No one can make you feel inferior without your consent – Eleanor Roosevelt

I’ve been having pre-birthday blues and work-related stress  a week ago. I felt like everything was just going downhill and I badly wanted to quit, go home and forget about my IT career.

But I realized that I was being too stubborn and childish. I needed to be mature and face my problems and trials. I had to find the root cause of my problems and try to find resolutions.

Work-related stress

Photo credits: http://www.worktolive.info/what-is-stress/

I realized that I was putting too much pressure on myself and succumbed to the need to please others and prove my self-worth. I remembered the quote from  Eleanor Roosevelt: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Also, I realized that I shouldn’t give in to competition. I always didn’t like to compete with anyone besides myself. So when I feel like other people, especially when they’re in my team, competes with me, I feel bad. But I realized too, that maybe there should be a healthy competition to push yourself to be better. And now I discovered a way to make other people cooperate and make it a team effort rather than a competition or a chance to prove that one is better than the other. I noticed that other people just want me to recognize their talents and capabilities, and give my respect to them. Once I did that, we worked better as a team and got the best out of everyone. 🙂

Pre-birthday blues

Photo credits: http://www.etsy.com

My birthday is in 10 days so I am having pre-birthday blues. I made a list of things that I wanted to have and accomplish this year. And at that time, I felt bad because there are a lot that I still haven’t achieved. But my goodness! Why be pessimistic??! I shouldn’t look at it as a glass half empty but a glass half full! I have soooo many things to be thankful for. So what if I still didn’t find that one elusive right guy? Hahaha.. So that’s the reason why I’m feeling blue? Hehe.. Not just that, really. I felt bad because I didn’t lose weight, didn’t exercise, didn’t eat healthy, didn’t see my loved ones more often. Stop. Okay, I just have to be thankful for what I have now. And right now, I feel good because I met new people, made new friends, but still kept good relationships with the old people in my life. On top of it all, I was given a chance to fulfill one of my biggest life dreams: to work abroad – and not just that, in United States of America! I was given this great opportunity to explore the beautiful city of Austin and work with the best people. Thank you Lord… I feel so blessed! 🙂

So I got over myself and found ways of keeping myself happy and filling up my love tank. Here are the little ways:
1. Watch my all-time favorite series of all time: In Need of Romance. Found it at Netflix!!!
2. Talked to and met new people. Learned to trust people again.
3. Gave my best at work. Aja!
4. Went home while the sun is still up – that’s around 7pm nowadays in Austin. ( 🙂 I love Spring!!!) and take a short walk.
5. Skype with family and friends.
6. Last but not the least, I counted my blessings and felt very blessed and thankful! 😀

 

Where is home?

 Being away from home at the tender age of 13, I have felt a growing need to spend time with my family as much as I can. But after high school, I had to go to college, then after college, I have to work. I went farther and farther away from my family.

Sometimes I feel estranged. It’s like they really don’t know me anymore, and I them. For the past 16 years of my life, I lived in 4 different cities and I stayed in one city at at an average of 4 years. I moved around a lot. I lived with different people at a time. I treat people like family, became very close, and then I had to leave.

Sometimes when I envision or think about home, somehow I couldn’t figure out where it is. When I go home to be with my family in our little hometown, I feel like I don’t belong there anymore. I feel like a stranger. I feel like a visitor. When I visit my non biological families, also known as friends in some city I’ve stayed before, I feel happy to see them but I still could not imagine going back. It doesn’t feel right anymore.

Maybe I could figure this out and settle down when I meet my lifetime partner. Maybe he can help me decide where home is or will be.. 😉

Practicing the Law of attraction

I’ve read about this a lot and I’m really amazed about how other people have made this work in their lives.

Law of attraction. It’s not just a theory that someone made up. It’s actually a law! Like the law of gravity? Lol. For me it’s also biblical. The Lord said, Ask and you shall receive. They say that when you pray, you have to believe in your heart that it has already been granted. That is what we call expectant faith. 😉

I was reminded of this law when I read The Secret. I’ve read numerous books and blogs that make a reference to this awesome book but it’s only now that I’ve read the actual book. And though I feel like I already know the things that it talks about, I’m still enlightened.

If you haven’t read it, l recommend that you do. It’ll help you shape up your days and even your life. From this day forward, I will be practicing the law of attraction! How?

1. Create my day in advance, practice the art of visualization. I will envision how great my day will be. From the moment I wake up, I will be thankful for the great things and great people that will fill my day.
“I am going to have an awesome day today! I will live my best life today! I will enjoy this day!”

2. Reprogram the events of my day that did not go well and replace it with visions of how it should go. According to The Secret, when you do this, you are cleaning up your frequency from the day and you are emitting a new signal and frequency for tomorrow. You have intentionally created new pictures for tomorrow.

3. Be grateful for the things I feel good about. Practice the attitude of gratitude
“Gratitude is the way to bring more into your life” – Marci Shimoff
“Whatever we think about and thank about, we bring about.” – Dr John Demartini

International Women’s Day

Happy International Women’s Day! 🙂 (Late post. Wrote this last Friday night wasn’t able to publish it.)

We oughtta celebrate Women’s Day everyday but since they’ve chosen this special day as the International Women’s Day, then let’s celebrate!!!

Well, I’d like to celebrate by writing a post about how I have been able to work (successfully) in a man-dominated industry. The Information Technology (IT) industry usually has more men than women. I’m currently in a team with more than 15 men and I’m the only woman. One of my bosses asked me if I feel uncomfortable that I am the only woman in the team. I honestly don’t mind because I’m used to being the only woman or one of the few women in the team or even in the project.

Needless to say, there are pros and cons to being a woman in a man’s world. But I’d like to believe that there are  more pros than cons. And usually I can work out the cons.

These are some of the advantages that I could think of right now:

• Men are more likely to help a woman out. (Basic man in shining armor kind of thing). I use this to my advantage most of the time. If I have code issues or tech problems, I could easily find someone in the team who is willing to help me out.
• Men rarely engage in arguments with a woman or they avoid it as much as they can. Well, there are times when this could be a disadvantage. Like when the men would dismiss a woman’s idea prematurely – without hearing her out. But because I don’t like arguments, this is win-win for me. But when I really feel a need to prove my point, I wouldn’t hesitate to give a fair argument and fight to win my case.
• Men can take care of you or make you feel safe. For example, when overtimes are inevitable, you feel safer if you have men to bring you home safe and sound.
• (Decent)Men are less prone to gossip or spread nasty rumors around the office.

So far those are the things that I could think of right now. 🙂

I know that in some parts of the world, women still don’t enjoy being treated fairly. I just hope someday they will be given the same treatment, opportunities, and respect as the men in their society.

I end this post with a shoutout to the women who have greatly influenced my life: Mama, Nanay Inday, Mommy, Bianca and Sacha. 🙂 Thank you very much for being awesome women!

POFW diaries: February Highlights

Last weekend my GCPmates and I went to Houston to watch the movie Starting over again and decided to have a side trip to NASA and eat at Jollibee to complete the Houston (or to my mind, the OFW experience). I wanted to stay longer at NASA but our time was limited because we still had a movie to catch and a 3-hr drive back home. Good thing the movie turned out great.I actually wanted to write a separate post about it.

Anyway, this month turned out fine. And the “Adventure” theme of my dream book suited it well. Made a lot of good memories this month.