I Am Starting Tonight

I know It’s kind of a late kick off. I made a post about this major break out a week ago. Nothing came up. My 22nd birthday passed by and I haven’t started the process yet. So tonight, the fixing will begin. I have formulated a partial list of life guides. Tonight I shall review them thoroughly and make necessary adjustments. I will also start researching on the life principles that I will be using. I will gather essential articles from various life coaches and writers, study them carefully and create my own compilation of life principles. I shall work slowly and carefully, taking into consideration the quality of my output. This major break out will run for a week or two. Slowly but surely.

So there, for my first few steps, I shall settle on these activities. Tomorrow, I will make another set of steps. I know I can make it. i believe I can make it.

Major Break-Out: Starting a New Life

I am planning to have a major break-out. Within this break-out period, I will gather my efforts to cleanse and fix every single aspect of my life. I know it is impossible to work out your life on a single day but I believe that if I put all my efforts on this this thing, I will be able to pull off a successful start-over. This thing needs a lot of planning and focus.

In this post, I will list down some of the things that I need to put in mind to be able to successfully achieve my life-long goal.

First, I need to make a list of life guides. I would just like to emphasize that these are just guides. Not rules. Although I will do my best to completely follow these set of guides. I will do an extensive amount of research. I will study about different life principles and from those things, I will formulate the life guide. This guide will combine all the essential teachings and life principles that will be tailor-made for my needs and current situation.

Second, I will declutter my life. From the physical elements down to the intangibles. It is impossible to start from scratch but as much as as possible, it is better to start from a simple and uncluttered state. I will declutter my belongings and my mind.

Third, I am consistently working on my spiritual well-being. For three weeks, I haven’t missed a church worship and I plan to further increase my enthusiasm and further strengthen my faith. More prayers. Hopefully, when the right time comes, I get to build relationships with my churchmates and handle a church obligation that I will treasure.

Lastly, I just want to continue my slow life and single-tasking advocacy. I know it may not be applicable to all people but I am definitely sure that it is applicable to me. Another advocacy that I will start embracing is the reading advocacy. It implies the importance of reading. Because reading leads to growth.

Reading More Effectively

I would like to credit these fragments of thoughts to http://ananga.squarespace.com/ , Academic Skills Center and  eHow Education Editor:

* Read different materials at different speeds: Skim or speed-read less important items, and save critical or difficult works for when you are most alert and have time.
   

* Get curious about what you are reading. Ask yourself questions. Why are you reading this? What do you want to know/learn from these words?
   

* To help your eyes scan the text quickly and smoothly, run your index finger under the lines as you read. Using your finger to point the way keeps things moving and uses less mental energy than letting your eyes wander across the page without a guide.
   

* Try and sit in a comfortable but alert posture. Sometimes the brain can switch off when we look down to read. If your reading is situated at eye level, or slightly above eye level, you will feel more awake.
   

* Jot down quick notes, questions or thoughts that will make it easier to refer to the material later. Taking notes also makes for active reading and better retention of important points.
   

* Take note of the Reading Myths:
   1. Read every word.
   2. One reading is sufficient.
   3. Don’t skip passages.
   4. Machines improve speed.
   5. A faster rate means less comprehension.

* Where you read is a very important aspect of how you read. Be sure that you read in a place that is quiet, has good lighting and allows you to stay alert.

Keep Yourself Motivated

It is very difficult to keep one’s self motivated at all times. This is due to the fact that there are lots of distractions around you that prevent you from staying on track with what you are doing. Most people find it hard to attain self-motivation. We should be aware that motivating one’s self requires a step by step process. The first step that you have to keep in mind is to handle those distractions. Then, it is also important that you make changes in things that need to be changed. As you go along the process of obtaining self-motivation, be aware that you will surely encounter down times where in you will really feel so lazy and uninspired, thus draining your inner drive. The best thing to do is to determine the source or cause of your “downage” and eliminate it or perhaps create a counter move that will bring you back on track. Once you have achieved self-motivation, you will be able to face your challenges much better. Your productivity level will rise and your goals will be fulfilled.

