Redefining My Dream Job

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Jadi ceritanya, keponakan gue yang umurnya baru 3 tahun itu udah mulai pergi sekolah. Awalnya, Arfa enggak mau disuruh sekolah, tapi lalu di hari-hari berikutnya, dia justru semangat banget pergi ke sekolah. Tiap bangun pagi, saat Mami-nya bilang sudah waktunya Arfa sekolah, si ponakan langsung bangun tidur dengan penuh semangat.

Antusiasme Arfa mengingatkan gue dengan pekerjaan pertama gue dulu. Hanya pekerjaan freelance dengan penghasilan yang tidak seberapa, tapi seingat gue, hanya pekerjaan itu saja yang pernah membuat gue semangat untuk bangun di pagi hari. Gue penasaran ingin ketemu klien baru, atau, penasaran ingin menyelesaikan masalah yang belum berhasil gue pecahkan di hari sebelumnya.

Gue lalu jadi berpikir… Sebenarnya seperti apa sih, pekerjaan impian menurut gue? Gue mulai mengingat-ingat hari-hari yang pernah gue lewati selama lebih dari 7 tahun meniti karier… Pada saat-saat seperti apa gue paling menikmati pekerjaan gue selama ini?

Yang pertama, gue paling suka dengan pekerjaan yang memungkinkan gue untuk menuangkan ide-ide baru. Entah itu ide untuk hal yang benar-benar baru atau sekedar development idea untuk sesuatu yang sudah berjalan. Dan bukan hanya sekedar menuangkan ide… gue juga ingin ikut terlibat di dalam proses pengembangannya. It’s challenging and so much fun!

Setelah itu gue juga suka dengan tugas yang mengharuskan gue untuk memecahkan masalah rumit. Bukan sembarang rumit, tapi juga sesuatu yang akan sangat bermanfaat jika gue berhasil menemukan jalan keluarnya. Rasa puas setelah berhasil menemukan solusi yang terbaik itu betul-betul bikin ketagihan! Itu juga sebabnya gue paling enggak suka dengan pekerjaan yang sering berulang… Lebih baik gue dikasih tugas yang bikin stres daripada tugas yang bikin gue jadi bosan!

Selanjutnya, gue sangat menikmati interaksi dengan banyak orang. Hari yang penuh dengan jadwal meeting justru hari yang paling menyenangkan buat gue. Hanya sekedar a call over Skype pun bisa jadi warna tersendiri buat gue. Selain senang bertukar pikiran, sejujurnya gue juga senang ‘memamerkan’ isi kepala gue kepada orang lain. It just makes me feel good. Duduk diam di belakang meja 8 jam dalam 1 minggu non-stop hanya akan bikin gue jadi desperate!

Kemudian gue juga sangat senang bertemu dengan orang-orang baru. Gue senang mendengar cerita di balik perjalanan karier orang lain, senang berbagi pengalaman gue sendiri, dan gue juga senang belajar dari pengetahuan orang-orang yang baru saja gue temui. And don’t forget, networking is power!

Yang terakhir, gue pengen banget punya pekerjaan yang mengharuskan gue untuk sering-sering business traveling. Meski hanya kota kecil atau bahkan pedalaman sekalipun, selalu terasa lebih baik ketimbang datang ke kantor yang sama setiap harinya. Rasanya lebih tidak membosankan dan bisa memberikan lebih banyak pengalaman buat gue juga.

Nah, pertanyaannya sekarang… sudahkah gue menemukan pekerjaan impian gue itu? Jika belum, di mana gue bisa mendapatkan pekerjaan yang seperti itu?

Waktu kuliah dulu, saat ditanya cita-cita setelah kelulusan, jawaban gue gampang saja: ingin jadi auditor. Ternyata seiring waktu, yang sulit itu bukan menentukan profesi impian, melainkan pekerjaan impian. Barulah setelah itu kita pikirkan… profesi apa yang bisa memberikan pekerjaan impian kita tersebut? Hanya saja sayangnya, dibutuhkan bertahun-tahun pengalaman kerja untuk gue bisa memahami apa yang paling gue inginkan untuk perjalanan karier gue sendiri.

Once again, I’m a believer that finding a dream job is just like us finding a dream man. We’ve got to meet the wrong ones and it may take a while until we finally find the one. Until then, let’s make the best of the job that we already have, because who knows, it will bring us to that one job we’ve been looking for.

Good luck!

Read a Book, Start from Now!

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Believe it or not, there is a different quality between people who read and the one who rarely read a book.

Have you ever met a person who looks like a walking Wikipedia? Or someone who tends to know the answer to every question. The one that’s so damn good at their job with lots of knowledge in their brain. And maybe, the one whose attitude only keeps them going further with their accomplishments in life. Well, I can tell, they are the ones who read a lot of books along their life.

And who says reading does necessarily mean you’ve got to have a lot of books on your shelves at home?

When you’ve just joined a Company, find the SOP or any other guideline that you can read.

When you’ve just used a new software for your job, read the FAQ, browse online to learn more about the feature, or why don’t you buy an e-book to help you learn some more?

When you’ve got to handle a project that you used to learn back in the college, find your old book and reread until you recall all of the information needed.

When you have a leisure time, it’s a good time to read the newspaper to keep yourself updated. And it’s always important to read an article about leadership, self-motivation, or any kind of article that can help you to become a better person.

Or maybe, let’s just start with this little thing at work: read your e-mails! And don’t forget to read the attachment as well.

Too busy to read a book? I believe that’s just a myth. If you have plenty of times to scroll down your social media, to browse online, to chat over Skype, to watch your favorite TV show, then you do have a time to read a book.

The people who looks smart with their knowledge is not becoming that good just by an overnight. They’ve read and they’ve learned their entire life.

So guys, there’s no doubt, start reading a book! Start from now! Read more and gain some more.

Happy reading!

The Best Decision in Life

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imageThere are so many things happened recently that pushes me to make some kind of life-changing decisions. And I really hate it when it comes to make such important decision. It feels like I no longer know myself. I suddenly don’t know what I really want for my own life. I was confused until this morning, I looked into my phone screen and realized that I hadn’t changed the wallpaper for ages. I still used the picture of my previous office room’s decoration that I took over than one year ago!

Then I opened the picture gallery in my phone, looking for a new picture to be set as my wallpaper. I kept scrolling up until I found a candid photo shoot from a couple months ago. That was not the first time I saw that picture of me yet somehow, it still blew my mind. It was just an ordinary picture taken by my cousin using my iPhone 5. A candid picture taken right while I was laughing outloud. I looked so happy and my life seems so easy! I did still remember how I ever loved this picture just because of that reason.

That day, I had a fine afternoon with my families in a beautiful place in Bandung. I happened to visit its playground to look after my little nephew. When my sister came to play with his son, I walked to a wooden swing and played with it for a while. The breeze on my face, the beautiful surrounding, and the euphoria of playing with a swing after a quite long time made me feel so happy. I laughed at my nephew from the swing and right at that moment, my cousin captured this beautiful picture.

I know that it’s not an award winning photo or something, but seeing that picture is somehow comforting to me. It’s not that I have an awful life, it’s just that I’m happy to see me happy. I decided to use that picture as my new wallpaper and everytime I looked at it all day today, this picture just never failed to attract myself.

And then tonight, I was on the way back home, I took my phone from my bag, and there I saw this picture again. I looked at how bright and shiny and happy I was. Then again, it reminded me to that one beautiful afternoon with my families. Just like that, I suddenly knew what I really wanted in life. I only want to have a lot more beautiful days in my life. I want to smile and laugh a lot more and more. I want to have more of that moment where I whisper to myself, “I’m so happy with my life and I can’t be more grateful than this.”

Again, it doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with the life I already have, it’s just that now I know how a best decision looks like. It may not look glamorous, fancy, or anything like that, not either the easiest or prettiest option I may ever have, but it should be the one that I know will bring joy into my life. I know that I may be wrong, but I will also know that I have chosen what’s best to myself. I think it’s one of the moments where people say when you know, you know.

Now that I know what I want, then it’s time for me to go and get what I really want! Finger cross!

Why Should People Lie?

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Dari segala jenis dosa yang sering kita pelajari sejak kecil hingga dewasa, entah kenapa, ada satu dosa yang seolah sudah tidak lagi dianggap berdosa oleh manusia pada umumnya. Dosa apa? Dosa karena berbohong.

