life have meaning Archives

There was a day when Zeeka asked me about heaven. She asked me, “Mom, where is heaven and how is it like there?” To that, I replied that heaven is where you want it to be. If you think that it’s a place where your loved ones are and you’re happy, then this or your life here on earth is heaven. If you think that God is also here with us, then maybe this is heaven.

I’d like to believe that there is something after this life when we pass away and I believe in God. How I think about life though is not a means to get to a better place (like heaven), but a vehicle to actually make this world that we live in a better place. Why wait for that better place when you have the power to create positive changes NOW?

I have a plan for my life, and this is how I view it to be:

This is my plan for my life. I know my handwriting sucks.. haha! Please bear with me!

So my first 25 years was really for learning, making mistakes, rising back up and trying again. My tip for those who are still in this part of the “life line” that I’m showing, just explore and try to do things that you’ve never done. If you’re scared to try, write down what’s the worst thing that could happen. You’ll realize that the worst thing isn’t as bad as it may seem.

Currently, I’m in a situation where I know what I stand for and what I believe in. This is where we usually find ourselves, make our own choices, see what we consider valuable and try our best to make a change in this life by utilizing our own actions.

This is also the the time that we try to grow our circle of influence. Because why not?

Just some thoughts about influence. Wanting to gain influence is not a bad thing. What you need to think about is why you want to grow or gain influence. The reason why I want to grow my circle of influence is that I have realized that the you can make huge positive changes when you reach more people. Think of it this way — the magnitude of the impact that you can create will obviously be bigger when you have a bigger circle of influence.

This is the reason why politicians or people in the government can make rules that affect the lives of a lot of people. We gave them our votes. Having said that, I digress… I have no plans of running for office. Haha!

What I stand for is really empowering the micro and small businesses and professionals in our country. I think most of you who follow my blog and vlog (https://youtube.com/gingerarboledavlog) know this and know my plan for my life.

Another thing that I’d like to do and Frances and I are really trying hard to spread the word is to connect every women to other women who can support them. We are doing this using the Lean in PH (https://www.facebook.com/groups/leaninph/) a Lean In Network that we started here in the Philippines.

Moving on, in my 50s or probably 60s and onwards toward the end of my life, I’d like to focus on helping younger people who also want to make their voices heard and who want to make this world a better place.

At the end on my life, I want to be able to say that I left the world knowing that my daughter is living in a better world because I tried to make it a better place for her.

Where did all these self-reflection come from? Haha! Just wanted to share this super duper nice feature that the Belle De Jour team has created.

This comes with a FREE eBook/Workbook that you can download here: https://shop.ilovebdj.com/blogs/news/ginger-arboleda-on-nurturing-your-gift-of-self

This really inspired me to share my thoughts today. Now, for you reading this, I’d love to get to know you. How about you?

Where are you now? What are you doing? Do you have your own life line? Share it with me by leaving a comment below or leaving a comment on social media and use #GINspiration.

Some other articles that you may want to read:

What is Life All About? (My Easter Reflection)

It’s so tragic to see in the news that this Motel mogul and his pilot died yesterday. I hate seeing these kinds of things in the news, because I automatically think that they must be dear fathers to daughters and sons, and that their wives might be grieving or that they might have had some unfinished business to take care of. I continue to pray for the families of these two gentlemen and I continue to pray for those injured. I will also pray for their families, that they may stay strong.

News of this in this link: http://cnnphilippines.com/regional/2015/07/05/2-die-6-injured-in-helicopter-crash-in-Batangas.html

When you pass away, I know it’s a morbid topic, but oftentimes, these are the things that we fail to think about. These are even the things that will possibly and probably make us better individuals. A lot of us are content with what we have right now — but are these the things that you really want given this precious life? In my business coaching sessions, I ask people to list down dreams and wishes that they want to achieve within three years, and a lot of them have a hard time even listing them down. Have we become so jaded that even dreaming has become way too mechanical?

I love contemplating. It sometimes becomes a bad habit that I tend to defocus from what I am supposed to do for the day (case in point, I was about to go through my daily tasks, but the sad news made me deviate from it and now I’m writing this blog). Today, at this very minute, I decided to focus on writing a list of what I should ask myself if I feel like my life is losing meaning.

1. Are you genuinely happy with what’s going on in your life?
This question may be vague, but I should start by asking myself this. We can be fooled as to what “genuinely happy” means because of what society dictates. If society dictates that we should be happy if we have a mom and a dad, we automatically believe that you can’t be happy with having a single parent. We are then considered “broken”. If society dictates that we should be happy if we have a huge house with a swimming pool, we automatically believe that we can’t be happy when live in a rented apartment with water coming in once in a blue moon. If society dictates that we should only be happy if we had a waist line as small as Marian Rivera’s (Did you know that she had a 19-inch waist line?), we couldn’t be happy if ours was at 30 inches and beyond.

But looking at those scenarios, why do we let society dictate and tell us when and what should make us happy? I have a lot of friends who were raised or who are raising children by themselves and their families are genuinely happy. They have the sweetest kids and their relationships are amazing! Contemplating on what will make us genuinely happy is something that we need to do. Personally, the main thing that will make me genuinely happy is to see that my daughter grows up to me God-fearing, independent and a compassionate person. Nothing will make me prouder.

2. If you were a student preparing for an exam, what is your reason for procrastinating? It may be something that you need to do.
I got this idea from one of the students of the Win in Life Program . I asked the 11 year old boy what he wanted to be when he grows up and he said that we wanted to be a game developer. He said, “If it’s something that you do when you procrastinate, then it must be something that you should do.” Wise words from such a young lad! He did have a point. What we should do every day is something that excites us. It should be something that we are always willing to spend hours on; no questions asked. Our friends and family will have a hard time stopping us from doing this thing since they will see that we are so passionate about it.

People often tell me that I tire myself too much with all of the things that I’m doing, but most of the things that I do is something that excites me. These are things that keep me awake at night, because I’m raring and daring to go at it first thing in the morning.

3. Are you making the world a better place? How would you make it a better place?
In one of the trips that we had as a family recently, I got teary-eyed while looking at the different magnificent places in the Philippines. If there are so many undiscovered place in the country that I live in, I bet there are even more undiscovered places in the entire world. I got teary eyed because I was thinking that each one of us, if we just realize that we could actually change the world in our own little way, we will live in a better, safer and healthier world. And yet, it saddened me to see that we don’t see that.

We are all superheroes, and my wish for us all is that we see that. Maybe identifying what we can do for the world is jumping too far ahead, but I really wish that after reading this article is that you get to see that we can change the world by contributing a little “something” every day. Be it following garbage disposal rules in the village or the condo where we stay in, or just by picking up trash that we see on the street, or by just being kind to a stranger, we can be an important asset to our community and to the world.

Those are the three questions that I will always and consistently ask myself when I feel lost and confused. Feel free to follow me and ask yourself the same questions. Does your life have meaning? What do you do every day that will make this world a better place? I’d love to hear your thoughts.