Dare to dream dreams. Do not be afraid. Do not deny yourself that opportunity to change your life and make a difference in the lives of people simply because you fear failure. The real failures in life are those who dare not dream. The real failures in life regret not those which they did, but those which they did not attempt to do.

You can reach the sky. You can make your stairway to heaven. Close your eyes and you will see. Listen to silence, hear the whispers of your heart. And you will understand that which you do not hear, that which you do not see, that which you do not feel, that which you do not taste.

I heard people say that I boasted too much about my dreams. I described things which were impossible to do. Some of them refused to listen, understand, and follow. Until someone appeared and show why dreamweaving is not a bad thing at all. So, I listened to those who say that “it can’t be done” because I respected them. But I listen more to my heart. When my heart says it can be done, then it must be done. Something is impossible until someone makes it possible. Something us unreachable until someone reach it. Mount Everest is not simply there. Hundreds, I do not know the exact number, may be thousands have already said, “I am here”.

I am here now. Not yet that high. Not yet that significant for those who has achieved so much in life. But who cares. For those who did not move because they feared failures, I am miles and miles away. I have not yet reached the top of mountain, but certainly, I am getting there. I am have not yet finished my song, but I intend to finish it sweet and strong…

This is my story. And I like to know that someone have tried to show my the difference between possible is impossible are two letters: I and M. Impossible means I’m possible. I am possible. I am possible. I am possible.

I can be the best that I can be. I can be the best that I am. I am the best Jef Menguin there is. There are so many Albert Einsteins in the world. And maybe there are many Jef Menguins too. But this Jef Menguin in this corner will continue to aspire and inspire.

What about you? What do you aspire for? Whom do you want to inspire?

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The best day of our lives is today. The past is no longer here. We cannot enjoy it any longer. To dwell on the past is to waste the opportunity to enjoy the present. The future is a promise, a time that will not come because what we have is only today. When tomorrow comes, it will not be tomorrow anymore, it becomes your today. Sounds philosophical huh? But I am not trying to sound philosophical. You cannot enjoy tomorrow unless you know how to enjoy your today.

If you were to live to thirty years more, you are going to experience 10,957 todays. Given that you have that many days to live, it is easy to waste time. But every day that passed without your notice is day cut off from your life. Your life is a day shorter every new day.

How many of these days will be invested to building relationship with your family, friends, co-workers, and the people around you? How many of these days will be invested to learning new things, to increasing your value in the society, to making a difference in the world of one person or one million people? How many of these days will be spent for knowing yourself and your God? And how many of these 10,957 days do you intend to waste with worry, anger, fear, and frustration?

One favorite Bible verse say, “Lord teach us to number our days that we may gain the heart of wisdom”. And what wisdom have I learned from that verse?

Each day is a decision.

Whatever I do today is my decision. When I decided to speak with you, I have also decided not to do other things. I have chosen to be with you today. And you have chosen to be here today. You are spending one hour of your very valuable day with me. Some people plan for the future as if the future is something that you can reach by following a straight line. No, every moment is a moment of decision. There will be times that we will make bigger decisions, but we only come to these bigger decisions because of the small decisions we make at this moment.

Some people cry when they stumble. Others laugh. And there are those who pretend that nothing happened. Each action is a decision.

Do you know of people who are always late? Have you realized that these are also the same people who blame the traffic, the jeepney drivers, and the weather? Have you realized that these are the same people who complain a lot? And yes, the same people who find their days very toxic? Complaining is a decision.

Avoid the complainers. They are making their lives stressful and miserable. And they want you to feel the same. You need to accept that the way you spend your days and live your life is your responsibility. Each day is a decision whom you want to be with and what you want to do. You are the decision maker. You can choose to be happy and fruitful.

Each day is a decision to live.

Today is a gift; this is why it is called Present. How you use this day is up to you. At each new day, you decide whether to unwrap that gift, or let it stay in the corner and spoil. There are people who exist but do not live. They wake up each morning not knowing what to do. Ask them why they go to school, and they will be surprised by you asking that question. They say that’s what you are supposed to do to have a good job. Ask them why they go to work, and they say because everyone goes to work. So, they go to work, spending a portion of their valuable days for work they don’t want to do, with people whom they don’t want be with, for a place they don’t want to stay. And then they complain about being stressed. So, they attend stress management seminars and learn stress management techniques for a day. Go back to work expecting to be able to handle the stressors in the workplace. And they will be stressed further because they will find out that techniques do not work.

Stress for those who do not know why they live is suicide in slow motion. Stress for those who live with purpose energizes them. Stress reminds them to “press on”.

Each day is a decision to live your ideal life.

One great tragedy of our generation is that most people do not even pause to think about life, much more of ideal life. Deep within you is the desire to live an ideal life. Again, how do you intend to live each day of your life? What are the things which are important to you?

Another favorite bible verse says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these things will be given unto you.” This is my guide. Every day is opportunity to seek my real purpose. To live my purpose is my ideal life. Every day is a chance to live an ideal life.

I think one of my purposes is to inspire people. I only have 24 hours each day just like that you. Shall I spend my 24 hours with any of the following:

* Blaming the government for all the ills of the society,
* Reading newspapers which sells violence and sex,
* Watch TV shows like that steals productive time,
* Being angry with greedy thick skinned politicians who smile like angels (of death?),
* Worry about clients who postponed my seminars to next year,
* Doing nothing at home.

I believe that worry and frustrations have no place in my ideal life. To truly live my purpose, I must do everything that will realize my purpose each new day. It does not take seven seconds to decide. How about you, how do you like to spend your next hour? Will it help you realize your purpose?

Seek God’s purpose in your life. In every action that you need to do on a day, be clear about your purpose and everything will be clear to you. Yes, all of the things that you desire will given to you for you will only desire that which is connected to your purpose. No, life will not be easy when you live your purpose, but everything that comes your way will be clearer to you. And when things are clear to you, when you can see the horizon clearly, then you can walk on this earth with confidence.

Do you still worry about your boss getting angry with you? With your purpose clear in mind, you will realize that worrying won’t make you nor your boss happy. And who says that you have to be affected by your boss’s anger. You may not be able to make the day of your boss any better on that day (of course, you can always try), but you don’t need to ruin your day either.

Do you still worry about angry and difficult clients? There are those who call you names. But wait, are you not in control of your life? This client is just one of the many souls you will meet on this day, or in your lifetime. Your role for today is to help this customer solve his problem. You cannot allow him to ruin your day. Remember that 99 percent of your customers come to you because of good intentions. Most of them come to you because they trust that you can help. And there are many ways you can do to help them if helping customers is part of your “ideal life”.

Do you still sleep late? You hate watching that TV show until the wee hours but you do because there are no others shows. You are very tired working the whole day and now you want to comfort “relax”. I don’t have to counsel you. But as for me, I know that sleeping very late and watching TV half-asleep will not really help me. First, there is really no TV show or Night party which is more important than doing the things that I love doing. Second, I waste much energy when I sleep late. I wake up late and start late and finish late. This is not productive for me. So, why waste the opportunity to be at my best for something that will not really add a minute to my life, to my self-esteem, or even my value to this world.

Please do not get me wrong. I have nothing against you sleeping late specially when the night hours are your peak-energy hours. I know of some night people who are most most productive when they work late at night. I have no problem also with people who simply want to watch their favorite late night shows. But you may consider recording them so that you can watch them when you want to. I am sure there is a technology for that.

I challenge you to be clear about your purposes in life. Decide to live your ideal life.

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Take advantage of opportunities at work. You will spend more than at least eight hours with them everyday. Your office mates also need to feel that they are a part of something bigger than individual job descriptions. We care for organizations that care for us. Yes, we need a family away from home.

Rekindle past relationships. Get your phone book; keep in touch with friends whom you have not spoke with for more than a month. A simple call tells them that you care. You can email them, or send a post card. You will surely bring a smile to their face.

My friend, you can make this world really a better place to live in. Cultivate friendships.

Jef Menguin

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Miracles do happen — everyday. Every second, babies are born, flowers bloom, the sun rises and sets, people meet new friends and fall in love, good samaritans appear, and everywhere there is a new creation. A fish does not notice the water because she swims in it. Most of us don’t notice the abundance of miracles because they are everywhere, they are so natural like breathing. Oh, breathing, another miracle.

To become leaders, we must be grateful. Be thankful for everything that we have. Some of us ask God to help us become stronger and wiser. And when we don’t like what God gives us, we call it problems, not miracles. Be thankful. A philosopher once said that if you don’t know how to pray, a “thank you” is more than enough. Grateful people are happy people too. Leaders are not meant to be unhappy, don’t you think?

Try this experiment. For the next seven days, include this in your morning ritual: thank God for a new day. Start a Gratitude Journal. List everything that you must be thankful of.

Thank you.

–Jef Menguin

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5. Introduction

Thank you very much for a very productive conversation we had yesterday. I look forward to work with you on many projects in the future. I have “grand” plans for the Philippines. God willing, I hope you can help me in making a difference in the lives of our people.

I am interested in your future plans. You impressed me as an achiever, a dreamer, and truly entrepreneurial. You must have done more than what I have done. And I am privileged that you thought of communicating with me. Please tell me more of what you dream about, those dreams which give you energy to wake up every morning and when you resign at night make you look forward to the next day. I may be of small help, but whatever little help that I can give, you will get it full.

When two souls come together to accomplish small tasks, they produce great results. Everything starts with aligned intentions. Let me start with mine.

I like to serve my God with my best. He has given me talents to speak, to touch, and move people. I intend to make use of these talents. Every day, in every way, I will increase my value a hundred fold. People may not see it, but more important than what people see is what God sees in me. For you and me, we simply have to see ourselves with the eyes of God so that we become what we truly are. We are unique. We are valuable. We are masterpieces created in God’s own image. We are God’s caretakers. We are the Light of the world, the Salt of the earth. We may not do everything, but we are given the power to do everything with anything that we can do.

So, I will speak in churches, in school rooms, in the board rooms, everywhere I have an audience of one and ten thousand. Having known what I know, having survived my life struggles and thrived, having seen the potentials of people, I cannot help but speak.

So, I will touch and move people. We all need someone to show us how important we are. We can show people how important they are. And we can help them move up and grow up. Either we pull them up, or push them up. Filipinos are fed up with people pulling them down. I have realized that it is easier to pull them up. Filipinos are tired of people blocking their way. I have realized that it is faster to move when you are not blocking anyone. You move faster when you push them up.

But only those who want to move can be moved. I know that so I persist. Eventually, people will get tired of just being rooted in one place. So, yes like Socrates, I disturb their mind. Yes, like Paul, I tell them to change their way of thinking. Yes, like Cory Aquino, I show them that they are worth living for. Yes, like Zig Ziglar I sell. I sell hope. I sell dreams. I sell their greatness to them.

There are so many things we can do together. If your dream is to be a dynamic speaker, I say that you are your best teacher. I can tell you what I think, and show you what I do, but only you can teach yourself how to speak well. Don’t believe those public speaking books that say you can learn their way. You will always interpret a book based on your experiences and readiness. You read them, but it is you who will mold yourself. Thank those public speaking teachers for sharing with you their theories, but seek those speakers who when they speak people listen and lives are changed. You listen to them and observe them from an hour, and you may learn more from these inspirational speakers more techniques and principles than attending one year public speaking classes, or attending Toastmasters for ten months or even ten years. I have learned many beautiful things from Toastmasters. One of them is that if you like to know the secrets of the best speakers, stop listening to the midgets who shamelessly promote themselves as public speaking teachers. Yes, I can share with you one thing or two, but you are your best teacher.

I do consulting here in Manila. I design and facilitate training programs for companies. We can do the same in Cebu. We may offer the following programs to them.

Team Building. Most people think team building is all about games and recreation. Most people think that team building is a yearly event. I disagree. Team building is about helping the team overachieve its objectives; it is about producing the best results. Team building is a daily thing. This is why I have designed team building programs to address unique team problems. Every team building workshop is reflecting, thinking over, planning on what can be done in the work place. It does not  “build” the team in one day. These seminar and workshops make them hunger for the need to build the team daily in the workplace. Which organization do you believe need our help? Help them contact us.

Leadership. I have conducted leadership workshops and retreats for schools, churches, and private business. We can teach them coaching and mentoring skills, managing skills, developing personal leadership, and organizational leadership. I have learned so much from my personal experiences, from various leadership authors like Tom Peters and Jim Collins. I have also led strategic planning programs for churches using Appreciative Inquiry. Can you identify good markets for leadership workshops there in Cebu?

Communication. We can offer Cebuanos speaking and presentation workshops. The good thing about these workshops is that they are experiential. People learn best by doing. We will share to them the best principles that we know, but we accept the fact that we are not their teachers. They are their best teachers. We will help them recognize their strengths and sell to them their potentials. You will be amazed to see how some workshop participants change their attitude about speaking, and regain confidence within few hours. I said that they will regain confidence because I don’t believe that there is a person with low self-esteem when she was still a baby. The same is true with my Business Writing seminars. Frankly, I don’t teach them to write flawless letters. I help them make letters that create business.

