Food for Thought: Discovering Your Passion

Everyday I'm sharing my friends in the mobile world inspiring quotations I got to read from books and blogs. It is called Food for thought. Before, it started out as a text message from my fiance Edel Ramilo, however, since I'm the one reading books nowadays, it is my time to share daily messages to my friends. My friends are loving it! Since they are loving it, I want to share Food for thoughts here in my blog as well.

So here it goes.

"Passion and satisfaction go hand in hand, and without them, any happiness is only temporary, because there's nothing to make it last."

I got this nice quote from Nicholas Spark's Dear John.

This quote is telling us that we need to do our passion and at the same time be satisfied with the results we are getting. In that way, we can have total satisfaction.

But most of the time, we are stuck in determining our passion.

I would like to focus my thoughts on finding your passion on this post.

HOW TO DETERMINE YOUR PASSION?

Photo from Hugh Mcleod's blog GapingVoid.com. 

I remember a facebook wall comment from my mentor Jomar Hilario. He is suggesting that to know our passion, we write down hundred things we love doing. Then try it out one by one. From that list, we can determine that thing we are very passionate about. The thing that enables you to enjoy waking up in the morning even though there are a lot of resistance to do that certain task (cold weather, lack of sleep, etc) is your passion.

By the way, in doing this exercise don't limit yourselves with what is real and what is not. You'll be surprised that anything is really possible.

I remember last year, Edel and I realized one of our passions. We realized that we love to travel. We are passionate to conquer the world by visiting beautiful places, meeting new people and experiencing different cultures.

We had no budget for travel by that time but I told her that "don't worry, before this year ends we will go to Cebu". Do you know what happened? Days after that, we received a text message from our friend looking for ten volunteers who will facilitate and lead delegates all over the country on their historical field trip to Intramuros and Cebu. We immediately said yes!

It was an amazing experience. And by the way, that's my first trip to Cebu and it was for free.

Until my next post!
eLviN

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My first Virtual Assistant (VA) Experience

My first official VA job requires me to answer emails for various events. At first it was strolling in the park. Then after the promotion that they did, I started receiving more than 70 emails per day. Take note, this requires me to answer them all at once. This could be done easily but since I have so many things to do (day job, gimmick, attend financial seminars etc) this is damn hard.

Also, having this number of emails in one day requires me to stay up late. And based on my experience it is not right for us to sacrifice our sleep just to get things done. I learned that human beings have our own sets of limitations. One of those limitations is time (I created a post related to this please feel free to check it out : Duplication).We can only work at the maximum of 16 hours a day to have good enough sleep. We need those 8 hours of sleep to have a healthy body and a refreshed mind. (Additional note : Drinking of energy drinks or overdosing of caffeine is not a permanent solution for this. Take note, NOT THE PERMANENT SOLUTION because I know that there are very hardworking people out there who drinks a lot of energy drinks or coffee just to stay awake. This is very, very unhealthy).

By being a virtual assistant and an employee at the same time allows me to learn an important trait. This trait is called discipline. Balancing my time is really, really a challenge for me. But by becoming a VA, I learned how to balance my time at the same time I learned how to discipline myself. Again, it’s hard but it’s worth it.

***BONUS***

Five things I have to change to be a VA 

1. Less time with television, social media sites and computer games (Btw, I still have time to blog www.elvinperia.com)
2. Reduce OT hours from the office
3. Proper time management
4. I open my VA's gmail account instead of my own account (i used different internet browsers to have two accounts at the same time)
5. Instead of reading I listened to books.

Five benefits to me of being a VA

1. I learned how to balance my time (or should I say maximize)
2. I learned how to discipline myself
3. More sources of income (though active)
4. Enables me to learn new skills
5. Enables me to expand my network

Five bad things about being a VA

1. I’m still an employee
2. VA work is an active not passive source of income
3. Improper time management equals lack of sleep
4. Unscheduled brownouts, unscheduled activities and lack of internet connection can ruin the day especially if you have tons of emails to answer
5. Waking up early in the morning to maximize time is hard (really, really hard)

eLviN

PS. The purpose of finding another source of income for me is to achieve my financial freedom. I want to make sure that I invest the right amount so that in 18 years time I can have my money working for me. I learned this by attending Intenational Marketing Group's Wealth Academy Series which provides me ways on how to get out of the rat race. Wealth Academy offers (1) Financial Education, (2) Discipline and (3) Entrepreneurship. In case you're interested email me at ask@elvinperia.com for more details.

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Managing Spare Time : Virtual Assistant + Serving GOD + Financial Education

I had a tremendous week.

My spare time is well spent. I can’t believe that I actually did those stuffs.

Anyway, let me share what happened to me this week.

I started my week with a bang. Just came from a blessed Easter Sunday. Edel and I celebrated the Easter Sunday attending the Grand Feast at SMX Convention Center in SM Mall of Asia. I’m so blessed to have almost all of my mentors in one place. I talked to our financial mentor Dr. Dada Rosanes of International Marketing Group with her kids. I discussed virtual assistant stuffs with my Internet Marketing mentor Jomar Hilario while waiting patiently for the food queuing area. I listened to Bo Sanchez’ awesome preach, the first part of the Overcome Series. There are various published articles online that discusses the things that happened during the Grand Easter Feast. 

Feel free to check them out.

Edel’s Choose to be Wealthy Article

Bo Sanchez’ blog post : Be a Sponge and Absorb God's Blessings

Later that afternoon, Edel and I had a great full body massage at Rafraf together with Marvin located in Halang Calamba Laguna. After that Marvin, Edel and I discussed our future plans regarding our business. We’re on the path in making this a reality. Soon you’ll find out. In case you’re interested to join feel free to email me at projects@elvinperia.com.

This fuels me to start my week right. I’m so fired up!

I went to the office. I had mountains of things to do to start my week. I need to prepare the Post Campaign Analysis for Malaysia, prepare the March Month End Excess Inventory Report, submit the daily inventory report and the weekly service reports, give an orientation about the service and inventory reporting plus other stuff and attend a lot of meetings.

Anyway, these tasks are the things I need to accomplish within the week. Sounds like an easy task but most of these reports require half to one day to finish.  Imagine that. 

This is the exciting part. Every after I finished my day job, I look forward to finishing my assignments as a virtual assistant. Having two jobs at the same time requires proper time management (which I'm currently learning). My tasks as a virtual assistant are just simple. It only requires me to answer emails, to save the inquiries in a template in Microsoft Excel and provide a daily update regarding the status of the project to my client. In fact, this week, as far as I know, I answered on an average, 50 emails in less than 1 hour. Cool right?

Also, this week, I re-started my passion. I joined Laguna Feast’s Music Ministry. In fact, I just got home from the band practice. Of course, I played the guitar. I learned 4 new songs. I met new people (people who are very passionate in serving God’s people thru their talents). Just in case you want to be part of Laguna Feast you may email them at LagunaFeast@gmail.com.

One more thing, of course, I attended Wealth Academy’s Series 10 entitled Distinctions in the mind of Poor, Middle class and Rich discussed by Wealth Academy’s proponent and CEO Noel Arandilla. On my next post I will be sharing the things I learned from this series.

Until my next post.

Ooops. Before I forgot. I'm posting this article using my email. I'm using a Blogger feature called Mail2Blogger. Mail2Blogger allows you to create blog posts using your email.

eLviN

PS. Rex Mendoza will be discussing the Entrepreneur’s Mindset this April 14 at the IMG Makati office. This talk is exclusively for IMG members. In case you want to attend seminars like this, please contact me at ask@elvinperia.com.

PS1. Do you want to serve? Laguna Feast will be conducting a Basic Communication Skills Training on April 11 and April 18. This will be for those who wants to be part of the Feast’s Servants.

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Farewell 2009 Hello 2010 Part 1

I believe that 2009 is such a successful year for me. Here are some highlights of my 2009.

Attended Jomar Hilario's Internet Marketing Workshop
Last March 28-29, I attended Jomar Hilario's Internet Marketing Workshop. This workshop opened my mind to the vast money making opportunities in the world wide web like blogging, creating sales letter, creating sales blog etc. It unlocked my skills as a HTML programmer (quite) and as a writer. This workshop really harnessed my computer skills to the next level.

Went to Puerto Princesa Palawan with Edel
Actually, a lot of firsts happened on this trip. Booked flights. Booked a hotel. Transfered reservation fees. Renewed my driver's license. Rode an airplane. Spilled a mocha frappe in an airplane (I'll never forget this experience). Met a cool tour guide (Ma'am Gloria, she definitely talks a lot!). Saw a lot of nature's wonders (Puerto Princesa Palawan is such a wonder). Saw a fighting monitor lizards. Met a couple who wants to travel a lot (imagine their flight cost them at around 1.5K each round trip!). After the trip we're invited by a Singapore-Philippines Association President to dine on his own restaurant in Malate.