Di bulan puasa ini misalnya. Memang banyak yang jadi mengurangi hura-hura, mencoba lebih sabar, dsb dsb. Tapi anehnya tetap saja, mulut masih dengan mudah membesar-besarkan cerita. Atau memutarbalikkan fakta. Atau yang paling buruk, mengarang cerita yang sebetulnya tidak pernah ada.

Kemudian gue juga kenal beberapa orang yang sangat taat beragama. Sangat takut berbuat dosa. Tapi giliran sedang terjepit, kebohongan pun bisa dengan mudah terucap dari mulutnya. Sepertinya, mereka lebih berani menanggung dosa sebagai akibat dari kebohongannya ketimbang menanggung konsekuensi dari kesalahan yang dia perbuat sebelumnya.

Ada pula beberapa orang yang selalu berusaha bersikap mulia. Selalu ingin berpikiran positif, anti membicarakan keburukan orang lain, tapi lagi-lagi, giliran sedang terjepit, mereka tidak sungkan menjadikan orang lain sebagai kambing hitam. Bersikap defensive dengan menempatkan dirinya sebagai ‘korban’ sehingga orang lain yang tidak bersalah akan terlihat sebagai ‘penjahatnya’.

Yang terakhir, sebagian besar dari kita sudah pernah melakukan ini, termasuk diri gue sendiri, dengan mengatasnamakan kebaikan di atas kebohongan tersebut. Satu jenis kebohongan yang dikenal dengan istilah ‘white lies’. Memang benar ada hadits-nya Nabi Muhammad tetap mengatakan bahwa masakan istrinya terasa enak meski tidak demikian keadaannya, tapi benarkah semua white lies kita masih berada dalam koridor kemuliaan hati seorang manusia?

Kenyataannya seringkali, white lies kita lakukan untuk menutupi kesalahan yang kita perbuat. Alasannya: supaya dia tidak marah atau demi menjaga hubungan baik. Ada pula orang yang suka melontarkan white lies dengan alasan: people won’t be able to handle the truth. Padahal sebetulnya, mereka hanya takut terlihat buruk. Jika sudah demikian, masihkan white lies itu bersifat ‘wajib’ untuk dilakukan?

Berbohong adalah berbohong. Jarang sekali benar ada alasan baik untuk berbohong. Kenyataannya, menutupi satu kebohongan dengan kebohongan lain hanya akan memperburuk keadaan. Sekali, dua kali, lama-lama akan jadi kebiasaan. Sehingga sekali lagi, pada akhirnya, kita seolah lupa, bahwa berbohong juga perbuatan dosa.

Bagi teman-teman yang sesama muslim, mari kita jaga kesucian bulan Ramadhan dengan menjunjung tinggi makna kejujuran. Jangan hanya di bulan suci ini saja! Mari jadikan kejujuran sebagai kebiasaan.

Mengaku salah jika memang salah. Man up and be responsible for the damage you’ve done!

Tahan diri dari hal-hal yang hanya akan membuat kita merasa malu, sehingga nantinya, kita tidak perlu berbohong untuk menutupinya.

Sampaikan berita sesuai dengan kenyataan yang kita dengar sebelumnya. Jangan ditambah-tambah dan jangan mengubah asumsi menjadi fakta!

Hal yang sama berlaku juga di dunia kerja… Jangan sampai kerasnya politik kantor mengubah kita jadi si tukang bohong. Berpolitik boleh saja, tapi tetap harus ada batasnya! Gue tahu yang ini memang susah banget, dan kadang ini juga masih jadi PR untuk diri gue sendiri, tapi bukan berarti tidak mungkin untuk dilakukan!

Kemudian yang tidak kalah pentingnya, buat apa sih, kita suka mengarang ceirta yang tidak pernah ada? Apa tidak malu jika kelak kita tertangkap basah sudah lupa dengan cerita karangan kita itu?

Lakukanlah hal-hal yang bermanfaat, buatlah diri kita ini bangga dengan diri sendiri, sehingga kita tidak perlu repot-repot mengarang cerita hanya supaya terlihat hebat di mata orang lain. Saat kita sudah punya hidup yang luar biasa, kita akan dengan sendirinya punya segudang hal menyenangkan untuk diceritakan!

Lain kali, saat hendak berbohong, ingat prinsip dasar yang satu ini: butuh waktu lama untuk mendapatkan kepercayaan orang lain, tapi hanya butuh sekejap mata untuk kehilangan kepercayaan itu.

