Embracing Change

Have you ever tried going to a party, a meeting, or any occassion where you were only forced to? Your mind would be obsessed in ending the experience and you end up not gaining anything from it. Well, a colleague and a dear friend of mine had one such experience last Tuesday. We attended a learning session and a christmas party for service professionals in the industry where we belong to. She psyched herself that she'd be bored and proceeded to look for something that would confirm her initial impression. Never in her wildest dreams did she think that she'd have so much fun and learn something about life too!

The association invited a speaker who was really funny and entertaining. He gave faith a whole new look. His name is Arun Gogna . He is half Filipino and half Indian. Here are some of the lessons that he imparted. Hope you will get something from it, like I did.

He said in life he lives by some guiding principles. Very simple ones really.

Lesson One. The way you look at yourself is the way that you live your life.

Very early on his life he saw himself as someone average. Someone who can only get so far in life. Not achieving anything spectacular. An unexpected experience taught him differently. All his life he thought he was just an-82%-average student. So all his exams, all his projects he performed and created with 82% as the prized result. He never thought of doing anything more. When he finished college a life-changing event made him take up Theology as a post-graduate course and surprisingly graduated Magna Cum Laude. From then on he saw himself differently. He was not an average joe. He CAN be something more.

Lesson Two. Don't wish it was easier, wish you were better.

He says it's easy to blame circumstances and events when we are in a state of discontentment and unhappiness. When it's cold, we say - if it were a little more warmer here I would have done better, if it were a bit colder I would have done this and that. If the world were a better place then I would be very happy.

Happiness should not be given limitations or conditions, it's a state of being not just a destination.

Lesson Three. You are a not tree.

If we are unhappy or discontent we can always change our circumstance. We are not trees. We are not rooted to the ground. We can always move and do something else.

Lesson Four. When you get better, the game gets bigger.

I think lessons one to three are pre-requisites to lesson four. When we think we can do good things, when we become better persons, when we move to make our lives better...then bigger and better opportunities are opened to us.

Lesson Five.God is with us always.

God always meets us where we are. If there is anyone who can identify with you it is HIM. Afterall, He created us. He is always there watching and waiting for you and me to make the connection. He will never force us to love Him, because His love for us is unconditional. You loving Him back is not required.

God affirms who we really are.


The most important part of it all is YOU. Without your willingness and desire to have a better life all these will not be possible.

Go ahead, be inspired! I know I am.