Social Peace, Health and Happiness

• Be very calm and peaceful.
• Love. Stay happy. Smile.
• Remove negative energy and fill up your body with positive vibes.
• Control your temper always. Anger will never lead to positive things.
• Don’t get into fights. When a fight will seem to occur, pause, think and pray.
• When someone shouts at you. Don’t shout back. Keep your composure.
• Be humble always.
• When in a verbal debate, stress your points clearly and don’t disrespect other’s thoughts.
• Avoid using offensive words.
• Don’t hesitate to say I’m sorry.
• When there are problems, always talk things out. Figure out the problem, and come up with a resolution.
  

How to Deal with Jealousy

The following fragments of thought were captured from Gyan Rajhans of bhajanawali.com: 

Jealousy keeps us under a sense of discouraging frustration and disappointment. It makes us gloomy. It is such a depressing feeling that we cannot tell about it to even our best friends nor can we contain it within ourselves. Consequently, it leaves us with an inconvenience of a peculiar misery and if allowed to grow unchecked beyond a limit, it works like a slow poison to our healthy nature. 

• Stop comparing yourself with others.  Comparisons are always harmful. If they are in your favor, they bring false pride in you; if against you, they depress you. Pride can make you overconfident and eventually can be the cause of your downfall. Conversely, with jealousy you lose self-reliance, seek unjust methods of putting down your friend, colleague or relative, and ultimately end up in frustration. So to bring jealousy under your control, avoid comparing yourself with others as much as possible. Think that you are unique because that is how God wanted you to be. Pursue in all seriousness your own ideal, whatever it is. Do not waste your precious time in idle and miserable envy.
• Have patience and wait. No one is lucky or unlucky every time in life. Work hard and wait for your lucky days when fortune will take you up and others will look up to you in envy. This may sound like a defensive strategy, and a doubtful method. But use this waiting period in driving jealousy out of your mind. Thus, you can turn a mere defensive strategy of biding your time into a positive blessing.
• Believe in, “May all people be happy”. You have said it numerous times in temples and other places of prayers. It is about time you practiced it. It is a golden principle that you must adopt if you wish to rise above petty jealousy. Think that you and others, being fragments of the Universal Soul, are the fingers of the same palm. Among whom no jealousy can exist in spite of differences in their lengths. If one of your children is more intelligent than you, you are not jealous of him or her. Are you? Why? Think, can’t you love others the same way. If your friend or your colleague or your relative is enjoying some advantages over you now, be happy for him or her. Surely your turn will also come. Full justice is meted out to all individual souls in the long run. This is the divine law. Have faith and adopt this spirit in action.
  

All You Need to Do is Start

The following fragments of thought were captured from Kathy Gates, Professional Life Coach:

• Take note of these familiar sayings: "You miss 100% of the shots you never take." and "You can’t win if you don’t play". Are you willing to agree to losing by not at least trying?
• Start. It doesn’t matter where you START. The only thing that matters is that you start. It doesn’t have to be a big start. Just start. Begin. You may even start very small. Put a 5 peso coin or a 1 dollar bill in your money jar as a savings plan then do this daily. Clean out your drawers and closet. Delegate tasks. If you are capable of taking larger steps, try putting 100 peso bills. It doesn’t matter what you do, just DO! Start moving forward. And continue moving forward.
• Schedule your priority.  Protect your time.  Return something you borrowed.  Choose to do what’s important to you. Get up off your knowledge and START.
• Keep trying. If one thing doesn’t work, try something else.  You WILL find what works for you. Just consistently try looking for the right things. Search for effective ways. Explore. And again, keep the pace. Don’t stop.
• Take one step right now towards your goal. Make a phone call, clean out a drawer or closet, schedule in some gym time, take some money and put it into an envelope in your underwear drawer. Imagine if you repeated that very same small step each day for the next 365 days. Where would you be 1 year from now?  Imagine if you don’t do anything, where will you be 1 year from now? 1 year from now is still going to come. Where will you be when it does?
• Seek it out. Decide you want something different and START looking for it. START trying new things. START eliminating the old, START bringing in the new. 
  

The Mindful Living

The following fragments of thought were captured from the Slow Movement website.

