Have you heard people saying, “I decided to do this because this is what God told me”, and wonder how these people hear from God? One of my life groupmates asked this and I thought this is a valid question. Who knows, people are saying this just to justify their decisions or appear spiritual. So today, I thought I would share with you my personal thoughts on how to hear from God. A little bit disclaimer, this is based on what I’ve learned and what I’ve personally experienced.

CONFIRMATION

One way of hearing from God is through hearing the same message again and again. There are times when Sunday preaching is about courage, your current devotional is about courage and your Christian friend unexpectedly shared something about courage too! Coincidence? Maybe not. When this happens, take time to reflect. It can be God’s way of confirming His personal message for you.

SPECIFIC WORD

This is one of my favorite, but to be honest, this is the rarest way of hearing from God. There are times when you are asking God for something and you open your bible and literally, God’s answer is in front of you.  Last year, there was a point when I was in doubt about our move to Japan. As I do my daily journal, the verse Jeremiah 29:7 speaks to me “seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you (into exile). Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper”. Because of this, the sadness was gone, I received peace and I once again believed that this is part of God’s plan.  However, as mentioned, this doesn’t happen all the time. If only God, answers prayers with emails! But the Bible says, keep asking, keep seeking and then you will receive, you will find. Pray to receive a specific word for your specific needs.

DAILY BIBLE READING

I’ve been a Christian for about ten years now. One thing that I learned over the years, that has become part of my life until now is Bible reading. The Bible is the word of God. It is His way to speak to us. It tells everything we wanted to know about. By reading the Bible, you get to understand God, yourself and His purpose for you. At first, it will not make sense. But as you keep on reading, you’ll eventually understand. I remember before, I only read my bible because I’m required to do so. In one of the church training, we have a notebook that we need to fill out with our daily reflection of our Bible reading. Of course, I don’t want to be that bad student who doesn’t do her homework! Eventually, this became a habit for me and even though I had finished with the training. I get used to it and keep on doing it until now. Reading the Bible constantly, builds faith and understanding of God’s way. When the times comes to make decisions, it’s easy to identify which decision is God approved. Being familiar with the Bible is like being familiar with God’s voice. It’s like building an archived of God’s perspectives in your brain, ready for use any time.

That’s about it. Bottom line, hearing from God is all about being in His presence. I remember ten years ago, I was a new believer of God, I was in college and a very grade conscious student. In fact, I’m hoping to graduate cum laude, but it was gone when I received a low grade in one of my subjects. I get the list of verses I usually hear from church and all I can see that is applicable to me is the verse “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). I talked with my churchmates and they say the same thing. I thought, well, it’s a safe verse to say, so why not? But I certainly put that verse in to action. When I reached my house, I locked myself in the room and cried. I cried and complain to God, asking him why. I remember myself saying things like, “I used to be by myself and I’m doing good, now that you came into my life, you ruined my dreams!”. I complained, blamed and yelled God. When I got too exhausted to cry and complain, I stopped and tell myself that I’m just wasting my time because no matter what I say, it will not change the fact that he is God. That moment, the very words I said bounce back to me, as if God is telling me, “no matter what people say, no matter what happened, it will not change who you are”.

I hope this helps you hear more from God. See you in my next post. 

I'm pretty much an optimistic person. But there are still times when no matter how I try to motivate myself, I'm still overwhelmed with negative emotions such as worries, doubts and feeling of failure. Finally, I understand where all these negative emotions are coming from, what’s its purpose and how to handle it.

First, understand that thinking negatively is actually a human nature. That's how our brain is wired. Our mind’s game plan is survival. Its main purpose is to protect us by eliminating change and keeping us in comfort zone. It’s called Cognitive Bias. In the past, it helped our ancestor to survive. Whenever they hear an unfamiliar sound, the mind thinks of threat so the body can prepare to defend. See? our negative thoughts are not a bad thing at all. It protects us, keep us safe and helps us survive. But sometimes it goes overboard, that these negative thoughts cause stress, hinder us from going big and scare us from change.

The truth is negative thoughts are inevitable. It’s always there, popping in your mind whenever it wants. But the good news is you can handle it. And no, it’s not by thinking positive thoughts. In fact, if you try to think contrary to the thought, you might amplify it even more. It’s like your brain will tell you, “See, you are trying to push the negative thought away because you know it’s true”.

All it takes is acceptance. Acknowledge the thought. This way, you are removing the tension and this will allow you to get your brain on board in overcoming the negative thoughts. Simply put, it’s like telling your brain “hey, I get this. You are right to say that this thing is worth worrying, the doubt is valid that it might be a wrong decision, I might fail and its scary to try new things. However, we will never really know until we get there. Besides, I can learn from this experience and it will make me a better person no matter what the result is. With this, you acknowledge the negative thought that its true but tolerable and you are willing to deal with whatever result it might have.

It also helps to keep an archived of exemplary examples. Sometimes, our mind tends to give us negative thoughts because it’s tapping in to the things we have in mind. We could be keeping an archived of negative experience we experience ourselves or we see from other people. We might have accepted negative thoughts relayed by our parents, teachers, friends and other people we spoke with. So, it’s best to reprogram our memory bank. Recall your own success stories. Find exemplary people who overcome their own negative thoughts. Feed your mind with empowering thoughts. As they said, garbage in garbage out; positive thoughts in, positive thoughts out. Don’t wait until you’re feeling down before you look for positive thoughts or exemplary examples. Keep a habit of keeping your thoughts in good or positive shape.

Personally, I feed myself with positive thoughts daily by journaling. I usually read a passage or two from the Bible, meditate on it and see how I can apply it in my personal life. On days I feel uninspired, I read back my old journals and it usually put me back on track.

Finally, take action. Get up on our feet and do something.  Instead of wasting your time and energy dwelling on your thoughts, start focusing on the solution. Even if you are loaded with positive thoughts or exemplary examples, it’s no use until you put it in to actions. Let’s not confuse inspiration to getting things done. So yeah, just do it.

That’s about it. I hope this short post will send a ray of sunshine to someone who needs it. 

I used to have a jam-packed closet but I always felt like I have nothing to wear. If this sounds familiar or if you need a help organizing your closet, keep reading!

We sometime keep clothes for wrong reasons. We all have this one thing we purchased just because it looks good in the store then eventually realize it doesn’t fit our style. Or it could be a dress we keep holding on swearing to wear it when the occasion is right, but the occasion never comes. Or a shirt given to us as a gift that doesn’t really suit us but we feel guilty getting rid of it. Or an old college shirt we keep for memory sake but had seen better days.

We should be intentional on what we keep in our closet. It’s like your fridge, if it’s filled with unhealthy foods, you’ll tend to be unhealthy, but if it’s filled with power foods, most likely you’ll be fit. Dressing up is a part of life and it shouldn’t be a chore. It should be something we enjoy and we consciously choose for ourselves every day. So if your closet is filled with random stuffs, you know what to expect.

Whether you like it or now, the way we dress ourselves represents who we are. We can’t keep people from judging us on how we choose to dress, its instinct, and human nature. That being said, let’s represent ourselves well by being intentional on how we dress.  Of course, it will all start in your closet.

The solution is simple - Capsule wardrobe. Simply put, capsule wardrobe is a compact collection of essential and timeless pieces of clothing that you’ll use for a particular season. The intention is to simplify getting dressed with quality clothes that you’ll actually wear. Studies shows that you only use 20% of what’s in your wardrobe so in essence we already have the capsule wardrobe in place, we’re just unaware of it. 

In the book Lessons from Madame Chic by Jennifer L. Scott, she shared her observation about the way of French people when she was in Paris. She realized that French people wore the same clothes in heavy rotation – unapologetically and with great panache. This proves that it’s really not about the quantity, but the quality of the clothing we have.

Ready to create your capsule wardrobe? Here we go!

DEFINE YOUR LIFESTYLE

Are you working in a company that requires wearing corporate attire? Let’s fill your clothes with the right number of corporate outfits. Corporate attire might be boring and monotonous but that’s not the reason to deviate. I’ll tell you later how to conform yet still stand out. How do you spend your weekend, pretty casual or more formal affairs? Take note of that as well. With a more defined lifestyle, you know what clothes you need to wear.  

Now, let’s take a step up on your clothing requirements. Many offices today allow wearing casual clothing. However I would say to aim for smart casual.

Personally, I worked from home but I don’t wear loungewear all day long. I still dress up a bit. Although no one sees me, the way I dress myself affects my mood. If I’m in my jammies, I tend to be lazy but if I dress up, it sets the atmosphere of productivity. Not to mention that I’m always ready for unexpected errands.

Remember, the way you dress defines you. It won’t hurt to step up your dressing game just a bit.

DEFINE YOUR STYLE

Imagine your outfit you feel most confident about, what’s the style? Is it shabby chic, androgynous, boho chic or classic? Find the style that works for you and incorporate it to your dressing requirement. If you’re office requires corporate attire and you’re style is boho chic, you can wear a boho dress and pair it with a structured blazer and heels. Another way is to incorporate boho chic through color palette.

There are plenty of ways and you can browse all over Pinterest for inspirations. Why reserve your style for special events if you can incorporate it on your daily life.

 Love this quote from Coco Chanel, as it says is all.

Now that we define our style with our current lifestyle, it’s time to evaluate your closet and find that 20%.

Check each piece of clothing and decide which one to stay and which one to get rid of. Be as honest as possible when doing this and let of the “WHAT IFs”. Also, consider giving up your favorite dress if it has seen better days! Let go of the worn out clothes.

If there are still pieces you’re unsure of, put them in a bag and keep it for six months. If you didn’t reach out for it within that period, it’s a good sign to totally get rid of it. Be ruthless when you do it. What you want is to see your closet with clothes that defines your style and personality.

ORGANIZE YOUR CLOSET

Last and finally, organize your closet. I know, this is the boring part but hear me. If you strictly follow the first three steps, this is an easy part. Why? Because you’ll be organizing fewer clothes and clothes that you really love! I tell you, it’s not that hard.

There are tons of ways to organize your closets on line but the best method is the Konmari way of folding clothes. It’s like Science, so get the book, it’s worth it! She teaches the folding of clothes in a way that it stands vertically so you see all the clothes at once when you pull out the drawers. Also, when you take out a piece, the rest will hold its place as it is standing vertically. There’s even a way of hanging clothes.

That’s about it. I thought this post is timely for Spring Cleaning. Give it a go and share it to others too! Let’s step up the dressing game for everyone – one closet at a time!

See you in my next post! And remember, you can always live the life you’ve always wanted!

There are people who gave up on their dreams and there are people who gave up EVERYTHING for their dreams. To me this is a great tragedy of life, and this should not happen to you.

In the past, the first scenario was more prevalent. People are afraid to reach for their dreams for social conformity, security of following the norms or fear of the unknown.

With the rise of the millennial, the second scenario came in. Everybody bought the idea of “Be your own Boss”, “Working for myself” and “Time Freedom” which are just empty promises (I’ll show you later why). We’re so sold out that we don’t care about breaking laws, burning bridges and thinking all for ourselves; they even call us Selfie Generation for the matter.

But there’s a way to strike the balance – to reach for your dreams without giving up life itself. 

First, let’s define your dreams. Have a clear vision of what you really want to achieve. What it is that you really want? Most of the times, we are not really sure about our dreams. We try to pretend we know it and we realize it isn’t real. Make sure you don’t fall in any of the following Defining Dream Mistakes.

COPYING OTHERS DREAM

We tend to copy the dreams the society gave us. We are programmed to believe that those who have a lot of money, those Entrepreneurs and Celebrities are the ones who live the dream life. We feel jealous about the perfect life that we see on TV and social media.  But what we see is only a tip of the iceberg, a portion of their life. I remember seeing an Instagram post of one celebrity going home at 3AM and waking up at 6AM for another taping.  Wait, this is not living the life for me. Chances are you get to sleep more than those celebrities do.  

Now let’s look at the Entrepreneurs, they look cool and powerful at the same time. Be your own boss right? But that will never happen! We simply change the name from calling them “boss” to “customers or clients”!

How about working for yourself? Nobody works for himself. We all have to work for others, that’s how we get paid.

Time freedom? Try to talk to a successful entrepreneur and you’ll find out they worked more than 40 hours a week. Granted, they have a lot of social events on weekends, but actually it’s just a better word for “marketing or networking events”.

I’m not crashing your dreams of being a celebrity or an entrepreneur. What I’m trying to say here is that, we may like the things they have but we may not like the lifestyle that comes with it. If you are up with the game, by all means go for it! But if not, don’t fake it.

There’s a lot of road to success, you don’t have to go to the same road as others. We are made to believe that you’ll never get rich by just being an employee. However, so many people had succeeded in life by being an employee. They may not be popular, but they’re living the life of their dreams.

I’m not lowering your standards either.  What I’m pointing out here, is to be real about what you really want.

Is it your dream to travel the world? You don’t have to join multilevel marketing or build your own company just to fund your travels. In fact, there are high paying jobs that allow you to travel the world for free.

Ask yourself honestly, what it is that I really want? Without knowing it, we have no way to go. We will pursue anything, following any waves that flow.

DEFINING YOUR DREAMS WITH THE MEANS

People dream about having a lot of money. They thought this is a big dream, but actually it is just the means, the way of reaching the dream. What you do with the money is what you really dreamed about.

Is it to be financially secure until retirement or to finance a charity you care about or to be a hero of some kind? Whatever it is, we must focus on achieving the dreams and not only the means.

I’m sure a lot of parents dream of caring for their children. Of course, this includes providing well for them. Some parents spend most of their time working hard even working abroad thinking they’re doing this for their children. Then they missed the PTA meeting and the soccer games. They even missed the graduation. Now the children are all grownups, parenting missed.

Sometimes, we get stuck on what we’re doing. We missed the reason why we’re doing 

things in the first place. Take time to evaluate your means to know if it’s stillaccomplishing the dream.

When I had my son, I have this dream of staying home and caring for him personally. I stressed out returning to work. A colleague, also a mom told me, “I know it’s hard, but you’ll get used to it”. Wait a minute, my mind tells me. Why do I have to just get used to this? Thinking about it, I know I need my job and I love what I’m doing professionally, but I also have this dream for my son. The idea of working from home came to me. However, it doesn’t seem to exist, especially in my field of work. I’m almost at the point of having a career shift, but God indeed never delays. I got a home-based job as an Accountant.

Sometimes, we have to give up the current means and find another that aligns with the dreams. Don’t be afraid to give up the means, there’s always a new one. As Marie Forleo says “Everything is Figureoutable”.

DON’T SLEEP AND DREAM

Take action. Write down 12 things you can do right now to achieve your dreams. It doesn’t have to be detailed yet, just write down your ideas on how you will accomplish the dream. Don’t stop until you come up with 12 ideas. If you can’t come up with 12 action steps, maybe you don’t really dream about it that much. If you do, you can list the 12 ideas right now. Do it, don’t cheat on yourself.

With this exercise, you open your mind to possibilities on how to achieve your dreams. Chances are, these are not all the steps. Along the way you will add more action items and eliminate some. But the point is to get started. Get going. Take one step at a time and take the first step now.

Build your dream in your own terms, with the right means and chase it every day. Enjoy every step of the journey. Sooner, you are living the life you’ve always wanted.

PS. This is just the first step in living the life you’ve always wanted. There’s more coming your way on the next blogs. Be sure to subscribe to get weekly updates and access to articles I only share with my subscribers. Click the photo right now.

One thing people are excited about New Year is that it signifies new beginning. For some, it’s about New Year’s  resolutions, list of things to change or a time to update the bucket list. I am a believer of goal setting. Setting a yearly goal gives a road mad towards the dream. For example, if my dream is to have 10 million retirement fund, my goal for this year could be to save 500 thousand by the end of the year. This will make me a little bit closer to my big dream. If you want to a little help on how to set goals, I have three points for you.

SET BIG GOALS

They say shoot for the moon, even if you miss you’ll land among the stars. That’s true and the same with setting goals. We should aim for big goals. It must be big enough that you’ll be the happiest person if you accomplish the goal by the end of the year. What’s the use of a goal if it doesn’t excite you? If it’s too easy, chances are you will not work on it. The goal should get you inspired to wake up every morning and do something about it every single day. It must activate your faith and makes you work hard.

SET REALISTIC ACTION PLAN

Let’s talk about reality, shall we? After setting idealistic big goals, we should sit down and think about the actual steps we can do about it. Here’s my example. One of my dream is to run a marathon. My goal for this year is to be “fit enough to run half a marathon”. I do my research and found out that this means I should be able to run 3 to 4 times a week at least 5 kilometers per run. That must be a a realistic plan right? To some yes, but to me nope! For someone who hasn’t run for a year now, this will just create frustration. The realistic plan would be to get to running again at least 3 times a week for half an hour per run. From there, I can modify the action plan as my stamina builds up and eventually reached the goal.

HAVE AN ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER OR SYSTEM

Evaluation. To see goals come into reality, we should learn to evaluate. What level am I now? What have I accomplished so far? Am I still on it? Having someone who can evaluate us is a good help and an additional encouragement. But if you are someone who are shy to share your progress or can’t really find the right accountability partner yet, build a system that can help you evaluate. For example, for the financial goal, a budget is the accountability system. By comparing budget and actual savings, you can assess your progress about your savings. For the health goals like running, there are many apps that you can use on your smart phone. You can choose either options or have both. But bottom line, figure out a way to evaluate the progress of your goals as this will keep you on track and keep you going.

So that’s about it. I hope this will encourage you to set goals and get going for 2017. Happy New Year!