dived down the 10 ft deep swimming pool.

Post from: Jerome Castañeda

Personal Development Leadership – a Leader Without a Title

Jerome Castaneda at Nuffnang, SMU

I just attended the Singapore’s First Bloggers’ Symposium at Singapore Management University, School of Accountancy, Level 2, Kong Si Auditorium. If it was not from my facebook friend, Richard Macalintal, I might not be able to attend this cool event.

The event started at 1:30pm with a welcome speech from Nuffnang then followed by a showcase of top 5 photographs for a Mini Photo Contest  with the theme about happiness. Geez, I wish I had some photos that I can share with you because my top choice was indeed a runaway winner. It was a cute little child holding and kissing a red balloon drenched over fountain of water. We had our little Tea Break at around 2:30 pm and at the same time voting for our favorite photo for the contest.

At 3:15, we went to our choice of individual workshops from the 5 top bloggers. I went to TechieLobang by Joe Teh with 3 of my new pinoy cyber friends. By the way, I frequently heard about the word “lobang” from most of my singaporean friends. So for non-locals like me, this Malay term means – a hole but more popularly known as an opportunity in a business sense or money making.  Anyway, I did not learn that from the workshop. Joe showed us more on the techniques of taking photo shots especially through an endorsed Canon Powershot S90. Some of its cool features were dual anti-noise system which can take images at low light by minimizing the noise; large aperture to allow more light to get breathtaking shots; a control ring to precisely control zooms, exposure, focus and balance. He highly recommended to use wordpress and showed us some cool free themes that we can use.

So the future (its been happening already) of blogging is about showing pictures from whatever situation or niche you are in. Videos of course are very much recommended.

For me, the best part of the symposium was connecting to newfound friends from the cyber world.

Nuffnagers took the center stage at Kong Si Auditorium

Joe Teh's TechieLobang Seminar

Post from: Jerome Castañeda

Nuffnang Singapore’s First Bloggers’ Symposium – Sponsored by Canon