Orang yang sudah dicap ‘tukang bohong’ akan tetap dianggap berbohong meskipun dia sedang mengatakan yang sebenarnya. Tukang bohong akan sulit mendapatkan tempat entah itu di pertemanan atau juga lingkungan pekerjaan. Rumah tangga juga akan sulit sekali menjadi harmonis jika salah satunya suka sekali melakukan kebohongan.

Mari kita mulai berkata jujur, bersikap jujur, dimulai dari hal-hal yang sekecil-kecilnya. Dan percaya deh, mengakui kesalahan itu tidak seseram yang kita kira. Mengakui kesalahan justru akan menyelesaikan masalah kita dalam waktu yang jauh lebih singkat! Dan hati juga akan langsung lega.

Let’s use this Ramadhan opportunity to start fresh. Let’s start with a blank page and never fill in the new pages with new lies. Why should we lie if we have a truth to be told? Let’s be honest and be proud of it!

How Can’t We Love the Company We Work for?

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Lots of people says recently to never love your company. Don’t love it because it may not love you back and bla bla bla. That kind of sense that I fail to understand. I just can’t get the point why shouldn’t we love the Company where we work?

I have so many reasons why we MUST love our company.

For starter, we spend at least 8 hours a day in that place, at least 5 days a week. How does it feel to spend that much amount of time in a place that you hate? It must feel like hell!

Second, we earn a living from the job provided by our company. Don’t you feel like dating or marrying a guy just for his money with no love included?

And the most important thing is that we learn and we grow during our tenures in our companies. I don’t know if it’s you, but to me, the companies I’ve worked has really made me who I am today. The ups and downs has made me wiser, the experiences has made me skillful, and the chances I’ve got has discovered the competence that I never thought I had in me. How can’t I love something that has given all of that good things into my life?

Say no more, I know how it feels when the pressures killing us inside. The politics, the drama, the crazy deadlines, and so on; you mention it, I know it. But again, all of those office disasters are just the things that make us learn. It’s a precious lesson that we didn’t get in schools. Not only it has helped us to become a better employee, but also it has made us a better person inside. Trust me, it will come in handy in our personal lives too.

Loving our company doesn’t necessarily mean we spend 24 hours with it and make it our priority on top of all other important things in life. That’s NOT my point at all.

Love your company by being proud for being a part of it. Love it by ALWAYS doing your very best at work. And always remember… your company is your identity; if you spit on it, you spit on yourselves. Love it by keeping its name clean. Watch your behavior as a professional, because whatever you do may represent the entire Company as well. That’s how you love your company.

Believe it or not, loving our company will actually do good to us instead of to the Company itself. It will make us eager to learn every detail about our job; the business, the environment, and so on. Such business acumen will really help us to become an achiever at work. And of course, someone who loves their company will naturally make them look loyal to the Company and wherever we work, loyalty point is always a big plus.

What if your company is a bloodsucker that makes you suffer? Well, before I’m suggesting you to move on, I would rather asking this to yourself again, “Is it really the problem with the Company, or maybe… it’s just you?” If you keep jumping from one company to another over and over again, then maybe, the problem is yourself.

Loving a company is just like loving our families and friends. None of them is perfect. They will annoy us, upset us, piss us off, stress us out… Yet at the end of the day, we’ve got to live with it. No matter where we work, it will be just the same.

I’m not saying that we’ve got to stay with that current employer for forever though. If our best effort to fit in just never works, then it’s okay to move on. I believe finding a dream job in a dream company is like finding a Mr. Right. They won’t be perfect but they’re out there!

Life is too short to be spent with the things that we hate. Either love it or leave it! Have a great Monday, folks!

10 Alasan Untuk Tidak Selalu Mendengar Pendapat Orang Lain

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Setahun belakangan ini, gue mulai belajar untuk tidak selalu mendengarkan pendapat orang lain tentang diri gue sendiri. I know that it sounds arrogant and stubborn, but believe it or not, it has made my life feel lighter, happier, and for some reasons, it has even brought myself to the next level of my life.

Semakin gue bertahan dengan prinsip ini, semakin gue yakin bahwa gue sudah melakukan hal yang benar. Apa alasannya?

  1. 99% pendapat orang lain akan tetap ada unsur subjektifnya. Mereka berpendapat berdasarkan sudut pandang, pengalaman, dan pola pikir mereka sendiri. Padahal kenyataannya, sesuatu yang baik untuk mereka belum tentu baik untuk gue juga;
  2. Bagaimanapun, pengalaman pribadi tetap merupakan guru terbaik untuk diri gue sendiri. I’m open for any suggestion, but I should be the one who decides since I know better what works and will never work to me;
  3. Satu-satunya orang yang pernah merasakan semua suka duka dalam hidup gue juga tetap hanya gue seorang. Orang lain boleh saja ngotot, tapi tetap gue yang paling tahu kapasitas diri gue sendiri. What is acceptable to me, what makes me happy, what I like and dislike, and so on;
  4. Tidak semua pendapat yang diberikan orang lain bersifat membangun. Selalu ada saja pendapat yang hanya diucapkan atas dasar rasa iri dan sifat-sifat buruk lainnya. Jika niatnya saja sudah tidak baik, maka untuk apa didengarkan?
  5. Banyak kritik yang diberikan orang lain dengan tujuan untuk membuat gue jadi ‘turun level’. Misalnya, orang-orang yang menganggap gue terlalu strict padahal sebenarnya, mereka hanya malas untuk melakukan sesuatu dengan benar. It’s not worth listening, not at all;
  6. Ada pula kritik yang gue terima hanya demi keuntungan pribadi mereka sendiri. They try to make me feel so bad that I’ll be willing to do everything in their favor;
  7. Mendengarkan aspirasi tim bukan berarti harus bisa mewujudkan keinginan semua orang. Berusaha menyenangkan semua orang hanya akan membuat gue menjadi leader yang tidak punya pendirian. Selain tidak efektif, hal seperti ini juga hanya akan bikin gue jadi capek sendiri;
  8. Terkadang, orang lain terlalu mudah menarik kesimpulan tentang hidup yang gue jalani. Hanya curhatan sesekali, mereka langsung bilang hidup gue unhappy. Kalau mau didengarkan, dari yang tadinya baik-baik saja, gue malah bisa jadi berpikiran, “Is there something wrong with my life?”
  9. Membuat keputusan berdasarkan my best judgment akan menutup peluang gue untuk menyalahkan orang lain jika segala sesuatunya tidak berjalan mulus. Lagipula toh, belum tentu orang yang ngotot memberi saran kelak mau bertanggung jawab atas pendapatnya itu…
  10. Gue sudah sangat sibuk dengan ‘to do list’ dari diri gue sendiri. Gue udah punya banyak banget hal-hal yang sedang gue coba perbaiki dari diri gue ini. Memenuhi personal goals gue saja sudah luar biasa susahnya, apalagi kalau gue harus memenuhi ‘to do list’ dari orang lain juga?

Beda orang, beda pula pendapat pribadinya. Kalau mau selalu didengarkan, maka tidak akan pernah habisnya! Gue sudah tidak pernah lagi membuat keputusan penting murni hanya karena pendapat orang lain. Kalau pun akhirnya gue menerima pendapat orang lain, maka keputusan itu gue buat atas kesadaran dan keinginan dari gue sendiri, bukan semata-mata demi memenuhi keinginan orang lain…

Jadi kalo menurut gue, selama kita sudah berupaya untuk memperbaiki diri kita sendiri, maka tidak usah pedulikan pendapat orang lain soal kepribadian kita ini. Hal yang sama juga berlaku dalam dunia kerja. Jika usaha terbaik kita juga sudah membuahkan hasil yang baik untuk perusahaan, maka tidak perlu lagi dibuat pusing dengan pendapat orang lain. Lalu yang paling penting, jangan biarkan pendapat orang lain membuat kita merasa serba kurang! Gaji kita kurang besar, pacar kita kurang ganteng, baju kita kurang keren, dsb dsb.

Whatever we do in life, people will always have something to say and hater will hate anyway. Since we can’t change the way people will behave, at least, we can definitely change the way we react and deal with the situation. We know better, God knows best, and I believe, it’s all that we need to keep going in live.

Have a nice Sunday!

Are You Really in Love? Maybe, You Only Love the Idea of Falling in Love

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A few weeks back, a friend of mine once asked me, “Do you really fall in love with him or you’re just being in love with the idea of falling in love?”

