Strength in Number

Inspired by Chris' blog, I'd also like to request for prayers for my mom's recovery.

Chris and her family are battling her sister's cancer. Just like them, we also have a battle against my mom's cancer. Chris has been my inspiration in this, giving me tips and contacts as my family started our battle late last year. She started a fund drive for her sister's treatment, and having a big heart, she's even planning to share the proceeds to other cancer patients and plans to continue the fund raising even after the battle is over. It's so nice of her!

Our battle started in early October, when my mom was diagnosed with endometrial carcinoma. I was in Singapore doing my PhD studies at that time. She went through total hysterectomy exactly on my birthday. We've been battling the disease since then. I went home, stopped my PhD studies and looked for local work to be able to take care of my mom and help my family.

As others have experienced, it's not an easy battle. We even rushed mom to the ER twice, one on Jan 30, and another on Feb 14. We almost lose her on the second. We've been to three hospitals in only one night! She was confined in the third hospital, the one where her hysterectomy was done, for five days. However, even after releasing her, the doctors weren't able to answer a lot of our questions. She's been in the house since then, unable to stand nor sit for more than a minute. She's always on her bed, lying on her right side.

Late this week, we looked for other oncologists to consult, but some turned her down right away. We couldn't even bring her to the doctors for consultation since movement causes her unbearable pain. So we just brought documents and test results. Good thing the fourth doctor told us that he wants to observe her first. Hence, we are planning to have her confined again next week, right after her 65th birthday, which also happens to be the effectivity of her retirement.

We are now relying on prayers and all the moral support we are getting from relatives, friends and colleagues. It's because most of the doctors said that she's too old and weak to bear the pains of chemotherapy. But we are not losing hope. My mom is fighting it. Her strength and faith are our family's inspiration against this illness.

Tomorrow is mom's birthday, and I want her to have more birthdays to come. Just like other moms, she's the tie that's binding our family together. I want her to see more of her grand children and enjoy her retirement as she dreamt while she was still on service as a public school principal.

With a lot of people praying for Chris' sister, my mom and other people going through the same thing, we can overcome this hurdle. With God's help, together, we can move mountains.

Please help us fight the Big C

http://strengthinnumbers-us-vs-cancer.blogspot.com/

Merry Christmas!

Kerplunk! :P

Ngayon lang ata nangyari sa kasaysayan ko bilang mag-aaral na isang oras ako nakatitig sa tanong, at di alam kung pano ito sasagutin. :P Ang mahirap pa nito, mahilig sumilip ang aking guro sa kung ano ang sinusulat ng mga nag-e-eksamen sa kanilang mga papel. Ang hirap magpanggap na may sinusulat ka! Hahaha. Buti na lang nadadaan sya sa ngiti. ^_^'

Di ko naman ginawa ang silipin ang mga sinusulat ng mga estudyante ko noong ako ay guro pa. :P

D talaga yata ako pang-CI! Marahil kulang pa ang dalawang linggong tuloy-tuloy na pag-aaral para sa isang kurso na wala akong natutunan sa loob ng silid-aralan, kung kaya't kinailangang magsariling sikap sa pag-aaral upang may maintindihan. At ito ay hindi naging maging madali. Nung ako'y nag-aaral pa lang para sa eksamen, tinitingnan ko pa lang ang mga babasahin na sanhi ng pagkaubos ng aking dalawang buwang supply ng papel (1 ream/month, 2 page/sheet, back-to-back), parang gusto kong bumagsak na lang. :P Pero hindi, binasa ko pa rin! ^_^'

Bakit ko nga ba to kinuha? Haha. Si sup kasi eh.. ayaw ako pakuhanin ng madaling kurso.. buti na lang yung isang kurso na kasabay nito ay mas madali ng kaunti (Biostatistics). Dun na lang ako babawi. :)

Sana lang maabot ko ang kelangang marka. Ang mahirap lang dito, isang eksamen lang dito sa bawat kurso... hindi katulad sa UP na may long exams at final exam na pwede ka bumawi pag bumagsak ka sa mga naunang eksamen. Dito, do or die. Pass or fail.

At isang buwan ang kelangan ko pa hintayin para malaman ang resulta ng aking mga pagsusulit. Sa ngayon, bawi muna ng pahinga, para mawala ang tatlong layers ng eyebags. :P At syempre, may kasamang liwaliw na rin! :)

Biktima rin ako.

Hindi ibig sabihin ng hindi ko pagsasalita, at pananahimik sa sitwasyon, ay inaaamin kong ako ang may kasalanan. Biktima rin ako. Alam ko, hindi ko kelangan magpaliwanag kahit kanino. Wala akong obligasyon na magpaliwanag kanino man. Hindi ko rin naman maipapaliwanag nang hindi masasaktan at hindi lalabas na masama ang mga taong may kinalaman.

Ang mahalaga, lahat ng mga taong importante sa akin - ang aking pamilya at ang mga malalapit kong kaibigan - ay naiiintindihan ang sitwasyon, nasa likod ko sa lahat ng pagkakataon, at di nagkukulang ng suporta sa akin. :)

Alam nyo kung gano ko kayo pinasasalamatan. At kelangan ko maging malakas para sa inyo. :)

Marami akong pinagdadaanan ngayon, pero kakayanin ko to. :)

The Tortoise and the Hare

* Eto pa isa. A nice twist to a childhood lesson all of us are familiar with.

Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster. They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started off the race.

The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race.

He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ.

The hare woke up and realised that he'd lost the race. The moral of the story is that slow and steady wins the race.

This is the version of the story that we've all grown up with.

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But then recently, someone told me a more interesting version of this story. It continues.

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some Defect Prevention (Root Cause Analysis). He realised that he'd lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax.

If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed.

This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.

The moral of the story？ Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady.

If you have two people in your organisation, one slow, methodical and reliable, and the other fast and still reliable at what he does, the fast and reliable chap will consistently climb the organisational ladder faster than the slow, methodical chap.

It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable.

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But the story doesn't end here. The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realised that there's no way he can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted.

He thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route.

The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river.

The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river.

The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.

The moral of the story? First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency.

In an organisation, if you are a good speaker, make sure you create opportunities to give presentations that enable the senior management to notice you.

If your strength is analysis, make sure you do some sort of research, make a report and send it upstairs. Working to your strengths will not only get you noticed but will also create opportunities for growth and advancement.

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The story still hasn't ended.

The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together. Both realised that the last race could have been run much better.

So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.

They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back.

On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together. They both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they'd felt earlier.

The moral of the story? It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able to work in a team and harness each other's core competencies, you'll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else does well.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership.

There are more lessons to be learnt from this story.

Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure.

The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could. In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate to work harder and put in more effort.

Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different. And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.

The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far better.

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When Roberto Goizueta took over as CEO of Coca-Cola in the 1980s, he was faced with intense competition from Pepsi that was eating into Coke's growth.

His executives were Pepsi-focussed and intent on increasing market share 0.1 per cent a time.

Goizueta decided to stop competing against Pepsi and instead compete against the situation of 0.1 per cent growth.

He asked his executives what was the average fluid intake of an American per day? The answer was 14 ounces. What was Coke's share of that? Two ounces. Goizueta said Coke needed a larger share of that market.

The competition wasn't Pepsi. It was the water, tea, coffee, milk and fruit juices that went into the remaining 12 ounces. The public should reach for a Coke whenever they felt like drinking something.

To this end, Coke put up vending machines at every street corner. Sales took a quantum jump and Pepsi has never quite caught up since.

To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoise teaches us many things. Chief among them are that fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady; work to your competencies; pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers; never give up when faced with failure; and finally, compete against the situation. Not against a rival.

Stress Management

* Another thing I got from him. Just wanna share. :)

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water?" Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes." He continued, "and that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on." "As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden." " So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of the day down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can." So, my friend, why not take a while to just simply RELAX. Put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while. Life is short. Enjoy it!

Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

• Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
• Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
• Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
• Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
• If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
• If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
• It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
• Never buy a car you can't push.
• Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because ! then you won't have a leg to stand on.
• Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
• Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
• The second mouse gets the cheese.
• When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
• Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
• You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
• Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
• We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colours, but they all have to live in the same box.
• A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about youtoday....... ........ I did.