• Pay attention, on purpose, in a systematic way, in the present moment. That is, we need to be mindful. This is the answer. We can develop a wise relationship with our sensory experience through mindful meditation. Mindful living is a way of life that urges people to find calm by connecting with the present moment.
• Mindfulness is a Buddhist concept that can be best described as awareness. Awareness of everything, awareness of our senses, our body, our mind. It is essential to use awareness to learn to open up new dimensions of well-being and integrity, of wisdom and compassion and kindness in one’s self.
• "Mindfulness is a certain way of paying attention that is healing, that is restorative, that is reminding you of who you actually are so that you don’t wind up getting entrained into being a human doing rather than a human being." - Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Practicing mindfulness in our lives allows us to avoid being caught up in destructive emotions. Living mindfully gives us more satisfaction in our job, in our family and in our life in general. And because of this, we are then predisposed to greater emotional intelligence and balance that would eventually lead to greater happiness.

Clean and Simple

I have changed the layout of my blog. I am aiming for a clean and simple site that contains helpful content. This layout is perfect for the theme of Pragments. If you are wondering what Pragments is, well, it came from the word "fragments". That is the only reason. Why Pragments? I also don’t know.

I hope readers will appreciate the white layout. I did not make this layout though. I just selected it from the set of layouts offered by i.ph. Soon enough, I will be posting more ideas, reflections, guides and thoughts. Right now, I am really busy fixing my life. Once I have gathered all my pieces, I will consistently work on my posts.

Productivity Post

First and foremost, I am not a discipline guru. I am a very “slacky” individual and most of the time, lazy. The following set of guides is something that I really need to follow.

Some things to remember when working to become very productive:

• 100% focus. No distractions. When you are digging up on a book, coding a program, analyzing an equation, etc., don’t open that Internet browser! It will eat you up alive.

• Work slowly but surely. If you are in a hurry, the quality of your work will suffer. Think hard. Execute carefully.

• Make sure that you have planned your set of tasks. Create a task list. This will vary depending on what suits you. You may use a desktop program (AT-Notes, Rainlendar, Mozilla Sunbird, etc.), a small notebook, and Post-it’s on a note board. It’s up to you. Try to be creative, and at the same time, effective.

• Have a clean and clutter-free work area. If you are using a laptop, it is highly advised that you clean up your work table. Remove all the unnecessary things. As much as possible, the ONLY thing that’s on your table should be your laptop. That is, if your work doesn’t require other things.

• Make a Rewards System. For example, once you have finished working on an academic requirement, or perhaps you have worked on a specific article for an hour, have a break. Play Farm Frenzy or Sims 2 for 30 minutes. Avoid “over-rewarding” yourself by the way. Don’t play for 3 hours straight after working for just half an hour!

• Monitor your progress. Have a self-assessment scheme every once in a while. Take note of your weak points or vulnerabilities and work on them.

It’s Never Too Late for 2008

It has been almost a month since the birth of 2008. Honestly, my life has been a huge mess since the first day of this year. I have been messing around with work and studies. Our thesis is very slow in progress and my career in technical writing is in major jeopardy because I have been failing to meet deadlines.

I told myself, "What a nice start." So much for life-changing year. Oh well.

But a part of me, perhaps the purest side of me started to knock at the back of my head. It kept on saying, "It’s never too late." I tried to ponder on these words. And yeah, I realized that It is never too late. 2008 has just started. I still have around 340 days to fix my life. One day at a time, I will clean up the mess. One day at a time, I will put things in proper order. I will set my goals, priorities and concerns. I will increase my discipline, diligence and self-esteem.

2008 is a year full of great opportunities. For one, this is the year of my graduation. My life will change a lot after I graduate. This year, the different paths of life will be laid in front of me. This is the year of choosing. The year where I will decide which way to go to after college.

I always tell myself, "Just keep you hopes and dreams high." With this thought, accompanied by great faith in God, I will surely make the best out of my life. So it really is never too late. I suggest you build your life NOW. Pick up that shovel and start building your own road. God is with us all.

