YOUNG VOICE
Annual Progress Report
BEFORE each year ends, there will always be a moment when you find yourself idle in thoughts. Time seems to go on slow motion and the only sounds you hear are the full gulps of breath, the throbbing pulses of heartbeat and a few tiny pops of aroma bomb from your behind. Your sight settles at one focus and everything else blurs (if this occurs for more than an hour you need to get your eyes checked). Your mind takes you back as flashes of memories crowd and muffle. Yes, before each year ends, some of us have our few minutes of review, some few minutes of rewind. Similar to a company, at every end of year, employees and their bosses wear suits and sit on a long table looking at a projected graph up front. These memories are like a company’s version of sales; these allow us to make each of our lives it’s very own annual progress reports.
But human tendency makes the progress report to be most often one-sided. Our tendency lures us to see the black dot instead of the white background; our human tendency entices us to see more of what is wrong than of what is right. We dislike Simon Cowell’s harsh attitude but reality-check, look in the mirror and you’ll see Simon in his Hulk form. We find it frustrating to see half of our new year resolutions have been left unchecked, have been left undone. We find it clogging in our throats to swallow the realities of failure, mediocrity and shame. We begin to envy others whose annual progress reports present a graph that continuously rises diagonally to the right with no downturns, no still coordinates; their graphs simply blurts out such an amazing year. Yippee. Good for them.
Too bad, I worked so hard pleasing my supervisor everyday and not once in twelve months did my photo make it to employee of the month frame.
What a bummer, I studied from rooster crow to another rooster crow, painfully purging and stuffing my brain with crammed knowledge and all this time I couldn’t get my butt from the 11th rank. Is one rank higher too much to ask?
How unfortunate, I bet and bet almost every night, it seemed that I have consumed up all the possible combinations in lotto and not once did my numbers hit the jackpot. What a waste of change!
The odds are against me, I invested so much on honing my physique to be fit for stardom and not once did I appear on television even on product endorsements. Oh come on, I was turned down on a hog pellet commercial audition!
These are but few examples of how entirely fault-finding we are.
I am an avid follower of Bo Sanchez’ preaching. In his book, Don’t Worry Be Happy, which by the way was given as a gift by my secret pal (SP) Bryan (thank you very much), Bo asks of our default question. He says just like an operating system we have our default questions and most of us have, “What’s wrong?” Those are the people who greet Mr. Sun with the line and I quote, “What’s wrong with my life?” Bo further shared that by having such default question, their spirits are gradually being killed since they find so many things wrong about themselves, they begin to dislike themselves. Occasionally, it’s healthy to ask, “What’s wrong with me?”, when you really know there’s something wrong. Otherwise your head might swell up in pure self-love and narcissism. I guess by now you know what Bo suggests our default question should be.
What is right? Yes, all of us must focus more on the positives, on what we have, on what we did not lose, on what still remains. Don’t you think it would be better to hear these before the year ends?
Whew! Although my photo did not make to the employee of the month frame, I’m glad I had my job stably for this year in that way I was able to buy my family what they need.
Thank heavens, even if I never got to be in the top ten, my studying paid off, I never descended from my rank as number 11.
Great! I still have a few coins to spare for today, I won’t lose hope and the excitement of suspense is keeping me alert and enthusiastic. Betting once again won’t hurt.
How fortunate of me! I have such fair skin and pimple free face while others, such as the writer of this article, do not.
When we become right-finding, I know that we will learn to love ourselves and ultimately be happy. We become happy in the simple parameters of contentment, of finding joy and appreciation in what we have rather than what we do not have. So what if you did not accomplish your new year’s resolution of learning ballet? Take a look at your sturdy not-built-for-dancing legs, others got theirs even cut off or worse were not even born with them. So what if you’re a goat in a bull’s zodiac year? It doesn’t mean you’re all unlucky.
“What’s wrong?” helps to us remain humble and fuels our drive to correct the impurities. But we still have the next year to correct them. Let us not dwell the last few days of this year in regrets and what-ifs, we’ll all be too sad and disliking.
I hope that each of us, yes that includes my fault-finding self, will all treasure the quick moment of our life review for this year. I hope we could all make our annual progress reports bearing in mind to not only focus on the downturns, on the descents of the graph but most importantly even the tiniest, the slimmest or the thinnest of the ascents. When we ask more of “What’s right?” I’m sure by then we will welcome 2010 with a renewed and optimistic spirit.
I wish everyone a Happy 2010!
(I still accept late Christmas presents. Comments, reactions, Facebook and Twitter to reylangarcia@gmail.com)
