Did you ever watch your colleagues at work about how they start their day? People watching has always been an entertainment for me (..mind you, it’s a great form of amusement especially when coworkers play pretend early in the morning..) and I get a good kick for the laughs that they give me.

I remember this colleague of mine who’s very quirky and gets to be so OC (Organized Chaos, not Obsessive Complusive) in the early stages of the morning. you’d find him rushing sometimes at the start of the day setting up his laptop in his desk, and in a minute he’ll be going through all the files in his desk and as if he found the file that he needed, he’ll leave them where he picked them up and then go to the pantry to get his coffee… When he goes back to his chair, he’ll pick-up the newspaper and starts reading the “entertainment” section. After which, he’d open his internet explorer and browses through his Friendster account, hotmail, yahoo mail…and then opens up his MS Outlook, browsing through his emails… and then finally gets his planner and then writes down his To Do List… and by the time he starts his first task for the day, its almost Lunch Break… And I think to myself “WOW!” What a way to be Organized and Productive!! NOT!! (I’m sure you’d think I wasn’t productive as well coz I just watched the whole morning.. well that was part of my plan for the day… I planned to have fun …)

But you see it is such a waste of time, not only for the person doing it but you are robbing the company of time and production as well! (I’m a Manager, I’m concerned about the company, Not!!! Well I’m concerned about the figures and the pressure to deliver them on time.. that’s for the company too…)

So this guy is supposedly a support for our team and clearly he supports me on getting my laughs everyday. But then again, seriously speaking, the goals of the company will not be met with this kind of time management. Tendencies will be the deliverables will not be given on time. I’m sure you’ve witnessed a lot of people in your work area who pretend that they are busy to seem that they are working hard. But looking at it objectively they didn’t do squat.

What I normally do when a day comes is that, I visualize my TO Dos the night before. What clothes to wear for the next day, what tasks to accomplish and achieve for the next day. What would be very effective is before you close your eyes and doze off to sleep is to write down your To Do List and rank them in terms of priorities; targeting the most difficult task first thing in the morning so that everything else will be peanuts for you for the rest of the day.

And as you do this, you will notice that your day becomes smooth and easy. We’d be more productive and efficient that it gives us more fulfillment and happiness for the day.

But don’t get me wrong I PRETEND as well, usually nearing the end of the day where I flip through my files pretending to read them, but actually just having fun putting them from one place to another and just return them to where they previously are. Or pretend to call for a meeting but just gossiping and talking about each other’s life. You see I have the luxury to do this because my major tasks for the day have been accomplished already…

So think in advance… gather your thoughts, organize your actions in your head for the next day and as you wake up and prepare for the day, you are already programmed to accomplish what you want …

HAPPINESS

Ahh… that ecstatic feeling!!!Such wonderful sensation that makes you feel all warm inside and having all the love flow inside your system, truly magnificent and builds an assurance that everything is working great in your life…

That’s exactly how I feel right now, its so much different writing about it and trying to put into words when all you want to write about can be put into a simple emoticon like this J !!!

I am one who is always in pursuit of understanding LIFE, what makes us who we are, what makes us tick, what brings us joy, what created our personalities, where did our values come from, what’s the essence of Catholicism, Buddhism, Kabbala, Taoism, Humanism, and etcetera, etcetera… and the more basics of all things, “How do we sustain HAPPINESS?”

I think everyone is in pursuit of this state.I know it can be difficult at times but everything we do in life is all about feeling this way.I’ve tried to simplify my goals in life, and it all boils down to being HAPPY!

The mind boggling and surprising of all is that when I am in this state, everything that I want in life is happening in fast pace.All the things that I visualized and imagined that would happen to me perfectly did just that, It happened.

I’m gonna try to tell you stories that has been happening and that has transpired in my life.I’ll be speaking of a lot of clichés right now but mind you the wisdom that can be drawn from it and once practiced can be very valuable in our everyday struggle…

1^st cliché:“HAPPINESS IS A CHOICE!”

Society made us feel we belong, but sometimes it also discriminates us because they try to project that we are never going to be happy unless we’ll have what they have.Like a car, a house, a six digit salary, a fulfilling career, and what I have been always asked lately, “a romantic relationship.”I do believe that these things can give us glee, but why should we be unhappy when we don’t have those things?

I just recently realized that I have a lot of things to be happy about.And what made me aware of these is because of a very simple practice.It’s all about “GRATITUDE!”Hah! How cliché is that!But it did work for me, I woke up one day and said thank you.I thought of things and just felt grateful and said thanks.It boosts my mood to a jolly state and just made my day…I never thought that a sincere THANK YOU could maneuver my day into sheer delight…

And I guess its just common sense.Should we choose to be miserable or happy?I hope you choose the latter, coz what good will it bring you if you chose otherwise di ba?Unless you are happy being miserable… then again that’s a different story…

2^nd cliché:“HAPPINESS IS IN THE DOING!”

A friend of mine wrote in a very small post-it and pasted it in my notebook, and read just that.Let’s hide her name by an alias of Ms. Kay Calpo.. haha… peace!Could it be cheesier than that!?!?Yeah let the cringe begin!

But philosophizing it could give you again, wisdom.I’d like to believe that we do things because it gives us happiness, but of course there are things that we do that we feel we don’t have a choice but to do it. And unfortunately we think that it is robbing us of our happiness.

Again it is a matter of common sense.Why would we do something that we know will not give us joy?Isn’t that being dishonest with ourselves?Who are we trying to please?Definitely not yourself…

Crazy right? But if we focus on the end result, and look back why we feel we sacrificed a lot and did what we did.There is a compelling reason.The root why we do things, looking at it deeply, we did it because the end result would give us happiness.

3^rd cliché:“HAPPINESS BELONGS TO THE SELF-SUFFICIENT!”

WOW PARE, DUDE BIGAT!!! That came from my good old friend ARISTOTLE, pasensya na kayo adik talaga sya…

But it makes sense right?We can only be grateful for the people who bring us happiness but if we build expectations from them, that could only give us a broken heart and worst is we begin to destroy that person and strip them of their own happiness.One piece of advice, don’t depend your happiness from another person because eventually that person will go away or die, and tell me where will that lead you?

A person is never beyond our control.Keep trying that and I could only interpret you as, SELFISH! pakshet…

I’ll end my clichés with those, coz all the hairs in my body and what is left in my head are all standing up and the goose bumps are starting to itch.. but let me quote my KUMPARES because they are the cringe masters and they make you puke like hell, but they’ve always left a smile in my face… here they are:

Claude Monet:

The richness I achieve comes from Nature, the source of my inspiration.

Buddha:

Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others.

Carl Jung:

There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year’s course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word ‘happy’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

Ecclesiastes:

For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace.

Felix Adler:

The truth which has made us free will in the end make us glad also.

Franklin D. Roosevelt:

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

George Burns:

Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.

HH the Dalai Lama:

When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.

Henry David Thoreau:

That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest.

John D. Rockefeller:

I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure.

Kalidasa:

Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the
Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!

Mark Twain:

Whoever is happy will make others happy, too.

Mohandas K. Gandhi:

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Ralph Waldo Emerson:

To fill the hour — that is happiness.

Sophocles:

Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.

Thomas Jefferson:

But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life; and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine.