This Week I Will.....

I have been spending needlessly again these past few weeks, which really irritates me.  So anyhow, this coming week, this are some of the things I want to do.

1.  My CDS to listen to and DVDs to watch are piling up again!  So I should stop buying CDs for a while till I listen to all of them or write about them.  So no CDs or DVDs till I watch everything that I have bought!!  Ditto for books!  I bought another batch last weekend, now they're piling once again!  Whew!! Bad, bad habits are so hard to break!

2.  I have been buying foreign brands again for my toiletries!  I should revert back to buying local products, especially for soap, shampoo, conditioner and toothpaste.  Support local industries everytime you buy something.

3.  Even for eating out, I have always gone to KFC so I should instead go to a local fastfood or go to the fast food court area and patronize local restos.

4.  Concentrate more on goals especially when making schedules.  Prioritize Ivy League assignments first, then library clients, then blogs, then Spanish, then French, then book, then leisure reading.  Don't prioritize movie watching.  You can always catch them on cable later. 

5.  I plan to go to the dentist this week to have my jacket done on my tooth.  That would cost me 10K but it's tough to have a sore tooth!

6.  Prioritize French Open this week.  Listen to XLR8 CD to prepare for their show on Thursday. 

7.  I plan to add swimming to my weekly fitness repertoire this week.  I have to keep my body guessing.

Well, it's a long list this week, I hope I can follow them to the letter.

This Week I Will: Getting My Daily Dose of God

I don't really call myself religious but one of the things I decided on doing after Holy Week was to attend mass again everyday.  Because I can actually do it.  I have arranged my life in such a way that I can do the things I want to do and still work at the same time.  One of the realizations I learned during the Holy Week was that I love God and one way I can do that is to spend time with Him, even for at least one hour a day.  And so the day after Easter Sunday, I just did that!  And I haven't stopped ever since. 

I have even taken it to a higher level now.  I actually read the First Reading and the Gospel of the day already.  I actually bring a Bible to church now and read it along with the readers and the priest.  It gives me a better understanding of the readings of the day, instead of just being a passive listener. It actuall feels good to devote time to God everyday.  Allows me time to talk to Him and tell Him my concerns and of course, to praise Him and ask for forgiveness as well.

This Week I Will.....

Probably the best reflection I got over the weekend is how I've misplaced Christ in my life, so this week, I am making some reparations for that.  I used to go to mass everyday, precisely because I can. I have designed my life in such a way that I'm not too busy to do things that really matter - like spend time with the kids, write and have time for God.  I am not really big on rituals but I read in a sermon guide today that the main reason that you go to mass, is not really for the rituals or to make your weekly beeline asking for favors but because you love God, and nothing more. 

So this week, I am going back to my previous habit before of going to mass everyday.  I actually already planned the Monday and the Tuesday schedules.  So let's see if I am able to achieve this throughout the week.

I was also thinking of fasting at least once a week, to maybe let my bowels rest and not go overdrive like they do, since I eat like a pig!  Anyhow, I have to really think about this since my daily activities do not change and I should have enough energy to do things lest I faint!  I was thinking of making Thursday my fasting day.  It's possible!

Oh well, I hope I can follow through on these little sacrifices.  I know I can!

This Week I Will....

Well, I got into the mood of writing down what I wanted to do this week, so here it is.  I am writing in third person because it is like someone is telling me what to do.....

1.  Watch your diet.  Avoid Coke and softdrinks when you eat outside.  Just ask for water always.  I have noticed many people just drink water, even in restaurants.  Also, just bring your water jug wherever you go, like you used to, even to movies so you can cut down on buying sweetened drinks.

2.  Follow Daily Working Schedule so you can finish the book by December and have enough essays for your French blog.

3.  Pay for all tickets in cash so that you won't use your card.  You need the card for your August trip with Mabel.

4.  Vary your workout schedule. Return to Greenhills on Mondays and add Hip Hop and Attack on Tuesdays.

This Week I Will...... (January 9, 2011)

Well, it's been a week since the new year, and it's time to really make those resolutions work.  So for this week, these are the things I'm going to do -

1.  Start reading poetry, even for 30 minutes per day.  In this case, soon as I get home from the gym.  I discovered this poetry book upstairs and I'm interested in reading its poems, slowly, something like a poem a day!

