10 Ways to be Awesome

My friend Nicole tells me I have been nitpicking on Cosmopolitan Philippine's March 2014 issue, specifically its "10 ways to be awesome" article at the back. I argued that the list was really shallow, and she challenged me to come up with my own.

So I did.

But before we get to our list, let's take a look at that Cosmo list.

1. SET YOURSELF BOTH SMALL GOALS (TO DETOX FOR A FEW DAYS) AND BIG GOALS (TO FINALLY TAKE THAT HOLIDAY.)

2. Throw a party. Make it the kind that people talk about for ages to come. 

3. Say "yes" when your first instinct is to say "no". You'll be shocked at how much more you'll see, feel, and experience just by saying the magic word. 

4. Be the girl who hits the dance floor and knows all the lyrics. 

5. Stop complaining about petty, boring stuff. 

6. Surround yourself with awesome people. Awesomeness breeds awesomeness.

7. Pat a dog. 

8. Give. It might be your money, your time, or your expertise. Whatever it is, you'll feel amazing.

9. Laugh loudly.

10. Stop caring what other people think of you. 

To be fair I think some of these items are good, but the people at Cosmo could have made a more profound list. Is it really wrong for me to expect deep stuff in a magazine that promotes cheap sex and vanity? 

Anyway, here's my own list. 10 Ways to be Awesome:

1. Love everyone, and make sure they know it. It's not enough for you to love people; they have to know and feel it. 

2. Perform your most ordinary tasks in an extraordinary fashion. If you want to be the best, make excellence your signature - even in simple, everyday tasks like chores. 

3. Expand your mind. Read books, watch documentaries, attend seminars, travel, listen to old folks. 

Would you travel in a bus full of Ethel Mermans?

4. Express yourself. Play a musical instrument. Paint. Draw. Sing. Dance. Write a book - or write an old-fashioned love letter, and snail mail it. 

                        Speaking of instruments. let the Epic Sax Guy serenade you. For 10 hours. 

5. Make kindness a part of your lifestyle. Remember "random acts of kindness?" Retain the kindness, but don't make it random. Make kindness second nature!

6. Quit whining and soldier on. Take up your cross, big or small, with a smile. That way, people will say "nothing ever ruffles him/her!" and will think of you as a very classy guy/gal. 

7. Pray. Go to mass. Read the Bible. Pray the rosary. Go to confession. More than that, bring friends along! 

8. Organize your friends and pay a visit to the sick kids and elderly in hospitals and care centers, or the guys in prison. Save some of your baon or sweldo and organize a feeding program in your community. Help those who cannot repay you. 

9. Tutor the young, especially if they're interested in what you're good at. You won't be fit and dandy forever, so make sure your basketball skills, or your business acumen, don't go to waste: teach a kid everything you know, and make him your apprentice. Make him promise that if he becomes good at it one day, he has to pay it forward and teach someone else. 

Some kids really yearn for a mentor. 

10. Make your life all about self-giving and sacrifice. Fight for what is good, and fight evil and injustice. As Sam says in Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers: