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The Political is Personal
It was like my life was flashing before my eyes. Those outfits! Why were our shirts always tucked in? No way to hide “pusons” ( swell of the tummy) and wide hips ; and we were not even “obsessed “about our bodies like many young people these days are about being thin. Jeans that were so flared they could sweep the floor clean! All those feelings coming back.. the bittersweet angst of young love , long distance relationships , at a time when there was no SMS, FaceTime , Viber etc.. Feeling rebellious and angry because your parents were so strict ; and now, you miss those days when your parents were young and strong. Is that why the audience is said to have an emo reaction to the song Batang bata Ka Pa? ” ( A parent telling a child: You are young and have so much to learn.)
Martial law… yes, martial law. You look back and shudder at what we have been through. My friends who were active in the Communist Movement corrected me when i said that Marcos had to declare martial law because Communism was on the rise. No , they said. They had gone underground and their ranks quickly and then steadily grew BECAUSE of the declaration of martial law. The killings and the tortures, specially by the infamous Col. Abadilla ( mentioned in the play) just kept the numbers increasing.
And then there is that “ What if..” question, be it Love❤️😉 or the Economy. What if the Marcoses who were in power for 20 years had not mismanaged the economy ? The play referenced the open secret in those days: the Marcoses would get a share in your company , without giving any equity. I have a close friend who belongs to a family known to be a Marcos crony. I asked her , “Why did your family become a Marcos crony?” She became emotional . She said that a member of the Marcos family ( guess who?) went to their office and told them that the company should prepare to close shop if they did not agree to “partner” with the Marcoses. Exactly the script of the play🙄. I remember the same rumour about the company where I had my first job. In the 70’s , it was making vehicles and appliances- television sets, stereos etc.. Yes, with Filipino technology. Rumor had it that the Marcoses wanted a share and that the Filipino industrialist refused. The company no longer exists. What if the government had encouraged Philippine industries then? What was Samsung back in the 70’s after all?
As the all -true cliche goes; it was the best of times , it was the worst of times. Perhaps the disquiet and torment of that period brought forth the creativity of the golden age of Filipino cinema and Original Filipino Music. In an irony some people might find hard to accept but in fairness to Imee and Imelda, the two women played vital roles in providing incentives for these art forms to flourish. The Apolinario Mabini Hiking Society, or APO for short needed no such incentives of course. We were lucky to catch Jim Paredes last night. I had the privilege of working with him for a PMAP production. A truly upstanding fellow. I didn’t like his yellow politics though. But I was ugly-crying when Jim Paredes went up the stage to congratulate the young performers. What were the tears about, you have to wonder? The past, maybe. My youth. All the good and bad. The lost loves and the ones that got away😉. My country. All the young and idealistic people of my generation who gave up their lives for the Philippines. Crying for what could have been. And yet, proud about how we managed to climb out of that hellhole and rebuild our country’s economy. Sad that the more things change , the more they remain the same. The drug killings of poor people. The Marcoses back in power. That’s life. And the Political is always Personal.
10 Unconventional Ways to Manage your Time
You cannot manage time; whatever you do, there will always be only 24 hours.
It takes us less time to do the things we love to do. We procrastinate and take more time to complete work we do not enjoy.
What we actually manage are our energies and not time.
Here are some tips I wish to share with you:
- Start with your physical energy. Don’t sleep with your phone. And stop binge-watching Netflix! I am not exaggerating; your Smartphone can destroy your life. Not only does binge-watching affect the quantity of my sleep; if I watch just 2 episodes of The Crown (or 4 of The Big Bang Theory) before sleeping, I keep waking up just after I have fallen asleep. And then I hate myself in the morning. I leave my phone downstairs now and I am sleeping like a teenager. Just having my phone around me keeps my mind awake.
- Exercise. Not only is it crucial for your health; the good people who are studying The Science of Happiness at the UC Berkely point to it as one of the factors that increases feelings of well-being. You do not need to go the gym. Get some routines from the internet, buy weights and then exercise while watching tv. Just do it.
- Help yourself to get motivated about parts of your job you do not like doing. You have heard the advice “ Find yourself a job you enjoy and you will never work a day in your life.” The reality is that for most of us, there will always be aspects of a job that are truly not enjoyable. No manager enjoys calling out dysfunctional behavior. We might not want to do boring, administrative tasks that however are crucial for compliance or risk management. Develop the self-awareness to understand why you put off doing some tasks. Do you need to develop managerial courage? Do you need to strengthen the skills to talk to your people? Can you delegate some parts of administrative work so that you don’t need to do too much of it? Find a solution.
- Trick your mind into making difficult or large projects seem easy. If I were writing an article for instance, I might make a deal with myself to write everyday for just 15 minutes. And of course, what happens is that I will write more than 15 minutes! If I get into the flow, I might just finish the article. But you see, I started writing because 15 minutes sounded easy!
- Focus on the reward and not on the task. I will tell myself “ By 9:00, you have to be in bed to read your delicious new book , so you better finish writing that report.” What happens is that many times , I want to write more and go beyond the self-imposed time limit. It is silly, but tricking my mind works.
- Do not make a “To Do “ list for the day and schedule your every hour. From experience, we know that the day will not happen as you planned it. Instead, determine what is the most important thing that you should do today- one that will have the greatest impact on revenues, relationships etc.. and then put this on top of your To Do Today List , along with the other important and urgent tasks for today. The productivity guru David Allen suggests a second list – Next Action Steps, things you need to complete within the week.
- Create your list of “Important but not Urgent” projects ( the leadership quadrant in Covey’s time management . )These plans are the biggies you need to break down into daily, weekly or monthly manageable activities so they do not seem overwhelming and remain a dream. These will go into your daily lists.
- Create a system so things do not fall into the cracks, specially if you are responsible for getting things done through other people. You can use the features in Outlook or an old fashioned notebook to monitor tasks that need to be completed. Ask your assistant to help you in monitoring.
- When you wake up in the morning, think of the things you are grateful for. It will give you tremendous energy for the day.
- Pray and seek God’s grace. ” More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.” Planning + prayer are two blades of the same scissor that will cut through the problems in our life.
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