Gacad: Happy graduation

KUDOS to all the graduates! A special shout out to the parents and guardians who made ends meet to ensure that their "babies" obtain a college education degree.

For the graduates, here's an article entitled "4 Types of Fuel That Help People Achieve Success" from renowned speaker and writer Bo sanchez to further inspire you to press on and achieve your dreams!

Do you sometimes lose steam?

Have you made decisions to pursue your dreams, only to lose passion, and you find yourself giving up?

If you study successful people, you'll find that there are four kinds of fuel that have pushed them to achieve great things.

1. Fueled by your goals: The first successful person is someone who is fueled by his dreams. Some of my friends are such people. They're vision-oriented. Every single day, they love thinking of their dreams, talking about their dreams, and working on their dreams. This is the reason I created the Novena to God's Love. This is the reason we give it to all first-timers at The Feast. So many don't know what they want in life.

Because of this, they drift in life without any direction. And they push here and there by what other people want for their life. This is the reason I also asked people to create their Dream Boards. And Dream Journals. Define what you want! But more than just having dreams, ultimately, I want you to make God's dreams your dreams. When there's a connection between God's dreams and your dreams, you don't run. You fly!

2. Fueled by your groans: Unlike the first person that is driven by his future, this second person is driven by his past. The second successful person is fueled by his pains. Kenji Miyazawa, wrote, "We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey." I met a man who was born poor.

As a little boy, he could only watch his classmates sip soft drinks - because he couldn't possibly afford it. When they finished drinking, he would pick up their empty bottles and slurp the last drops. Every time he saw someone drinking a full bottle of soda, it felt like someone was stabbing his chest. So as a young boy, he promised to himself that one day, he'll become a rich man and drink all the soft drinks in the world.

And that pain fueled him to work hard. Twelve years later, he became rich. Twenty years later, he became very rich. And if you enter his house - I'm not kidding - he's got his own warehouse of soft drinks in his backyard. He's got diabetes, but he's rich. Sometimes, we need to be careful with pain as our fuel, because it can make us do unwise decisions. But pain is a powerful fuel. Next...

3. Fueled by your gift: The third successful person is one who is fueled by his love for what he does. I've met these uber-successful people face-to-face. Some of them don't even have dreams. And some of them don't have traumas. But they're very successful because of their passion for their craft. Some of them are actors, entrepreneurs, executives, lawyers, doctors... They just love what they do. They didn't climb the mountain to find gold at the top of the mountain.

Nor did they have pain in the valley that drove them up the mountain. They just love climbing mountains. And after years of doing what they do with passion, one day, they woke up to find themselves at the top of the mountain. For everyone else, climbing a mountain is painful. For them, climbing a mountain is playful.

Here's a question for you: Are you doing something now that others consider a burden but you consider bliss? Some people look at my schedule and think it's inhuman. Last week, I just arrived from a 14-day, four-country pilgrimage in Europe. After a few days, I flew to Cebu to bring our staff for an annual outing; I landed back to Manila just yesterday.

Is my schedule difficult? Yes. But I so love doing what I do, I don't look how difficult it is. I look at how delightful it is. Finally...

4. Fueled by your God: Almost all successful people became successful by becoming extreme. They're not balanced. Let me give you the logic behind this: People become successful by the power of focus. They focus on one thing for years—and that gives them the edge.

I've been preaching for 36 years -- preaching about 300 times each year. That means I've preached for 10,800 times in my lifetime. I'm not a very well-rounded person. I'm not good in sports. I'm not good in fixing stuff with my hands. I'm not good in dancing - unless you call jumping up and down for worship as dancing.

But hear me out: Imbalance must not affect the core areas of life - such as family, friendships, fitness, finances, fun, and faith. If it does, the imbalance causes their downfall.

I know those who became very successful, only to self-destruct at the pinnacle of their success, because of imbalance in their life. If you want long-term success, you need to learn the important lesson that Balance is Power.

My friend Obet Cabrillas, the former boxer, loves saying this principle, because it's a principle used in boxing. Without balance, you'll fall by the weakest blow. And believe me, problems will try to topple you. The only path to balance? You need to find God in your Goals, your Groans, and your Gifts. At the end of the day, you need to be driven by God's Love. Nothing else. Your fuel must be God's Love. And when God's Love is your fuel, you will become selfless.

Which is what Christianity is all about. Unless you become selfless, you will never know true peace.

Conclusion: Thank God for the Shaking: I just came from Cebu. We brought out our staff - from managers to messengers and janitors - to a beautiful beach resort. It was glorious.

In the airplane on our way back to Manila, I was seated at the window. And I noticed something unnerving: The flaps of the wing were shaking.

Come to think of it, those wing flaps are supposed to shake. Because there's air turbulence. There's the speed of the airplane itself, thrusting through the atmosphere. If you don't want the shaking, don't go anywhere. Park your vehicle. Ground it. But you'll never arrive at your destination. Is there shaking going on in your life? Is there turbulence?

Is there friction? Is there conflict? Is there struggle? Is there testing? Congratulations: That means you're moving. You're going somewhere. You're pushing forward.

Keep pushing forward.

"The future depends on what you do today." ~ Gandhi

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover." ~ Mark Twain

"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition." ~ Steve Jobs

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