I can provide you a list of the training programs that we can provide. You can become an expert to any of these programs by putting your heart into them, by understanding that you are not making them to make more money but to help your clients get rid of their problems and produce their desired results. Attached to this letter is my resume. This resume is not yet updated, but I believe you will see the big picture. I will send you an updated one this month. I am too busy thinking and speaking and touching and moving people that I lack the time marketing my seminars. I don’t worry though. God has caused people to call me.  Someone will even read this post and may think of people who need our help. I am sure that he or she will do something today. I have on average two callerswho  every day inquire about my teambuilding, communication, and leadership seminars. And He caused people like you to contact me so you can help me market my seminars. God gives us blessings every day. My clients are God’s blessings to me. You are God’s blessing to me.

To your greater success,

Jef Menguin
Cebuano

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When you ask people for help, you can focus on something you are good at. It is always a joy to do something you love. And when you do something you love, you are simply at your best. Let me give you an examples.

Why spend your precious time marketing your seminars when a company like Ariva or Salt and Light can do it better than you do. Focus your time developing training content and conducting workshops that give you so much joy. Yes, that is my advice to myself. And why spend one month designing and developing your website for a month when someone can do it for you in three days?

And most importantly, ask people for help because that doing speaks about how important they are in your life. The best strategy to motivate people is to ask them for help. Ask for help.

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I found that many of those who have successful and significant lives have humble beginnings. They come from various backgrounds. Some have no education, or family, or even a name. Most started with nothing but hope. The move from zero to hero through persistence, hardwork, and determination.

Some say that you can be successful when you are rich. Just look around. You will find that those who were sheltered from hardships when they were young found themselves struggling when the financial crisis visited their kitchens.

Struggles are just circumstances. What matters is not where you are, but who you are.

Jef Menguin is from the Philippines. He is a motivational speaker, a training consultant, an executive coach, a toastmaster, and a trying hard blogger. He specializes in leadership development, team building, customer service, coaching, and workplace communication.

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Do the most important things in your life today. Spend more time with your love ones, expand your potentials, and be happy today, not tomorrow. Tomorrow will surely come, but you may not be there.

Your answer to “What would I do today if it was my last?” will bring a new sense of energy and enthusiasm and purpose to your life. You will not miss the simple pleasures of life. You will build stronger relationships. You will be most, best, and great today.

This is your finale, your last day.

Jef Menguin is from the Philippines. He is a motivational speaker, a training consultant, an executive coach, a toastmaster, and a trying hard blogger. He specializes in leadership development, team building, customer service, coaching, and workplace communication.

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A person out of place is like a fish out of water. Its fins mean nothing, they are only a hindrance. The fish can do nothing but flounder out of its element.

Ed is a top executive of a multinational company. He told me that when he was young he wanted to be a pastor. But he has a family to feed, a lifestyle to maintain. He observed that he lost the enthusiasm, energy, and joy of work which he had when he was teaching high school students 15 years ago. He added that he was then creative, caring, and confident.

He said his head works for the company, but his heart is not into it. Sometimes, he felt like a robot. Because his position requires him to travel often, his time at home is for sleeping. He is no longer happy. He is losing his respect for himself. Ed is a fish out of water.

You will grow when you are working in an environment that make use of your talents and supports your values. When there is no more joy in what you do, you are now a fish out of water.

Jef Menguin is from the Philippines. He is a motivational speaker, a training consultant, an executive coach, a toastmaster, and a trying hard blogger. He specializes in leadership development, team building, customer service, coaching, and workplace communication.

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I realized that I wasted some of my days, weeks, months, and even years waiting for the big breaks. As I write now, I remembered that big breaks have knocked at my door, but I did not let them enter. These opportunities, in retrospect, are even bigger than what I was asking. I was not ready for them.

Yes, I did not recognize the big breaks, the opportunities because I was not ready. Because I was waiting to be ready. What shall I do? I will start writing my book today so I can offer it when the publisher comes. I will write my speech The Filipino Can today so that I can say YES to invitations when they come. I must be ready today, tomorrow, and everyday for opportunities come to everyone anytime soon.

List the things that you must do to ready yourself when opportunities come. Then prepare them. When you are ready, you can recognize and seize every opportunity, and every opportunity will seize you.

Jef Menguin is from the Philippines. He is a motivational speaker, a training consultant, an executive coach, a toastmaster, and a trying hard blogger. He specializes in leadership development, team building, customer service, coaching, and workplace communication.

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