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P-Realization - A sudden realization of something which as been existing or which permeated long enough for most people to notice. This is mostly guided by common sense or basic life experience.
Example:

Hey, I just realized… What if we start thinking before we act? I think that’s a really good idea because it would allow us to act not in an impulsive way.

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These P-Realizations are occurrences we should analyze before expressing because it would save us much shame. By thinking this way, we can also start to reach the root of the problems rather than think of the problem to be the root in itself. There is a limitation to this, however. Since it is something that we do not usually notice by ourselves, we can normally brand P-Realizations through other people looking at the things happening to us. Moreover, this may be caused by personal bias and/or defense mechanisms making them harder to notice and accept.

The goal now is to determine whether or not a realization would be a genuine one, or just a P-Realization.

There is no secret technique to this. In order to be able to see something as it is, we need to learn to detach ourselves from our fears and face the very devil in doing so. One should ask himself these questions:
1. What am I afraid of?

2. What do I do when I face these fears? What usually happens?

3. Why am I so reluctant to face it?

4. What can I do about it?

This is not a sure-fire cure, but this is the best one can do without any expert help.

If symptoms persist, consult your doctor.

Life is all about risks. Inasmuch as life is also all about waiting, choices, and the like, risks are part of our daily routine which comes along with our choices.

Risks give rise to opportunities, and applying the basic principle of business and economics:

More risk = More gain

Less risk = Less gain

Elementary.

Let’s say you invest 1 million to put up a small supermarket or you invest 10 thousand pesos for a sari sari store. Enough said.

However, the most we can do about risks is to try and be precise in predicting the statistical potentialities because we can never create accurate calculations of risk. Perhaps it would be safe to say that there will forever be at least a 1% margin of error, or else, it would be stupid and erroneous to call something a “risk” when there’s a 100% chance of predicting it.

Moving from the numerical aspect, what’s even more interesting is that it applies not just in the usual economic flow but to life itself. For every choice we make, we choose one risk from another. Choosing to wake up early is a risk in as much as choosing which woman to pursue is.

Let’s say a 10dude is in a bar and he sees a 7.5gal to his left and a 9gal to his right. Basing it on mere common sense, we all know he likes the 9 better. So why would that kind of a situation put someone in a dilemma? It would all boil down to the chance of getting dumped. Realistically speaking, 7.5gals have the most chances of entertaining an 8 to 10dude and a 9 to 10gals are most likely to dump men even if the gal is a 9 and the dude is a 10. It would then be wiser for him to choose 7.5 if he is risk-averse, but that would mean a smaller gain. If he chooses 9, he’d have more satisfaction if all goes well, but it exposes him to a bigger chance of getting dumped as well.

These however can not be taken into account by other people. They think that it’s enough to go right in a situation without assessment “barbaro style” but despite my clain of subscribing to the utilization of the same, I, for a fact, try to consider as much possibilities as I can.

Risks are here to stay, we just have to be aware of how high or low the chances are based on our own disposition towards observation. The risks are present in everyone’s lives, what turns the playing field around is one’s own capacity to recognize and interpret this “game of chance”.

Try to assess your next move.

Some say we have to set goals.

I say we all should.

But one must remember to avoid “target fixation”.

Say what?

This is when a person focuses on something so much that he neglects everything else, be it hazards, obstacles, or anything between him and the target. This is one of the possible explanations why the famed Red Baron went down. He fixated on one plane, followed it to a low altitude, and got hit by an anti-aircraft gun, which he could not have been hit if he were on high altitude.

In practical application, this is tantamount to achieving a goal through “all means necessary”. The problem with this is that we become like a giant steamroller, ready to flatten anything that stands between us and the goal we set to the ground and not be stopped by anything. Like everything that is good, this can be bad as well. Sure, it is a good deal if it means flattening all our negativity and overcoming hardships, but what if the ones in front of us are our parents who mean well, or friends who know that the goal we chose will not really do us any good? Target fixation will crush them all along the way.

In Jason Mraz’s I’m Yours song, he mentions “… open up your plans and damn you’re free…” I see the “plans” as the means in order to achieve a particular end or goal so:

You + Plans + Actions = Goals

However, the song says tells people to “open up your plans” and I think this is the right way. Do not fixate on one plan and one goal. Think of your main end goal, and as always, there are plenty of ways to reach it. If you want to become rich, or you want to be able to help other people, or just wish for a simple and quiet life, there are a lot of means to get them. I am trying to emphasize here that “having 50 cars” or “becoming a doctor/lawyer” is not an end goal. These are temporary goals that mean nothing. The end I am trying to instill is the end which is in the general sense, and with a lot of meaning to us, our families, society, or even to a particular industry. There is no road map for anything, so try to be versatile in your plans to meet your goals.

Fixation does the same harm as good, and it spawns minds which is Machiavellian on one side, and erratic on the other. When we fixate, we lose impartiality. We are biased on the positive effects of our ideas that we neglect its negative effects. What’s worse is that no matter how we try to pick out negativity from the fixated target, we will not be able to come up with anything substantial even if other people see it plain. That’s how powerful our minds are. It blocks everything and makes us focus on a goal, but blind on all else.

We are not robots to have everything planned out or encoded step by step to reach something. We are highly subjective humans who are capable of adapting to any circumstance. Flexibility of our body reflects the flexibility of the mind. Like robots who have rigid frames which reflect their artificial and rigid intelligence. They are made of calculations, we are made of hunches, intuition, calculation, analysis, gut-feel, and subjectivity. -Dar

In life, I’ve observed two variants of human leeching. “H-Leeches” are parasitic people who latch on others (hosts) in order to benefit from their juices. The type 1 leeches are those which latch on to others and suck enough juice from their host so that they can stay alive and survive the harsh world. They normally cling harmlessly and go unnoticed or are subsequently condoned, if noticed. However, there also exists the type 2 leeches. These leeches are resultant of mutation whereby a type 1 leech is not really a leech because it can fend for its own and are self-sufficient, but chose to leech in order to grow further. This type of parasites are the ones who eventually get too big for their hosts that they ultimately devour them in due time.

So where am I going with leeches and humans?

In my academic life, I observed that such people are always present in your everyday classroom dealings. What I hate most about the type 2 leeches is that they are people who study in their closets, try to look misinformed, and suddenly come up with good grades. I really do not care about whatever grade they get, but if they can get a good grade, the hell with them for still trying to leech on others! I, for one, may at times be mistaken as a “closet nerd”, but heck, maybe I’m just a little bit smarter than the average student? Really, if I say I did not crack the book, I literally didn’t. And if I study, I do so in the library and never anywhere else (except at Gloria Jeans before).

I hate people going around the class uttering their deceptive rambles of how they were not able to study and the like so they ask the people who really study in class to teach them about the subject matter when what really happen is that they try to absorb what the others know to add to their “knowledge pool”. They want to be better than their hosts that is why they do this, and I hate it. When I ask people to help me, I make sure that I get enough to survive, and not take advantage of them… and whatever I know, I try to share whenever possible to such benevolent people.

Well, the moral lesson of this post is that all you fucking type 2 leeches will somehow get what you deserve and maybe… just maybe… fail on the things which really count.

Karma, dear friend.

*H-Leeching does not only apply to the academe, but also in other aspects such as SPENDING (money), and the like.