Challenges & Opportunities

“If you make the effort, you’ll find the results”

“You have to want it so badly that you will cry for it”

When I landed in DR in January, 2012, I wanted to work with SOLIDARIDAD, DR’s CCT program. I did not dare to visit the office at the beginning, but with that goal in mind, I started preparing myself with the savings groups methodology. In May, 2013, with the finalization of my Masters paper, I was transferred to Fundación Capital. With the aspiration to work with PROSOLI, I kept working and meeting with a group of hand picked facilitators to have us prepared. We successfully finished our savings groups led financial inclusion pilot and in a few months, managed to get PROSOLI interested in trying out a pilot with us.

Challenges have been enormous: It has been 2 months since we started the pilot and we have 5 months left with us to produce tangible results. So far, the result is almost insignificant. With the bigger size of groups, I realized I need a new strategy, a new type of leadership to help people stay motivated and also skills to make everyone feel part of the team willing to collaborate with.

Yet, we are not left without support: PROSOLI will have the pilot included in their operating plan, and we have some brilliant and motivated facilitators. Furthermore, strange enough, many unexpected but rather positive things happened: Socrates went to Mexico with us, Suriel with her staff went to Korea with my coordination and finally Hector and Ezequiel will be going to Chile with invitation from Fundacion Capital, all with the permission of Vice-president. These key figures for the success of pilot will not and cannot be hostile to us, at least.

The more our work advances, I see the bigger opportunities are unfolded. There are organizations eager to finance to produce changes (WB, IDB principally), but relatively few has contributed to it. What should be done? We need to present a convincing evidence that shows what we do is plausible and is an effective and efficient way of financial inclusion and is a great way of building people’s self esteem which can empower them to move out of poverty on their own.

As God indicated above, what I need to do is to make consistent efforts, to want it so badly that I will cry for it. My goal is to build 50,000 groups with 1 million members in the DR for the next two years. But for now, my goal is forming 200 SGs with 5,000 members. "Though your beginning will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be."

Truth

1.       There is a power that tries to overpower and destroy myself every day..without God’s help, it cannot be overcome.

2.       I must act for God to help me.

3.       Beginning is difficult but once it is started, all comes naturally.  The initial obstacles should be endured without judgement.

4.       Life is a growth and growing is uncomfortable.  Welcome the feeling of discomfort and be proactive in looking actively for the uncomfortable. 

5.       The words that I utter to myself is often baseless and self-destructive.  Be careful. 

6.       Life should be packed with discipline and control.  Delay gratification and no comfort should be sought.   Comfort waits us in the grave.

7.       Our challenges and true spiritual growth come from what we find difficult. I find meeting time difficult and this is the area I can grow most from.

8.       Welcome the uncomfortable but the right thing.
9.  You can accomplish any goal you set for yourself, as long as the goal is clear, it helps the world better and you persist long enough. 

10.   Choice that I make determines the quality of my life. 
11.  What do you want? 

Why do I want to quit?

During my initial days working in Los Guandules, one of the most populated Santo Doming's slum area, I was taken by surprise about how people can get quickly enthusiastic and then how quickly the fads dissipates. Organizing savings groups with these people was one of the most daunting tasks I've ever had.  Their excuses were that the inspiration went away and they did not feel like getting involved in learning process.  They found saving requires a little bit of effort and because of that, they could no longer remain involved. 

After some while, I found myself not much different from these people.  When undertaking a task, I often got impatient, and refused to continue as soon as going gets tough.  I was forced to pay a lot of money for my not making it on time, but somehow could not learn to be disciplined and persistent. I kept on destroying myself.  

Torah says that when one wants to do something meaningful, he should be prepared to a test, because  yetzer hara will never allow us to reach our goals without test.  Their single mission is to make things difficult so that we give up and don't fulfill our dreams and aspirations. This can be understood that if the goal is meaningful, we are guaranteed to face yetzer hara's attack, or series of attacks.  Then why does God want us to struggle from these challenges?  

Rabbi Adam Liberman said that "only through struggle and fighting the burning desire to quit can we ever have the unbelievable joy and ecstasy that comes from achievement.  Right, God wants us to feel the utmost joy out of fulfilling our mission.  

Then what is the steps to take not to quit?  

First, as soon as we have inspiration, we should do a concrete act right away, and hopefully this act will help keep the momentum.  Second, to watch the moment of inspiration as a form of internal photograph, so that we can always look at it when the inspiration is needed. In other words, keep my eyes on the ball and remain focused on the significance of what we are trying to do. Third,  Remind yourself of those days when time was totally wasted. Is going back to "Egypt" my option?  

I know that I am vulnerable to yetzer hara, especially when it comes to keeping promise, I somehow lost myself for the last year.  I often tell a lie and do not respond to others, or simply ignore what I was committed to doing.  I cannot live like this any more.  This year, I will take much precaution not to make a false promise and will make efforts to fulfill my mission.  It looks like the greater the mission is, the stronger the temptation to quit.  Knowledge is power and knowledge should be put into practice.   

Importance of goal

Man has a free will and shapes the course of his life. The life of man is determined by his choice in thought, speech and action. Environment and genetics may influence him, but they are there not to be accommodated but to overcome. So does with temptations, evil and hardship.  These are tests.  These are there to maximize his pleasure when overcome. The more temptations, evil and hardship he comes across, the bigger the sense of achievement.  God guides us to the path we want to go. He does not get involved in the path we choose.  If we seek righteous purpose, He helps us to reach there, whereas if we seek evil purpose, He also helps us to achieve it.

That being said, what if we do not have a purpose? Without goal, we are lost. All hardships, temptations, and evils we may across will be wasted without being used for productive purpose. Life will be meaningless.  We will suffer but not knowing why.  How important it is to have a sense of direction!  

When we are clear with the end goal, if we can focus on the big picture, all the obstacles we will hit upon on the way will add the spice that give fuller taste to our sense of achievement in the end.   Having goal does not only make our action meaningful but our entire life, because life is a project with a clear end goal.   

"When one comes to defile himself, the door is opened for him." I

Free will, Genie the lamp

Man is created in the image of God.  Unlike other creations, the human being has free will. We have potential to shape and change the world.  But am I aware of this untapped power of my free will? Often I am possessed by the thought that I never progress, stay in the same place or get deteriorated.  I witness myself as a slave of habit.  Proper use of free will perfects world helping us achieve our goals.  However, achieving goals takes a lot of effort, so we get distracted and take the easy route instead: the escape route.  To exercise free will properly, therefore, we need to be constantly sensitive whether our choices are in line with our purpose and take regular monitoring (accounting).

Rabbi Weinberg provides some tips to exercise free will:

1.     Do not watch your life passing by.  Make decision actively and monitor your decision every day.

2.     Be your own person. Do not agree with society unless you’ve thought them through.

3.     Distinguish between body and soul and identify yourself with soul.  There is no way you will ever achieve peace by giving in to the body.  Real peace comes only when the body desires the soul’s success. 

Body: Gravitates toward transitory comforts and sensual plasures.  Desires to quit, to dream, to drown in passion, to procrastinate. 

Soul: Seeks understanding, meaning, productivity, accomplishment, permanence, greatness, confronts challenges, embraces reality and truth.

      4. Make your will God’s will. If you do, you will be partners in changing the world. 

 I once had a goal of losing weight. Instead of just doing exercise, I recorded the progress on a daily basis.  The impact was astounding. If I had not been aware of the goal and had not been diligent in keeping the record, I do not think I would have achieved that progress.  Goal is there to be accomplished and the success is guaranteed as long as directed and conscious effort with daily accounting are put into.  

Says little and dos much

“When he met three guests, Abraham said that he was going to bring them a snack, but he brought them a feast. Abraham is a man who says little and does much.”

One of life’s mysteries I find is that the more I say, the less chances of accomplishing it. This story of Abraham provides food for thought. He could have said that he would bring a bunch of food but did not do so. Can we think he was dishonest? Not really. Abraham is a role model for the humanity and I believe that the trait he displayed here is something God wants us to emulate; say little and do much. 

I do not know what the relationship between saying and acting, but there must be a close relationship between two domains; when I speak little, it gets me easier to act. Often because of this I limit my commitment, since when I say a lot, it is highly likely that I may not be able to keep it. However I should not be confused this with limiting myself in pushing to see how much potential I really have.