Charms and Crystals

nope, this entry will not be about accessories. I just feel so good after reading the book and I feel like I should be sharing this with you (naks as if andaming followers). I came across this book from books24x7 in skillsoft. Skillsoft is a program in my company accessible to every employee. And I believe this is one tool that the company should really maximize and let the employees know how useful it is.( and yes, i'm loving skillsoft now! especially books24x7 - bookworm :P)


title of the book : THE POWER OF CHARM: How to win anyone over in any situation
 by Brian Tracy and Ron Arden

I took down a lot of notes,quotes and lessons from this book. And I love it really. I'm not a very charming person. But I try to be ;). And coming across this book, was definitely a great thing. A lot of blogs, even articles we see online has something to do with self-esteem, self improvement and the likes. If you want to develop a charming personality, this book is for you :)


Do you know someone who is charming? Or would you consider yourself a charming individual?

Charming is defined as to be alluring or pleasing (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/charming)

the book mentioned 5 As on how to be charming. Let's see how many A's you have.

Acceptance
Appreciation
Approval
Admiration
Attention
  

Acceptance
For someone to be considered charming, he/she accepts the person he deals with without prejudice. And how exactly does the charmer do that? Smile. A genuine one. Remember the saying how smile is such a simple act but it takes a lot of effort? If we are more accepting of situations, we will be able to smile more easily. So smile :)

Appreciation
A charmer knows how to say Thank You. Expressing your gratitude over something another person has done for you ( be it a huge favor or a simple gesture of handing over your fee to the driver) actually makes you a charming individual. Admit it. People in public transportation actually forget to say thank you when you reach their fare to the driver. It's not as if its your responsibility to do so, but a little appreciation goes a long way.

Approval
Name one person who does not want to be approved. Each one of us would be so glad when we get praises or commendations be it at work, at school, with our family, friends. Approval boosts our self esteem and builds our self confidence. A charmer works his way to praise you. He/she makes an effort to let you know that you did a good job and that you deserve a pat in the back.

Admiration
''You look good today. I wonder what it is but you are blooming.'' An automatic smile and heart leap will be my reaction to that statement. Why? Girls love being complimented. One guy friend told me that flattery, no matter how we hate it, is one area a woman gets weak. Fine. But on the contrary, men enjoys being complimented too. As Abraham Lincoln said ( this one I took from the book as well) : Everyone likes a compliment. A charming individual knows how to make you feel good without being such a kiss-ass.

Attention
 Time. Admit it or not, when someone takes time to be with us - be it your suitor, lover, friend, officemate - 
they somehow fit the bill of being a charmer. Why? Because getting the attention from someone is like getting part of their life. Time spent on us makes us feel important. When we feel important, it gives us that feeling that we actually matter.“Time goes by so fast, people go in and out of your life. You must never miss the opportunity to tell these people how much they mean to you.”. Now that is charming ;)



After going through these 5 A's, I realized that its so easy to be charming. All we have to do is care.

They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care - Lou Holtz

what do you do on a day when you got loads of stuff running through your head?

- moving out
-quitting your job
- changing your self
- going out on a vacation
- cliff jumping
-dating
- getting pregnant
-writing
- get lost


God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference

Prayer. that's what I believe I should be doing.

eye see you

''ate, sa palagay ko nagkamali ka talaga ng kinuhang course''

that was Frem's remark after seeing the logo i created for the CCI contest in our workplace. I'm no artist so I don't know why she said that. let's just say in our team, I'm usually the one coming up with ''artworks'' considering we are accountants by profession.

 the theme was : Challenge.Change.Improve.

here is my entry:

i would have created a much better looking eyes but my creativity has limitations. thank you to wordart and few shapes installed in ms office, i was able to create an image of what I visualized. So what's with the eye image? It is the eye that see the challenges and things that requires some adjustment. It is ''I'' or the individual who identifies the situation and analyzes what needs to be done. It is ''I'' who think of improvements and changes. And underneath every challenges, are opportunities for improvements.

These past few weeks, I've been very agitated with work. I know for a fact that employees experience this feeling of either boredom or burned out with their work. The CCI theme is very timely since I am in a limbo of what I want to do. I've been with the company for two years. I've been doing the same process for two years plus some additional workload (thank you very much for that). And I am bored.

 I've been participating in an online forum and earlier, the topic trending was resignations and applications.

One member posted this reply :

I am also seriously considering a change in my career. I may be doing a good job, but I don’t excel in it.I feel like banking isn’t for me. Or I might be in the right industry, but not in the right institution. I might do well in a private company rather than in the government.

Made me think of what I want to do for the next few months. I see challenge. Now what improvement must I formulate

Deep Dark Secrets

written 08/19/11

Beneath the facade lies the truth that I am jaded.

And I am trying to move forward and live life without looking back. It's not as if I'm trying to forget the past as if it did not happen. I just choose to break free and not let it drag me. I have accepted my weaknesses. I asked for forgiveness to the people I've hurt.

And has finally made peace with myself.

Pay Slip : Pasilip

When was the last time you actually examined your payslip? Are you the type who just see how much is your net pay so as to account how you're gonna spend it? Or are you the type who scrutinize up to the last centavo?

