Dr. George S. Chua l January 7, 2025 l Manila Bulletin
Year after year we try our best to turn our New Year’s Resolution into reality and in most cases we end up in failure. This year let us try to do it right this time by getting rid of the causes of our failure and finding things that will support our drive to succeed. Here are a few of the top things which are common sense but you may want to consider; first is stay away from negative people, second is to do your homework, third is to have a plan and fourth is be willing to make sacrifices.
Negative people are those who have nothing good to say about this world, those who are willing to cheat, steal and lie to get what they want, those who are unable to think constructively and manage to find a way to ruin everything. They have nothing to contribute to society and are just parasites that will suck the life out of you. It would only be logical for someone to avoid these types of people, however, through deception and misrepresentation they manage to get on your good side and pounce when the time is right. I am certain many kind hearted people are victimized by these charlatans. Sometimes you need to trust you gut and forget about giving them a benefit of the doubt and just kick them out of your life! The sooner, the better.
Doing your homework is necessary to accomplish your goals. For example, you want to be successful in life and the proper way to do this is through hard work by being an entrepreneur or having a progressive career. This would mean taking the right degree in school and studying hard to get good grades and learn many things before you graduate. Once you graduate, you work hard, establish your credentials and build up your career or business through many years of hard work, persistence and getting the job done! If the only measure of success is through the amount of money you have, then we can consider drug lords, crime syndicates and all sorts of criminals as role models. Of course, these people may justify their actions as legitimate, but we all know that they are just deceiving themselves.
Having a plan to get where you want to go means that you know where your destination is before you start the journey. For someone to get into his car and start driving without knowing where he wants to go is on a fool’s errand. Typically, having a plan means knowing which route to take, having enough fuel and supplies in your vehicle and even have a backup route just in case of road closures. Knowing how to go about achieving your goal is an essential element in having a successful outcome. A well thought of and properly executed plan with the support of the necessary people is something you need to be able to work on and get support for. As you get more experienced and sophisticated, you will realize and understand that the best plans can be modified to take into account changing circumstances and even changing goals!
Finally, if you really want to achieve your goals you often have to make sacrifices on your time, priorities, expenditures and even relationships. Being able to give up something now for a future gain is common and most successful people have had to do this. Be ready to do this with the full knowledge that you have something much more to gain in the future for making that sacrifice today. If you are unwilling to make that sacrifice, you have no one else to blame but yourself. Doing it right is a commitment you need to make to achieve your long-term goals, I hope you got that right this time.
*** (The views and comments of the author are his own and not of the newspaper or FINEX. Dr. George S. Chua was 2016 FINEX President, 2010 to 2020 FPI President, an active entrepreneur, regular member of the National Press Club, Professorial Lecturer 2 at UP Diliman and BGC, Vice Chairman of the Market Governance Board of the
Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. and loves playing golf. Comments may be sent to georgechuaph@yahoo.com or gschua@up.edu.ph) Photo from Pinterest.