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How a Navi Planner Shaped a Year in my Life

Planning for big event or you just simply want to keep track of precious memories?  Take a peek on how a Navi Planner changed a year in my life.

Last week as I was cleaning my drawer, my eyes caught my Navi2012 planner. I seemed to time travelled in an instant when I flipped through the pages and great memories from that year came back.




 " "Your life navigator" was written on the cover and I must agree since that planner became my best companion in every major and minor life events that happened to me that year. One of the entries written there in 101 things to do in 2012 was "read your old journals and laugh at yourself". So I find myself doing the same thing two years after but not to laugh at myself but more of "feel good about myself" mood. I cannot explain how my Navi2012 influenced my decisions in life but I know for a fact that it helped me shape up major plans and activities I did in 2012. 

For one, that year was a travel-filled year for me when I was able to visit two local and two international destinations that I wanted so much to visit. I wrote about those travel  adventures in Zambales, Puerto Galera, Hongkong and Macau here in my blog.  Aside from that, my planner bore witness to those happy memories like my 15th wedding anniversary, three family reunions, four birth announcements for me and close kins, various dinner dates with my husband and birthday celebrations in the family.  My Navi also kept account of the family's grief during my uncle's hospitalization and my father-in-law's hospital battle and his passing. Although that event was all too saddening, my Navi made our loss somewhat bearable in a way that the family maintained a positive outlook.  Positive thoughts outweighed the grief that made us look to the brighter side of life.

Anyway, let me share with you just five out of the 101 written guidelines in my Navi journal that somewhat made me a person five points better.

One. I usually do not accept invites especially for a night out since I always wanted to spend my precious time with my husband and kids after a hard days work. But I also realized that I need to occasionally socialize and make the most of it. As a dare to myself, I accepted my long time friends' invitation for a dinner.  Step 3 in my Navi says "Accept an invitation that you normally wouldn't". So I did just that!  It proved to be a worthwhile meeting because that dinner date not only renewed friendship but also formed meaningful activities like we pledged to give something to the victims of Typhoon Sendong.

Two. With the pledge, it became easy for me to achieve my next milestone in Step 16 "Send someone a care package".  I scheduled a time with the kids when to pack all those clothes that our family can spare to be given as donation. The kids eagerly helped me out in sorting through our cabinets and packing them accordingly.  In that way I know I taught them how to be selfless and how to make themselves become a blessing to others.


Three.  Together with the care package that reached its destination were the lessons that etched in my kids' mind.  I know that doing something by example I was able to achieve  Step 49 "Help someone understand something". So when I asked the kids why we were packing clothes, they knew that we were doing it for a common cause and that was to extend help to the needy.

Four.   With the disasters that happened wherein people lost lives and property, it made me realize that earthly possessions are truly ephemeral. So I decided to follow Step 23 to "give away something that means a lot to you".  So even if I value my home theater all because there was a great story behind it which I keep to myself, I decided to give it up for somebody to make use of it.  I saw how happy my recipient was that made me think I did a good decision.

Five.  I remember that 2012 brought too much financial strain because of numerous hospitalizations in the family. I decided to follow step 72 to "help someone get started on something" especially my relatives who do not have the financial means to support emergency expenses such as sudden illness.  I started by helping my aunt to be a member of the social security system for her to be financially capable when she reach her retirement age.  Then I also encouraged my sister to do the same and taught her the importance of having a medical insurance by enrolling her in Philhealth.  Gradually they understood the importance of having those and I feel happy that I became an instrument for them to start to be financially literate.  I continued this endevour by writing some how-to instructions about SSS and Philhealth that I shared with my blog readers.

Those are just some points on how my Navi planner shaped my 2012.  Later on I was introduced to Belle de Jour (BDJ) Power Planner. Check out on my next post how BDJ let me get ahead in many ways.

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