TODAY, Monday, February 8, we are celebrating the Chinese New Year. We wonder what new opportunities and new hopes—and on the reverse, what misfortunes—these events bring to us, the PR industry and the country. Notwithstanding financial difficulties and disastrous weather conditions, we prepare by surrounding ourselves with the symbols and charms for good luck that the Year of the Monkey will favor, as if to appease an irascible higher being who might, with one sweep of his celestial hand, cast us a sorry lot.
Superstition has given way to custom and cynicism. Oriental beliefs, especially, have become popular observances, allowing us to welcome 2016 with a noodle dish and 12 kinds of round fruits on our table, coins in our pockets, appropriate figurines in our room to bring love, good health and money in the days ahead.
We exploded firecrackers to ward off the bad spirits, opened the windows to let the bad luck out and the good luck in, put on all the lights to brighten the future and jumped at the stroke of midnight to stoke physical growth. After all, we said to ourselves, “What harm would it do me if I were to just go through these rituals? Better safe than sorry.”
Good luck is a gift of fate to be pleaded for, or worse, be dealt with, beyond any fathomable rhyme or reason. If warts and sores were to be our fate, accept it wholeheartedly. If fame and fortune were ours, applaud loudly. If no new clients, no increases and no bonuses were to be our PR agency’s destiny, adjust to the circumstances, fast. If we enjoy peace and prosperity, be profusely thankful.
Good luck can be achieved
GOOD luck is something we can achieve, not just something we chance upon. We make our own good luck. We “create new conditions” to ensure it, instead of being stuck in a rut of “usual conditions.” For good luck to arrive, patience and faith must be kept intact.
We may not feel good about the notion that our future has been mapped out by some unknown intelligence and that, depending on the charms and amulets we adorn ourselves with—and with divine magnanimity—we can be the recipient of good luck. That is what our faith teaches us—the bit about free will allowing us to decide for ourselves what we want to make of who we are. We shape our destiny—luck and divine plan notwithstanding. We are free agents who can decide and act on the tasks and challenges that we confront every day.
We will agree that success and happiness can be achieved, not through charms and symbols, but by sheer hard work and intelligence. Surmounting the obstacles and challenges that we face prepares us for greater challenges up ahead; the more adept we are at it, the more likely we will attain our goals, inch by excruciating inch.
Make our own luck
WE should not sit around waiting for fortune to smile upon us. Claim our own destiny by sticking to our guns. Forget about bemoaning our “bad fate.” Life has more to do with how we deal with a “moment of truth” than what the “moment of truth” is. And our riches can turn to rags with one phone call or stroke of a pen. When things don’t go our way, take charge of the situation and work to revert it. Kismet doesn’t just happen to the fortunate: It happens to those who act with determination.
But we don’t get lucky all the time. Just like any Juan de la Cruz, we experience setbacks, big or small, in our personal and professional lives. They put our families, our friends, our jobs and our businesses in serious danger. Victims of this recurring illness go through persistent psychological stress and, possibly, temporary physical inertness, pillaging from them the joy of living, the hope for the uninterrupted “rush and gush” to progress, the determination to get moving and, at the extreme, the will to live.
Nurture the word ‘possible’
PERSEVERANCE is the cousin of possibility. We should not give up even when others tell us we’ll never make it. In fact, we should turn that into a challenge to pursue our dreams. Pessimism can dampen our spirit or deflate our optimism. Let not failures send us home with our tails between our legs. There are no impossible dreams, only people who do not have the drive to search for the silver lining. It would be best to patiently write down the lessons learned from every failure, and from there, take one step at a time to continue the interrupted journey.
Someone, some race has
to endure a far greater trial
TRAIN our energies toward positive thoughts and deeds. This may be difficult, considering all the negative occurrences around us, putting our already frayed nerves to a more serious test. But why dwell on “negativities”? They can only attract other gloomy consequences. Unless we actively envision a life where good things happen regularly, and where we make these visions happen, we can’t realistically expect anything to the contrary.
Rejection can put us in a paralyzing mode
USE it as a platform to prompt us to strive even harder toward our goals. We can counter disappointments with a strategic and creative road map for success. Look at every rejection not as a stonewall, but a stepping stone that can bring us to greater heights. Harness the power of exclaiming, “Yes, we can,” each time we start a new endeavor. Conquer our fears and insecurities, as we reassure ourselves that we can surmount the challenges we confront now and in the future.
As we achieve the goals we have set for ourselves, let us not rest on our victories. Up the ante, set the standards higher and aim for greater successes. Life is an unending journey of hurdles, but also of fruitful completions. Get better and better, and if we fail, fail fast. Learn from the failure, pick up the pieces of brokenness, succeed and succeed some more. Make a resolve to patiently persevere toward our dreams and develop the professionalism to turn them into reality.
Ponder over the New Year to seek answers for the blight that has kept us from succeeding. Perhaps, we should start looking for solutions not in symbols and colorful rituals and charms and publicity friendly incantations. Instead, we should trust our future to a timeless formula for success. Round objects, rabbit’s foot and other prosperity symbols are fine for neck or arm pieces, but not for determining our destiny. No such luck on that one.
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the UK-based International Public Relations Association, the world’s premier organization for PR professionals. Bong Osorio is the communications consultant and spokesman of ABS-CBN Corp.
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