Went on a business trip in Malaysia
Melisa, Tonie and I went to Avon Malaysia for a training. Just like in the Puerto Princesa Trip there are a lot of firsts happened on this event. Flew an international flight. Stamped my passport. Rode a train in an airport. Rode a right hand taxi. Rode a 110km/hour taxi while the taxi driver is opening his door (scary huh?). Got a Malaysian Ringgit. Slept in a hotel room alone. Saw a country with three different nationalities (Malaysian, Chinese, and Indian). Saw the Petronas Tower (amazing lights). Drank a sweetened milo in a plastic with straw (believe me, this is something new). Shared a book that changed the way I think of things (Michael Losier's Law of Attraction) with my boss and automatically it worked instantly without her opening/reading it. Went to Aquaria and Aquazone in Kuala Lumpur. Enjoyed a fish spa where my dead skin cells were eaten by fishes. And the best thing that happened in this trip? I got promoted!

Attended Kerygma Conference 2009 in Araneta Coliseum
The date is November 28-29. This is my first time to attend an event in Araneta Coliseum (second time in Kerygma Conference). All I can say is, amazing! This event is such a huge inspiration for us to dream big and win big in all areas in our lives. My mind was blown to the highest level. Bo Sanchez is such a talented man who wants everyone of us to be a champion. He's a great instrument of God's Love. I really experienced God's miracle in this two-day event. By the way, I'm with Edel, Marvin, Liz, Faye and Gerald.

More firsts (uncategorized)
Ordered a book in Amazon online. Created a social networking site in ning. Replaced my 5 year old CPU. Became part of company's First Friday Mass Choir (I'm the guitarist). Learned how to invest in stocks, mutual funds etc. Learned how to plan for the future finances. Been able to setup mid term goals. Won in a Christmas Party raffle (consolation prize but I still won, thanks to Law of Attraction!).

Got a mentor in real estate in the name of Ann Salvador (Crown Asia Condos) and Trace Trajano (more of online mentorship : buyfirstdeal.com), in our finances Rachelle Paunlagui (more of investing in stocks, mutual funds etc) and Dra. Dada Rosanes and Engr. Noel Arandilla of IMG (almost anything about investing), in internet marketing, Jomar Hilario and my spiritual mentor Bo Sanchez who taught us how to be a champion.

I believe that there are a lot more things and accomplishments that happened this year. I'm glad to say that 2009 is really our mentor year. Just like we planned last year, we will be looking for our mentors that will guide us in all aspect of our lives and it really happen. Now we have a couple of mentors guiding us in every step that we take. We ask them questions if we're uncertain. We seek for their advice. Believe me, they're priceless. I know these handful mentors of us will bring us to the top. These mentors will help us to conquer our fears and push us forward to achieving our dreams.

On my next post, I'll be sharing my fearless forecast for 2010.

P.S.1.You can have your own sets of mentor as well to start the year right. You can start by joining different online clubs if you don't like travelling often to different places. If you're looking for your online spiritual mentor, you can try listening to Bo Sanchez' talks and preachings for free in preacherinbluejeans.com. Or you can subscribe to KerygmaFamily where you can receive a lot of Bible reflections in your email daily, again this is for free. You can check the highly recommended site portion of this blog to know other online mentoring programs.

P.S.2. In case you're somewhere near in Makati area and have a spare time every Monday and Wednesday night or whole day Saturday, you can attend International Marketing Group's Wealth Academy Series. In this series, you'll learn about handling your finances that would definitely help you BIG TIME in the future. Did I mention that the first 3 series are free? I forgot to mention that IMG is located in 3/F King's Court I Building, 2129 Don Chino Roces Avenue, Makati City.

This is worth sharing!

I found a new online mentor. I met him through my other mentor Jomar Hilario. Actually, I've heard about him before but not until now I realize that he's a great guy. I think he's a good writer. A good and Godly person.

Why?

Because Bo Sanchez is reading his works! I believe Bo Sanchez has a lot of great ideas because he reads a lot of great books from great minds of great authors. One of those is my new online mentor. By the way, I recently subscribed in his newsletter and believe me, I got tons of great information at that instant. Imagine that.

He's giving away a book which contains dozens of useful information about life, about writing a book, about secrets in the web, etc name it he has it. You can get this book as well by going to this link.

By the way, I forgot to mention his name. His name is Seth Godin. He has written 12 bestsellers that has been translated to 33 different languages.

To know more about him, visit his website : http://www.sethgodin.com/

Trust me, you'll learn a lot from his works. Also, I think it is best if you join his mailing list, for sure you won't regret it. To give you a sample of his works read the quoted article below.

If I had to pick one piece of marketing advice to give you, that would be it.

Now.

Make something happen today, before you go home, before the end of the week. Launch that idea, post that post, run that ad, call that customer. Go the edge, that edge you've been holding back from... and do it today. Without waiting for the committee or your boss or the market. Just go.

