My Personal Library June 29, 2009
Posted by Jayson N. in In Retrospect.Tags: Books, Dreams, Goals, Knowledge, Potential, Skills, Success, Wisdom
add a comment
There are articles I wrote, a couple of years ago, which are still with me. I’d like to publish it on NITROMOVES. I modified some stuff on this article. Feel free to send comments.
“My Personal Library”
Inch by inch, I’m building my personal library at home. It is my dream to have a vast collection of books to enrich my mind and to share the literature with others.
On weekends, and sometimes after office hours, I would visit a bookstore. I would browse good books and other reading materials to keep myself updated. I see to it that the books I will buy are in line with my major goals I’ve set for the current year and beyond.
Since many bookstores observe a business cycle in a given year, I would try to purchase items during a “Book Sale” or “Inventory Sale” where huge discounts are being offered. Bookstores normally schedule such events on a “lean month,” or off-peak season, or on their anniversary. If I really need the reading materials, I would buy them right after I’ve browsed them well. Else, I would include them on my list and, as I have mentioned earlier, purchase them at the proper time (Book Sale). I don’t mind waiting for some months since it’s not very urgent to have them.
I made sure that the books—especially my top favorites—I bought recently are wrapped with clear plastic sheet; this is to preserve them or to slow down, in some way, the “wear and tear” as the years pass by.
Now, let me bring you back to my personal library story.
Writers compile ideas, concepts, stories, theories, and skills, and compressed them into books. They have, I assume, revised the literature several times to further refine them and to capture the essentials. What the authors took hundreds of days to produce those literature will only give us a few weeks, if not a couple of days, to read and understand the contents. ISN’T THAT AMAZING? This wealth of good knowledge, stored in our personal library, will spur us to become better persons.
Let’s go into details.
By acquiring good knowledge, we are increasing our potential to reach our goals and dreams. You see, knowledge is a major ingredient to attain wisdom and skills. Knowledge, also, is a building block for success. Mix it with principle-based practice and other relevant stuff, we are most likely to increase our chances of succeeding. There are, of course, other internal and external factors to consider. However, as we move along, we will learn something new and make proper adjustments to achieve our goals and dreams.
In addition, knowledge cannot be taken away from you by force. It is at your disposal. Generally speaking, wherever you go, knowledge sticks with you.
Finally, knowledge is one of the few things that, no matter how many times you share it with others, remain in you—intact, secured and sharpened. It resides in your long-term memory, under normal conditions, as long as you continue to impart them on a regular basis. Thus, your knowledge on a particular subject becomes even sharper.
These are the reasons that drive me to build my personal library.
Ten Treasures (Part 2) June 27, 2009
Posted by Jayson N. in Quotes.Tags: Philip Yancey, Prayer, Charles Spurgeon, John Eldredge, John C. Maxwell, Martin Luther, Wesley Duewel, Stu Weber, Teddy Roosevelt, Change, Courage, Empowerment, Faith, Grace, Integrity, Mentoring, Steadfast Faith
add a comment
Here is part 2 of “Ten Treasures”. I had it on my mind to post it a month after.
Whenever I come across these statements and quotes, my focus sharpens and my convictions strengthen. Sometimes I would glance through their context and chapter once more to refresh my memory.
CHANGE
“To master change, your paradigm must shift
from what you will lose to what you will gain.”
Lance Witt, Purpose Driven Life Small Group, page 4.
“Everyone thinks of changing the world,
but no one thinks of changing himself.”
- Leo Tolstoy
John C. Maxwell, Thinking For a Change, page 24.
EMPOWERMENT
“The act of giving your power to another,
so they can serve effectively.”
Million Leaders Mandate, Book Two, page 34.
FAITH
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for
and certain of what we do not see.”
Hebrews 11: 1 (NIV)
GRACE
“Grace means there is nothing we can do to make
God love us more—no amount of spiritual calisthenics
and renunciations, no amount of knowledge gained
from seminaries and divinity schools, no amount of
crusading on behalf of righteous causes. And grace means
there is nothing we can do to make God love us less—no
amount of racism or pride or pornography or adultery or
even murder. Grace means that God already loves us as
much as an infinite God can possibly love.”
Philip D. Yancey, What’s so Amazing about Grace, page 70.
INTEGRITY
“Doing what you said you would do,
when you said you would do it,
and how you said you would do it.”
- Byrd Baggett
John C. Maxwell, The 360 Leader, page 31.
MENTORING
“A relational experience where one person empowers
another by sharing God-given resources.”
Million Leaders Mandate, Book Two, page 34.
PRAYER
“He who knows how to overcome with God in prayer
has heaven and earth at his disposal.”
– Charles Spurgeon
Wesley L. Duewel, Mighty Prevailing Prayer, page 19.
STEADFAST FAITH / COURAGE
“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every
portion of the truth of God except precisely that…point which the
world and the devil are at that moment of attacking, I am not
confessing Christ. When the battle rages, there the loyalty of the
soldier is proved. And to be steady on all the battlefield,
is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”
- By Martin Luther
Stu Weber, Four Pillars of a Man’s Heart, Page 40.
“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out
how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds
could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man
in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat
and blood, who strives valiantly…who knows the great
enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself
in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the
triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst,
if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his
place shall never be with those cold and timid souls
who have never known neither victory nor defeat.”
– Teddy Roosevelt
John Eldredge, Wild at Heart, page xiii.
What Time is it? June 26, 2009
Posted by Jayson N. in Flashes of Thoughts.Tags: Foresight, Future, Hindsight, INSIGHT, Past, Present, Time, Twilight Years
add a comment
It’s 11:30 PM. My calendar tells me that today is June twenty-sixth, year two thousand nine. We’re on the last Friday of the month of June. How I wish I could seize time and put it on hold.
No matter how hard we try to freeze or slow down time, it can never happen; it will never happen.
Time is elusive. Time is intangible. It flows on its own.
As of this writing, man hasn’t found any natural and artificial way to contain and manage time. We can only manage our selves and our resources according to our chosen time.
What we can say is: we are grateful for the good things that had transpired. We dream to become better persons each passing day. We know that the best is yet to come.
Reflecting on the past makes us realize our character, top priorities and shortcomings. After reflecting, we have to change our mind and to move on.
Gaining foresight—a better perspective of the future—would require us to keep on learning rapidly and correctly from our experience and from the experience of others.
But life is not just about the past and the future. We have to deal with the present also. We must be assertive in making right decisions. How we communicate our decisions is another story.
At the end of the day, many of us try to figure out if there are things we need to stop doing and to keep on doing, being mindful that we want to improve the quality of our life until we reach our twilight years.
Steven Curtis Chapman & Paul Baloche May 31, 2009
Posted by Jayson N. in Click It, Music Video & Lyrics.Tags: Chords, Christian Artists, Christian Music, Lyrics, Paul Baloche, Steven Curtis Chapman
add a comment
Steven Curtis Chapman and Paul Baloche continue to inspire Christians on their faith in God thru awesome songs and music for more than a decade. Yes, they’re still alive and kicking, up to this day.
Songwriting is a road less traveled. It takes God’s favor and special skills to pen dozens of exceptional, decent songs which millions of people around the globe would love to listen or sing over and over again.
Here’s Steven Curtis Chapman’s (SCC) website:
http://www.stevencurtischapman.com
Surf SCC’s Music (Discography):
http://www.stevencurtischapman.com/music.htm
To locate videos in SCC’s website, go to SCC’s Music (Discography). Next, click the “play” mode of any Music Album (for instance, hit the “play” mode of “Greatest Hits” Album). Then, you may strike the “play videos” button to see several videos of the said website.
I created a few direct links or shortcuts so we could easily listen to the songs of Chapman:
Now, steer to Paul Baloche’s website:
Watch videos and listen to some MP3s. Download lyrics/chords, charts and sheets in PDF files (you will need, of course, Adobe Reader to view PDF files). Learn several uncommon, open chords, which Paul Baloche uses, to bring out fresh, distinct sounds and music:
http://www.baloche.com/resources/songbook.html
View some more videos and read articles and interviews from the URL below:
http://www.baloche.com/resources/thoughts.html
How-To Tips, Online Classes and Software Freebies May 30, 2009
Posted by Jayson N. in Click It, Tech Domain.Tags: AVG, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Openoffice.org
add a comment
Get a load of these freebies!
So far, I haven’t heard nor seen any news if these freebies are unsafe to view or install.
Hook your computer to high-end speakers to make the learning experience more pleasurable.
This URL leads you to topics on starting up your business. Plus, you get how-to tips on using Windows Vista and Office 2007:
http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/summit
Click this link for free, online classes, available 24/7, courtesy of Hewlett-Packard:
www.hp.com/go/hplearningcenter
Are you looking for an alternative to Microsoft Office? Check out “Free Open and Productivity Suite Software”:
In case you want a temporary Antivirus Software, you may try “AVG Free Edition 8.5 Antivirus Software”:
http://www.avg.com/product-avg-anti-virus-free-edition
Ten Treasures (Part 1) May 18, 2009
Posted by Jayson N. in Quotes.Tags: Attitude, Destiny, Life, Perception, Purpose, Spiritual Leadership, Success, Testing, Vision
add a comment
Over the years, I have learned to treasure striking quotes or sayings of influential leaders and brilliant writers coming from different fields. Using a mechanical pencil, I would underline these quotes so that it would be easy for me to locate them in a book. There are times I would jot them on a notebook.
To archive scores of sayings, I encode them in my PDA and computer.
Here are some of my treasured quotes:
ATTITUDE / LIFE
“...Life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.”
– Chuck Swindoll
John C. Maxwell, Developing the Leader Within You, page 98.
DESTINY
“Whoever sows a thought, reaps an action;
whoever sows an action, reaps a habit;
whoever sows a habit, reaps a lifestyle;
whoever sows a lifestyle, reaps a destiny.”
Neil T. Anderson, Robert L. Saucy, God’s Power at Work in You, page 14.
PERCEPTION
“The difference between average people and achieving people
is their perception of and response to failure.”
John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward, page 2.
PURPOSE
“Without God, life has no purpose,
and without purpose, life has no meaning.
Without meaning, life has no significance or hope.”
Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, page 30.
“Living on purpose is the only way to live.
Everything else is just existing.”
Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, page 312.
SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP
“Spiritual Leadership is moving people on to God’s agenda.”
Henry Blackaby, Richard Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership, page 20.
SUCCESS
“Success is knowing your purpose in life,
growing to reach your maximum potential, and
sowing seeds that benefit others.”
John C. Maxwell, Your Road Map for Success, page 11.
“Success…the progressive realization of a predetermined goal.”
John C. Maxwell, Developing the Leader Within You, page 19.
TESTING
“An opportunity which challenges the leader to demonstrate
his/her potential and maturity.“
Million Leaders Mandate, Book Two, page 4.
VISION
“A clear mental picture of a better tomorrow, given by God,
which moves a person to believe that it not only could be done,
but it should be done.”
Million Leaders Mandate, Book One, page 20.
Write Now May 6, 2009
Posted by Jayson N. in Writing.Tags: Creativity, Free Writing, Writing Process
add a comment
Heaps of ideas suddenly pop from nowhere when thinking about something to blog on. From trivial things to complex concepts, sometimes it seems that it’s a bit hard to put them into writing, let alone make a simple draft. To overcome such hurdle, it would be a good move to merely select a topic or idea that is close to our heart and mind. Then, write!
Do we need to completely ignore the writing process? No. The writing process is a way of defining the direction of our writing and a manner of refining our masterpiece. If we want to attempt spontaneous writing, it’s fine to set aside the writing process.
Some would venture on keying in several lines or paragraphs permanently, without any intention of producing a couple of drafts. In the interest of saving time, it’s probably okay. Also, it depends on the requirements that someone set on you, or you had set on your self. That’s one of the challenges of spontaneous writing.
Basically, before I start writing about the chosen topic, I should know the master plan. If there’s none, I establish a basic master plan for the chosen topic. That’s how my mind normally works. Next, I do a few out-of-the-box thinking to come up with brilliant concepts or fresh ideas. Also, I find means of unleashing some form of creativity into the craft, making it pretty unique and engaging to read. Finally, I pass the craft through a series of writing processes to refine it.
To fully enjoy free writing, I try to park “technical writing” for a while. Sometimes we need to break free from the rigid, formal, and orthodox ways to feel bursts of fun and surprises of free writing.
Christmas Countdown October 29, 2008
Posted by Jayson N. in Flashes of Thoughts.Tags: Celebration, Countdown, December
add a comment
57 more days to go and it will be Christmas.
I was watching the local news, this evening around 7:40pm, on the television. One of the newscasters announced the number of days before Christmas. I guess, it’s only in our country that we count earlier. Some TV personalities even started counting since September 1.
The month of December always brings me pleasant memories–the Christmas concerts, cool breeze, special dishes, family reunions, and soirees with close friends.
Ah! I can’t wait to feast and celebrate.
5 Ways to Speed Up Your PC October 27, 2008
Posted by Jayson N. in Tech Domain.Tags: Efficient PC, Preventive Maintenance, Speed Up
add a comment
Microsoft suggests 5 ways to speed up our PC. There are a few tools we can use to make our PC a bit efficient. You may perform preventive maintenance every month or every week, depending on how seriously you need to boost up your PC.
Prayer Extremes October 26, 2008
Posted by Jayson N. in Excerpts from a Book.Tags: Duty, Friendship, Love, Philip Yancey, Prayer
add a comment
Recently, I’ve been leafing through a book, entitled “Prayer,” written by Gold Medallion Award-winning author Philip Yancey. I’m now on Chapter 11, page 145.
Moving back to Chapter 1, page 17, the author mentioned his views on prayer in a nutshell. He said, “In the process of writing, however, I have come to see prayer as a privilege, not a duty. Like all good things, prayer requires some discipline. Yet I believe that life with God should see more like friendship than duty. Prayer includes moments of ecstasy and also dullness, mindless distraction and acute concentration, flashes of joy and bouts of irritation. In other words, prayer has features in common with all relationships that matter.”
That’s quite true; prayer has similarities with all relationships that are important. Many of us, perhaps, have struggles and successes in our own prayer life.
At times, we pray out of duty. It’s not really harmful, though. It is far better to pray than not to pray at all. The point is, it is best to pray based on friendship or love. We become more satisfied in speaking to the Lord.
What if prayer becomes so complicated to do? I remind myself that prayer is simply communicating with God with heartfelt, honest words in Jesus’ name. From that standpoint, words become so easy to release to God.