2.  Allocate 30 minutes for my French brush-up.  Read 2 pages of the dictionary and then watch the French movie, at least for 30 minutes to hear it being spoken.  I have been successful in doing my diary in French on an everyday basis.

3.  Start to include swimming in my physical regimen this week.  I have scheduled it every Wednesday, after my Spanish class.  I should arrive in the pool by 5:30PM.  I plan to swim for 1 1/2 hours tops and be at Trinoma by 8PM for my date with bhe.

4.  On Wednesday, I will ask at Lyric Trinoma about their keyboard lessons.  Plan to get one, at least twice a week, at least one hour a day.

5.  I have started my Spanish classes next week, so I plan to study it seriously and make sure I'm fluent in it by 2013.

6.  Clean every Sunday for 2 hours.  I have to make sure my room and the 4th floor is spic and span every week, so I have decided to allocate 2 hours of my Sunday time to cleaning it.  That way I can also purge it off things I don't need anymore.

This Week....I Will (For the Week starting December 13, 2010)

Since it's the Christmas season, I've decided to increase my tithing by 500% this week, primarily because I've felt the Lord has saved us this year from near financial ruin - and now that everything is slowly returning to its usual state - I feel that it's time to give back to the community once again.  I don't know why it's easy to spend on an expensive cup of Starbucks latte but not easy to drop four times the worth of that latte on the offertory bag every Sunday mass.  I wish to continue that practice this coming week.

Another thing I want to do this week is attend the nine day novena masses - which I've never done in my whole life.  I've attended, maybe three dawn masses in my whole 39 years here on earth.  Such a shameful statistic!  This week, I want to rewrite that, and finally complete the whole nine days.  It's not going to be easy, but as they say, if there's a will, there's a way!

This Week I Will.... (for the week ending November 27, 2010)

Well, last week, I went back to my old habit of buying CDs and I think I bought too much and I'm afraid they'd stack up again without me ever listening to them. So I will limit it again to just one CD a week.  So that would be around 4 CDs a month. I will reserve two of those to OPM CDs and the rest to international artists. That should help boost my OPM stock a bit to 26 CDs in a year.  Before, I would only buy one OPM CD every 3 years.  I was so out of touch with OPM music.

These are the other things I plan to do this week -

1.  Clean the third floor room and clean up the first floor and donate all unneeded stuff.  The house should NOT turn into a MUSEUM!!
2.  No Coke or softdrinks this week.  Choose water if it's a meal and junk the soda.
3.  Return to watching one local movie a week and prioritize an indie movie.  It's funny that I'm a stranger to the entertainment produced in my own country.
4.  Change my workout program once again.  Add Attack and Jonas' Tuesday hiphop class. That should jolt me a little bit.

These are the things I want to continue to do this week -
1.  Pray the rosary upon waking up.
2.  Read for 30 minutes.  This week, I'm reading Jane Hamilton's 'A Map of the World'.
3.  Spend time with Mabel, my bff.

This Week I Will.....

"You cannot have innovation unless you are willing and able to move through the unknown and go from curiosity to wonder."  Well, innovation is too deep already, but starting this week, I want to add a weekly column wherein I talk about some habits I want to integrate into my life so that I could be a better person.  To make the task not so daunting, I would just choose two habits and add it into my already crowded schedule.  Of course, it can also work the other way, wherein, I get rid of habits which has made my life miserable! 

For this week, there are two habits I want to add -

1.  Consistently read in French - I'm thinking of doing it 30 minutes before I sleep.  That way, my brain does not work so hard and I can really ingest the information, since I've noticed that if I study too much, I tend to forget it!  By the way, the feedback on my French has been good, since I chatted with a friend yesterday, and he said it was perfect!  Bravo!

2.  To relax and watch a TV show or DVD - I am constantly running around or doing something while I watch the TV!  I just have to sometimes, relax and chill and just lay back and watch the TV!  In this multi-tasking world - even when I'm supposed to be relaxing - I'm still doing a thousand things simultaneously!!  I'm thinking of devoting one hour to this everyday.  I will pick a favorite show or if there's none, watch a DVD for an hour and concentrate on it!  I really have to know how to relax!