Ramblings Intérieurs

212. Michael Phelps

No, this is not a re-post. This blog entry is all about a man who has done some remarkable things in the current 29th World Olympics, swimmer Michael Phelps.

Why 888? He has won 8 Olympic gold medal and now holds 8 swimming records under his name and he  did it in Beijing Olympics this year, 2008.

Michael Phelps should be an inspiration to all of us because of the amazing feats he achieved. We can learn a lot of things from him.

Number 1: Discipline

When he started to seriously pursue swimming, he had to sacrifice a lot. Tobogganing or going bowling with friends was ruled out in case he injured himself, late-night partying was a no-no, and girlfriends were pushed to one side to make room for practice. It was really hard but the sacrifices paid off. But Phelps has no regrets and instead revels in his exploits that have not only turned him into a millionaire.

For day after day, year after year, Michael Phelps practiced in his club pool,
building his strength, perfecting his technique and feeding his
ambition to redefine the boundaries of his sport. If he didn’t do all of this, he won’t be able to achieve anything.

This is one of the most important virtue that we need in order to succeed in life and we often disregard it.

Number 2: Overcoming obstacles and being resilient

When Michael Phelps was still young, he had a teacher who did not believe in him. 
“My mom and I still joke about the fact I had a middle school teacher who said I would never be successful,” said Phelps. But this did not bother Phelps and continued practicing. I don’t know what the teacher would say to Phelps now.

Number 3: Get a mentor

Bo Sanchez always says this in his talks. You need someone successful in their chosen field if you want to be successful in a field you have chosen. If you want to be a successful businessman, get to know a successful businessman. Not just a businessman but a "successful" businessman. Why a successful one? Because even if he is successful, he also failed a lot of times. You can learn from his mistakes and his insights and opinions will really matter. Because after all the failures, he succeeded. It doesn’t matter what field you choose, get a mentor and he/she will take you where you want to go.

Phelps’ coach Bob Bowman spotted the champion’s potential when he was an 11-year-old, telling his parents he had a golden future so long as he dedicated himself utterly to swimming. “I’ve been able to accomplish my lifetime dreams and goals. I always wanted to be an Olympic gold medallist, a professional athlete, a world-record holder and Bob has taken me to all of those,” a grateful Phelps said.

Bob Bowman was Michael Phelps mentor.

Number 4: Setting goals and doing things to achieve them

Michael Phelps is an obsessive who sets himself near impossible targets and then seems to exceed them. Many people have dreams but they don’t have it listed and  they just wait for the dreams to happen and does not do anything to achieve them or at least get closer to their dreams. I will tell you a little secret I learned again in a financial planning seminar. List down your goals and dreams in paper. Make it specific. The more specific your dreams and goals are, the more closer you get to them.

Michael Phelps I always
wanted to be an Olympic gold medallist, a professional athlete, a
world-record holder.  He was able to achieve all of this and will probably accomplish more.

8 Olympic gold and 8 world records in 2008 Beijing Olympics. His records will be surpassed and erased in the future for sure but the things I learned from him would not be erased. It is becasue it has always been what we needed in order to succeed in life.

(Note: Starting today, I will now write copy of my Friendster blog
about the “2008 Reasons To Be Happy and Thankful That I Am Living In
This Lifetime” in my Multiply site to capture more readers. Of
course you can still read it in here: 2008 Reasons To Be Happy and Thankful That I Am Living in this Lifetime)

Finally, I reached the 100th mark for my list of reasons to be happy and thankful that I am living in this lifetime. Since this is a record, it is only appropriate that the 100th reason would cross all boundaries. And what more could this be but our newspaper for more than 15 years (if I’m not mistaken).

This broadsheet has been a very big help not only to me but to my family as well. The information that this newspaper has giving us for the last 15 years or so has been very, very useful to us. It does not only give us the latest news (very, very credible I must say) but tips on practically every aspect of life - personal, financial, mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. It’s an all-in-one paper.

I can give short examples about those as I grew along with PDI.

Personal: I grew up reading the advices of Robbie, Rissa, and Raya Mananquil (now all models and professionals) when they were still teens in the 2BU! section of Inquirer. The advices of Tita Dulce also made perfect sense as I heed her advices and gave her advices to my friends who turn to me for advices (shhh…that’s a secret).

Financial: The Business Section of PDI has more that just business news. It has featured and is still writing stories about the inspiring and success stories of the best entrepreneur the country has produced. Of course, on those stories it is clear that the success stories of these CEO’s, COO’s and taipans were not walk in the park. They encountered a lot of challenges, difficulties, and pains but they continue and succeeded. How? Read the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Mental: The Opinion Section of the Inquirer is another gem. This is where I read the best writers that the country has produced. Conrado de Quiros, Michael Tan, the late Adrian Cristobal are just one of the few many writers that I read in PDI that got me hooked on reading the most widely-read broadsheet in the country.

Emotional: A lot of stories in PDI had made me emotional. The stories of the youth in “Young Blood” and their counterpart, the uhmmm, sixty-something in “High Blood.” Not to mention the real stories that appears in it’s front page. The not so-good-things about our country and how we and I are not able to do something about it. But what makes this truly special is that because the stories always end up with hope. Hope that we should not abandon despite everything.

Physical:
Of course the Sports Section of the Inquirer is a class of it’s own. Almost always on time (sometimes PBA results yesterday would not be included in the next day’s issue). But in general, I could rely on PDI regrading results of sports tournament I watch. NBA, US Open, Super Bowl, you name it they got it. They also have the best sportswriter in town, Al S. Mendoza and Recah Trinidad (who came back after a fling with retirement). The Tuesday Section of PDI about Lifestyle and Leisure also gave me tips on how to live a healthy and happy life with articles about the latest exercises and how to have a happy disposition in life through the articles of Cory Quririno.

Spiritual: This is the best part.

PDI has Fr. Jerry Orbos in it’s Opinion Section every Sunday. Fr. Orbos column is my must-read column of Inquirer every Sunday with his jokes and anecdotes about life and his practical tips in life on how to live life as a Christian.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer also has what it calls “radical optimism” every Sunday. This means that every Sunday, it’s front page only features good news. Yes, only good news. If you read a bad news or headline, you will see the good news inside it. I have another good news. It’s not limited to Sundays anymore, as you can see in my previous blog entries.

Now, how’s that for news?