I am an accountant by profession, and because of the training we had in school and at the actual workplace, I do practice examining my income statement (hehe). Right now, I receive my salary once a month. Quite taxing as far as budgeting is concerned believe me. Our payslip's are usually available the day after payout. When its available for viewing, I immediately review why I got this amount for the month considering I know how much I should be receiving (atleast an estimate). 

So why is it important to review your payslips?

Aside from seeing how much you've earned for the month, you will be aware of any errors with your deductions and additional income. I have experienced a couple of erroneous deductions already, some of which really irritated me because I have continuously informed the concerned department. For example, HMO deduction for my dependents. During my first year, I have enrolled both of my parents as dependents. The next year I decided to stop the contribution for it. My father then needed to see a doctor and decided to use the healthcard but they were declined to do so because they were not on the list (which is correct since I have not re-enrolled them). This incident was the reason why I found out that for 6 months, I was still being deducted the same amount for the HMO. So I immediately informed the HR to make adjustments on this. The deduction amounted to an amount that could already pay for an out of town weekend vacation. 

If that amount was not deducted to my salary, I could have placed it in my savings account and earned interest on it. Time Value of money wasted.

Recently, I have encountered another issue with my deduction. This time, its missing. I availed of the SSS Personal Loan (hey, it's your benefit, use it! ). Procedure requires you to forward copy of the voucher to the HR for deduction purposes. Upon receipt of the voucher, I immediately sent the copy to the HR. I was expecting that after 3 months, deductions will start showing up on my payslip. But I have not seen any deduction related to SSS. I then asked a colleague how long before the deduction showed up on their salaries as they have availed the same loan. Deductions did show after 3 months, I on the other hand had not been deducted for 2 months already! My colleague then informed me that there could be surcharges applied if I did not pay in time. Imagine the horror of paying a penalty if I had not seen and reported this on time. 

From now on, I suggest you atleast glance on your monthly slips. Who knows, you got a bonus without even knowing :D It did happen to me once with my first work. I got a raise but I was not informed before hand. So I thought there was an error and I will need to return it. 

When did you last made silip to your payslip?

Vacation Leave : Please Approve :D

One thing that I really ''treasure'' or most appropriate to say, I'm making full advantage of (hala inaabuso?!) perk in my current work is the schedule. While most of employees would have a hard time planning their vacations, I get to file for vacation leave for more than 2 days (yehey!). Longest i was able to consume was 5 days straight. Yes, you read it right. I was able to spend an entire week off work. Happy Birthday ! This vacation leave will surely be on thing that I will miss the most if ever I transfer to a new company. (ehem, paparamdam...)

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August 9 2011 2:32 AM

I cannot sleep. Again. I'm guessing my blood pressure's running low again for the nth time. Blame it on my hard head. There is one thing that keeps on running,jogging and sprinting on my mind for hours already. How to save! Thinking about the coming weeks, trips are lined up again. I'm recuperating from the travel bug I got last year. For one, savings has depleted significantly (ha ha ha).Majority of which is due to travel and a fraction of which was repositioned (I'll talk about this in a separate post). I was following this thread in a forum on how to save up. Lots of tips and experiences from posters having the same dilemma. Here's a quick rundown of the tips I got :

           - control your expenses ! (budgeting 101)
           - stay away from discount sites/group buying sites (hello metrodeal :D )
           - start a business /sidelines

Let me share with you my travel expenses since 2010 (this is not the exact amount but an estimate based from what I can recall at the moment :P )

2010
Sagada (the trip that started it all)  5000
Tanay, Rizal                                 1000
Mt Pulag Hike                              5000
Bohol (first time)                           5000
Nagsasa                                       2500
Calaguas                                      5000
Mt. Pinatubo                                2500
2011
Bohol (2nd time)                          15000
Batanes                                       13000
Bohol (3rd time)                           20000
Bicol                                             5000
HK-Macau                                  20000
Manila                                           500

upcoming trips:
   Iloilo-Caticlan
   Zamboanga-Dumaguete-Dapitan-Cebu
   Kuala Lumpur - SG
   Thailand-Siem Reap

My My My. I did not bother adding it up yet, but heck that took a toll on my savings.

Lesson Learned : Travel when you have the opportunity. Its a great feeling getting to experience different culture and knowing what lies on the other side.  And then account afterwards hahaha.  :D

                                                                going where?

history 101

this is my third attempt at blogging. this is my third account with google. this is a by-product of one night

that i could not catch sleep. too much caffeine earlier in the day. i ended up scribbling multiple short notes,a couple of blog titles. now here i am, starting again. but this time, with a renewed commitment to keep this one going.

ABCDandE will cover topics in 5 broad topics of our life

Accounting:  Finance,Budgetting, Costing and Accounting

BlingBling: Fashion, Clothes, Shoes, Bags, Accessories

CareerPlanning : Work,Job,Career,Passion

Daydreaming : Vacation, Travel, Aspirations, Rational Thoughts

Everything in Between: this is a catch-em all (naks!pokemon :D)

I hope you join me in this new road im about to walk on :)

Happy Reading !