TELL ME THURSDAY: Your Public Speaking Fears

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m working on a talk I’m doing next week and I could use your help! Research has shown that most people would rather die than speak on stage. I can see how that’s possible! Tell me: What are the challenges you face when speaking in public?

Continue reading...

5 Reasons why Teaching & Speaking are like Kayaking & White-water Rafting

“You never paddle the same river twice.” My uncle–the adventurer extraordinaire Anton Carag, Jr.–was in the middle of briefing our family about kayaking and white-water rafting when I stopped to write what he had just said. I had a feeling there was a deeper lesson in there somewhere. Fast forward to today. I was busy [...]

Continue reading...

What are you doing with your talents and gifts?

When I think of giftedness, I think of Howard Wong. You know, Howard. You don’t know Howard? Well, you should. This is Howard. This Malaysian boy is 3 or 4 years old in this video, which I think was taken this year. (You can find the awesome excerpt below, but if you want to see [...]

Continue reading...

How to make an impact when teaching, speaking, or simply sharing

I have two more talks lined up this month, and when I prepare for a talk, I put a lot of thought into my outline or mind map for the talk. I don’t get too picky about every single word that I’ll use as I speak, but I do make an effort to make sure [...]

Continue reading...

7 Important Lessons I Learned as a Preschool Teacher (A guest post by Carisse Escueta)

There are few people I know who can match the patient, calm, and quirky nature of my dear friend, Carisse Escueta, which explains why people (especially children) are instantly drawn to her. In many ways, she can be likened to Mary Poppins, because she is pleasant, charismatic, talented, and without a doubt, one of the [...]

Continue reading...

Tell Me Thursday: School Talk!

For today’s Tell Me Thursday post, I decided to do something different: I asked friends from different backgrounds (music, TV, radio, sports, publishing, business, etc.) to share their answers to get the ball rolling! Today’s Tell Me Thursday question is… What is one topic or subject you wish they had taught when you were in [...]

Continue reading...

A powerful insight about grace

Early this year, I had the privilege of seeing and hearing philosopher, professor, and author Dallas Willard speak in person at the Catalyst West 2010 conference, where he was interviewed on stage by one of my favorite authors and speakers, John Ortberg. This session was one of the highlights of the conference for me. Willard [...]

Continue reading...

Practicing what you preach can be easy (or easier!)

Okay, here’s the truth: practicing what you preach isn’t easy at all. I should know, I’m a teacher, and I struggle with this a lot. You know that saying that goes, “Those who can’t do, teach”? I’ve always thought that was a little harsh. But there is a sad truth behind this: sometimes it’s just [...]

Continue reading...

Words I'd like to teach to my future kids

There are some words that I’ve known and used all my life but I didn’t really fully understand. I don’t want it to be that way with the kids that I hope I’ll have one day. I’d like to have the chance to sit down with them and talk to them about words and ideas [...]

Continue reading...

It is a great privilege…

…to be around these people. I only wish there was more time. Maraming salamat II-KTM! :-) The opportunity to share LIFE with you has been one of the best blessings.

Continue reading...

The best career advice I can give

I went back to my alma mater (Saint Pedro Poveda, formerly known as Poveda Learning Centre) yesterday to give a career talk. I’ve done several of these throughout the years, but it was my first time to give this talk in the school where my first dreams were born. It was in Poveda that I [...]

Continue reading...

So you want to be a volunteer! (Part 1)

Early this year, I had this thought: “I want to be of more service.” I was doing the occasional outreach, but I felt I needed to be more consistent. I wanted to be face to face with the people I wanted to serve, not just reading about them or blogging about them–I wanted to interact [...]

Continue reading...

I ♥ the youth! (DAY 1 of the 30-Day Blog Challenge)

As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to take on Mariel‘s 30-Day Blog Challenge. My problem is that I wanted to start blogging about A LOT of different stuff that I didn’t know where to start! So I decided to ruthlessly make some edits and save the rest for the other days. So [...]

Continue reading...

Update / 30-day blog challenge warm-up!

This month has been a busy month…in a good way! I’ll be teaching/coaching for the first time today at the University of Makati together with the other LIFE teachers/coaches. I’m looking forward to this! I also started a new women’s small group with old friends and new friends that meets on Tuesday nights. Busy, busy! [...]

Continue reading...

Would you like to help us by making a donation? Big or small…we'll welcome all!

Hi everyone! On July 31 (that’s this Friday!), Republikha (our NGO–find out more about us @ http://www.republikha.org) will making another visit to our first beneficiary at GK-Poveda (their community is in Taguig City). In the morning we will be teaching the kids (preschoolers!) about music. After that we will be sitting down with some of [...]

Continue reading...