Simplicity = Peace

I have a new goal in life now. To make everything simple. I am starting with my room. I will hide all unnecessary things and I will keep my room a minimalist place. Just like the new face of my blog, a minimalist theme. I was inspired to pursue a life of simplicity by the Zen Habits blog. See it for yourself. It might also help you big time. Zen Habits has provided a lot of essential ideas and life tips that I was able to apply to my life. I shall continue with my simplicity campaign now. I will create more decent posts in the future. Haha. So bye for now.

Mastering Focus

Right now, I am in a lost path. As I mentioned in the about me side item of this blog, I am continuously searching for the right formula. The art of focus is a key ingredient of that formula. My mind wanders a lot. Especially in times when great amounts of focus are needed. As I have read in one e-book, in order to gain focus, your attention should be like a laser beam that can cut through objects. Not a scattered light. I must put all my efforts to achieve a very focused mind. I must concentrate on everything I do. That is the key towards success.

The Free-Flowing Litany

This was written last November 13, 2007 around 3:00 in the afternoon. I have withdrawn some of the major thoughts that were written on this post. This post is essentially for the sake of recording my past struggles against myself.

I have been making lists all my life. And I am so sick of it. I have been making promises, oaths and new starts all my life. I am sick of them too. What will I do to myself? I feel so pathetic. I am so sick of losing grip. I am so sick of breaking promises, sick of asking for another chance, another shot to become a new person,. Schedules, time charts, priority lists. They "disgust" me. Whatever term it is, but these stupid activities really "disgust" me. Quote and quote. I have no direction. No specific path. I am lost in the wilderness. Help me. What will I do? Is this really me? Do I have to accept the fact that this is me? If not, what else can I do? Do I have to make another stupid start? And break it again? It is becoming a cycle. I am not perfect. But why do I keep searching for that thing? Is perfect an existing entity, jus hiding in the shadows? Tell me what else can i do. I am running out of options. Are there existing options anyway? I guess none. Maybe yes. Probably. But what if I over-utilized the option and it turned out to provide some negative effect on me? No one can tell. That’s why there is this thing called risk. People do risk a lot of things. Some even risk their lives. Me? I am risking my sanity. With every rule I write down, with every single list of "to-follows" that I make, I am putting my sanity at risk. So what now? I have made several quick decisions while writing this down. I have decided to post this on my blog. [My personal blog filled with advertisements and sponsored links]. I have decided that there will be no more personal lists. o more lock-yourself-in-this-freakin’-set-of-rules. No more Codes of Life to strictly fllow. I’m going to do what I want to do. of course those things that I want to do have reasons. I am doing thse for God. I’m doing these for my loved ones, and I am doing these for myself. The only list that I will make are those specific duties that I need to fulfill. I will face life with no boundaries. I will spread my arms and fly until I reach my dreams. God is with me. He is my sole partner in this lifelong journey that I am taking. I struggled for a long time. But now I am back on track. I have awaken. And I am going to face life with all these qualities embracing me: discipline, diligence, will and determination, physical and mental endurance, and of course, the spiritual strength.

So much for all of these. So much for the over-bearing litany. I have opened my eyes. This is my last awakening. Come with me and let’s face life.

So there. I have finished typing my litany. This short composition is inspiring. But I think I really need to put up a set of guides. Life guides that will help me become a more rounded, well-disciplined individual. The only thing that is stopping me is the diminishing interest. I must not let that happen again. Not now.

The New Face of Pragments

My blog, Pragments has been around for almost 5 months but I removed every single nonsensical content of it. All my recent posts that deal with crazy stuff and extremely sarcastic views were put to the trash.  So, what will happen to this blog? Well, as you can see, it has a new look, new feel, new aura, new everything. I have transformed the funny Pragments blog into a sentiment carrier. Yes. I am serious about it. All my, oh well, still nonsensical rants and thoughts will be placed in this blue site. Thanks i.ph for providing a very comfortable writing place. Hehe.

So there, I have  RE-introduced my blog. I am not really looking for avid readers, instead I am looking for inspiring life advice, moral support and encouraging words. Hehe. But don’t get me wrong, I am actually happy with my life right now. Although certain problems and struggles do occur at times.