What kind of a chooser am I? This is the day to serve his blood gas with Anthony Fungina. Every test in our life makes us better or better. Every problem comes to break us or make us.
The choice is ours, whether we become victim or victor. Anonymous. You know when I was much younger? Early teenage years, if I can't recall, right?
Whatever my dad chose, I chose to. When my parents decided to try what they called temporary separation, I went with my dad as I chose, as he chose to. Thank God they took it seriously, that were temporary, and they were reconciled. But I must admit, that choice I made, I did not understand.
Yet it was one I made that impacted lives, especially my parents, my mom in particular, for many, many, many years. What kind of a chooser are you? To a large degree, it depends on the seeds deep within you. From my change management, master of course, in NCAD, let me share the seeds of one's bias, and to a large degree, choices in life.
Seed starts with letter S. What is safety to you? How important is it to make choices for you based on how safe the situation would be for you? Some friends still shake their hands in disbelief.
That I traveled to places in Mindanao, again and again before the pandemic, to conduct leadership programs for young leaders and eventually for soldiers themselves, including the special forces, as the issue of physical safety, for me and my team, was brought up amidst the growing extremist forces in the areas where we chose to go to. We all understand how our experience is now apart from safety. So S is for safety. That is one of the seeds of our bias and our preferences.
The next one is e-experiences. We all understand how experiences have shaped our preferences over time. Mana ayonamaligao, or mokbariko, dahil, nasa panna, sabagibik. Come on guys, the words of Oprah Winfrey and I co-turn your wounds into wisdom.
And again, Ralph Waldo Emerson, all I have seen, teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen. Safety, experiences, se, e, let's go to expediency. That's another basis for our choices. You know what is more convenient, what's more practical, at least for us, what is easier, right, as a means to get something done.
Unfortunately, often the shortcut isn't always the appropriate way. Someone put it this way. And I quote, sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same. But for the sake of expediency, often without much thinking, we make the wrong choice.
Safety, experiences, expediency. Wait, can I just clarify something there? I am not saying that you do not make decisions that will make you more productive, right? Okay, something that will accomplish more for less.
I'm just saying that it should not be an unconscious instinctive decision, but one that has been thought of, right, and processed and assessed. Safety, experiences, expediency, distance, seeds, seed. D, what is closest to us, right? What is closest to our hearts, literally, or figuratively, emotionally.
We all know the bias, right, or the preference to eventually come home, and I quote, or to be closer to home. The national elections are upon us once again, here in the Philippines. And predictably, a significant number of voters are going for candidates who hail from, the same locality, right? The same province or even ethnicity.
Not just in elections, we witnessed this too in the recent Miss Universe Philippines beauty pageant as voters for candidates were influenced by province mates, right? You have this public component, right, to making choices. So, province mates are the candidates sharing a common geographical background. She's one of us, right?
Like us adding in. She has my vote. I mean, not a certainty, but still an influence to reckon with. Safety, experiences, expediency, and then distance, seed.
But it's seeds, right, so we have another S, which is a clear connection to the last determinant distance. It's similarity. Since this job is familiar to me then, I'll lean towards this as an option, right? Since this community has a lifestyle I can relate with, then I'm more comfortable choosing to settle in it.
Or since the person has a personality or character or disposition similar to my dad and mom, or my ex or my niece, then I feel that the person I should choose to marry. In a major sense are seeds of bias. They prime us, right, to choose options in line with these preferences. They, in a sense, set us up.
Now, let me clarify, there's nothing wrong, okay, with bias. Bias is not wrong, guys. But the key is to be aware of our biases, of our preferences, so that we can properly assess before we decide. Because initial preferences shouldn't be the only basis for the choices we make.
Otherwise, we never stretch ourselves. We don't get to experience paradigm shifts. We are stuck in our respective comfort zones. In a sense imprisoned by them.
As a professor in my master's course in psychodynamics warned us, preferences can be defenses. And it's tough to move forward when we spend so much time defending our preset boundaries and property lines. The power of choice of enlightened reasoning. It has been said, and I quote, we make our choices, then our choices make us.
And again, your life, I quote, is a result of the choices you make if you don't like your life. It is time to start making better choices, end quote. I will have to encourage all and remind myself, be aware and mindful of our seeds of bias and preferences. But best, our commitment to what we believe.
Again, I'm mindful and aware of my seeds of bias, but I should be committed to what I believe. James Clear, the biggest difference I've noticed, he said, between successful people and unsuccessful people, isn't intelligence or opportunity or resources. It's the belief that they can make their goals happen. We all deal with vulnerability, uncertainty and failure.
Some of us trust that if we move forward anyway, then we will figure it out. End quote. Come on, Matthew, 929 reinforces this. According to your preferences, no according to your faith.
Be it unto you. 2 Corinthians 5, 7, we walk by, biases, no, we walk by, faith. Not my sign. In my case, and I've shared this before, it's been helpful to choose on the basis of my faith-based wisdom.
W, the word of God. My lamp and my light. Letter I, my intuition, right? As I listen to the core of my being, which is my heart.
W-I-S, significant others of my life. Starting with my wife. W-I-S-D, divine intervention. I do put weight, okay?
I'll be honest. 2 signs and wonders too. Like at a time in my life, quite young, still in college when I felt I was superman, right? Who needed no one else and had no significant weaknesses?
And then a man introduced himself to me as Krypton. What? What a name. And think about this now.
I am Superman and Krypton introduced himself to me. Krypton, who's a doctor now, bless his heart. I believe in Dumaguete, was one of the first persons to introduce me to Jesus, who eventually became my lord and savior. Right?
So here I was a superman who encountered a man from Krypton. My weakness was revealed and my savior was introduced. W-I-S-D-O, opposition. Opposition specifically from those people I do not look up to.
Seriously, think about this. If your avowed enemy is against a forward plan of action that you have, I recommend go for that option. Because he's against your interests, right? And with Dum finally mentors and they add master, who you bow down to.
And I quote, I am the way, the truth, and the life, end quote. And I personally believe Jesus when he says that. Now you may have your own set of mentors and master, but hopefully who you look up to, right? And bow down to is a basis for the choices you make.
The amazing thing for me is that my god not only gives me direction, he also provides the power for execution. Who do you believe? That is a choice you will have to make yourself, if not yet. W-I-S-D-O-M, the wisdom to choose.
So what kind of a chooser am I? It depends on the seeds of your bias and preferences and hopefully the sources of your wisdom. Let me end with this quote. An anonymous one again.
Every morning you have two choices. Continue to sleep with your dreams or wake up and choose to chase your dreams. That choice is yours. That choice is yours.