It's one of the short articles of Seth Godin but really powerful, concise and direct to the point. There's a lot more on his site.

One more note, I suggest you surround yourself with lots of people better than you. Why? So that you'll be able to learn more from their mistakes, from their experiences, from their failures, from their successes.

Okay, I think that's about it for this post. Until next post. Merry Christmas!

Internet Marketing Workshop in Cebu Endorsed by Bo Sanchez

Just sharing the biggest hands-on internet marketing workshop in Cebu. This workshop is being endorsed by Bo Sanchez.

This message is just a reminder for you that the early bird promo for the Cebu I.nternet M.arketing Workshop this coming Dec. 12-13 is only until today. So if you're going to deposit today, you can save a hefty 1000 pesos.

To register for this dollar income generating workshop, Deposit the amount of P 8750 asap to this bank account:

BDO Butuan City Branch, Savings Account: 2000026229. Name: Jan Mckingley Hilado. or BPI Savings bank account 3216-3898-62 Name: Jose Mario R Hilario. Corinthian Plaza Branch, Makati City.

For more info on this event: http://www.janmckhilado.com/2009/11/2nd-cebu-14-hours-hands-on-internet.html

or email: cebuworkshop@gmail.com for inquiries and reservations.

Lesson Learned : Act Now!

Yesterday Edel and I attended the second day of Jomar Hilario's Internet Marketing Workshop in Cubao Quezon City. I'm happy to see my Internet Marketing mentor, Jomar, again for the fifth time (fourth time this year). We facilitated the event. We've met a lot of acquaintances with the same mindset of getting rich through the use of technology, in this case the power of the Internet.

This is my second time to attend the Day 2 of the workshop. Day 2 is about creating your own online business. I remember that when I attended the workshop last March 27-28, 2009, I was overwhelmed. There's so much idea that I need to learn in order to setup my own business online. I was not able to grasp all of it. Thankfully, after the workshop yesterday, I was able to understand it more.

The greatest lesson I learn yesterday about the workshop is not about creating sales blog, not about creating an autoresponder, and not about becoming an affiliate marketer. The greatest lesson I learned is how to act now. Jomar keeps on saying these three powerful words are (1) ACT!, (2) ACT! and (3) ACT!.

I guess he's right. The only thing I need to do is to act. And the best time to act is now!

You might ask, why now? Do you have everything you need?

My answer is Oh Yes!

I have all the arsenals I need in order to succeed. I got my knowledge, my skill, my mentor, my Internet connection, my computer, my mentor, my sexy editor, my virtual assistant, my soon-to-be life partner, my time, my energy and everything I forgot to mention. They are all ready. They just need me to make use of them. They just need me to make that very first step towards that goal of becoming a multi-millionaire internet marketer and best selling author.

And you know what, I'm happy to say that I made my very first step.

I hope you will be able to make that first step too...

P.S. Before the end of 2009, I will be publishing my very first best selling book. So watch out for it.

Events this November

It's has been a week since my last article was posted on this blog. Well you see, I'm a bit excited how the things are coming our way. Big thanks to God and to the law of attraction of course. For this post, I'll be giving you my activities for the month. Okay? Let's start.

Today, Edel and I will be meeting our financial mentor. She will be coaching us on how to invest in stock market. Also, she will be teaching us on how to secure a life insurance. If you read Bo Sanchez' book about 8 Secrets of the Truly Rich you'll know what I mean. Honestly, we've been praying for a financial mentor near our area so that we can meet them on a regular basis.  I thank God that He responded. God is really a good provider.

On the second week of November, I will be out of the country for the first time of my life. I will be going to Malaysia for a company training. I will be there for a week. Gosh! I'm excited.

On the third week of November (November 20-21), my internet marketing mentor will be having his Internet Marketing Workshop in Cubao. This workshop opened my eyes to the world of internet business. If you want a semi-passive income via internet then come and join on this internet marketing workshop. For more details check out this link http://bit.ly/8eMVo.

Finally on the last week of November (November 28-29), we will be attending the Kerygma Conference at Araneta Coliseum. Kerygma Conference is a two-day conference that includes daily Mass, worship, talks on practical ways to live the Gospel, and healing session. For more details click on this link. http://kerygmaconference.com/

Definitely this month will be great!

I Thank God for giving us all that we need to do, all that we need to learn and all the resources that we need in order to succeed in this life.

Okay? That's it for this post.

Ooops. Before I forgot, also on this month, I will be getting my ordered book entitled Cash in Flash. If you want to know more about cash in a flash check out this link.