To be frank, I didn’t really get her point back then. I didn’t even know if such a thing does exist in a real life. It’s not like I’m living in an imaginary world, a TV show or some random chic lit, right? I wasn’t sure I understood her statement, until one day, I saw something that lead me to understand her point of view.

So I happened to know a couple who kept saying to everyone how they were in love with each other. That kind of couple who made people envy or wonder themselves for being single. I thought all of those romances were real, until someday, I accidentally found out the true things happened behind their closed door.

I won’t share with you the details in this blog, it was simply the moment where I knew that everything was not as perfect as it seemed. It was not even close to the perfection as I thought beforehand. And then, I just couldn’t help thinking if everything I saw was fake.

The more I think about it, the more I understand why people says that sometimes, we’re just in love with the idea of falling in love. It’s not that they’re faking it, they’re just wanting to feel good about their own relationship. They want to prove themselves and everyone else that they are indeed falling for the right person. And then when I looked around, I suddenly could see that it might have happened to anyone of us.

Sometimes, we don’t really like that guy that we just met. We’re just glad to have someone to date at Saturday night.

There’s also a chance that we don’t really want to be with that particular person. Deep in our heart, we only want to have someone who wants us badly.

Or maybe, we say that we’re in love because we only want to tell the world that we’re finally taken. We simply miss the euphoria of telling everyone how we’re falling for someone new.

The other chances are that we love to have someone who looks after us. The one who calls us every night until we fall asleep. Who knows that we only need to admit that we love to be seen together with someone on our Path, Facebook, or Twitter account. We love the idea that after such a long search, we have finally found the one.

And when the reality is not as perfect as we have in mind, when the romance never turns as beautiful as we saw in a TV show, we tend to tell our families and friends the other way around just to heal a little bit of disappointment that we feel inside. Maybe we don’t lie, we ‘only’ exaggerate every little detail to make it look good and therefore, it will also make us feel a little bit better.

We keep playing the drama until finally, we can’t tell ourselves if we truly love the person, or maybe, we’re already lost in a thought that we fall for that one person.

Well if that’s the case, maybe some of you will start asking yourself, “How do I know if my love is real?”

It’s a tough question for me as I don’t really think that I have the right answer to that question. However I believe, if we’re all being honest to ourselves, we will eventually find our respective answer. Maybe, we either need to give it some times, do something to fix all the things that have gone wrong, or simply to stop lying to ourselves and go find something real.

Finally, everytime you find yourself in doubt, always do remember this basic rule to live by: life is too short to be spent with the wrong one! Let’s find ‘the one’ and live our life to the fullest!

Happy weekend!

My New Personal Goals

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In the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about the person that I want to become. About the way I talk, the way I react, the way I express everything I feel inside my heart… I can’t help but wondering… have I done the right things? The best things for myself? Have I tried hard enough to pursue my personal goals?

The more achievements you’ve won, the more pressures you’ve got to deal in life. And the more pressures you have, the more difficult for you to handle yourself. It’s so human and it can happen to anyone of us. Yet again, I just can’t help questioning myself… have I done my very best to be the very best version of me?

Most of the time I think, it will be very elegant if I’m capable to stay clam even when all things around me are going crazy. People may annoy me, deadlines may be just around the corner, but I wish I could just stay calm. I want to be able to focus with the problem solving rather than yelling at the people for the things that they did wrong. Fix the problems first and talk later.

I also want to find a way to say, “You’re stupid” without being sarcastic. It’s always important to stop people doing the stupid things that will put everyone in trouble, but I really need to find a better way to deliver the words. It’s not cool if preventing stupid things to happen made me end up as a jerk myself. You know… people may forget the things that we say and do, but they will never forget the way that we make them feel.

And finally, I really need to find a way to quit from the dramas. Most of the time, it’s not me creating those dramas in the first place. It’s other people looking for small trouble, annoys me behind everyone’s back, and then when I’m pissed, they will tell the world with their innocent faces, “She’s such a drama queen.”

Being in tough situation is of course nothing new to me, but somehow, it feels like I’ve got to find a new way to deal with it. What lead me to that thought?

  1. Society can be so unfair. The bad guy is always the one who punches first, and the victim is always the one who cries the loudest. If I want to win the game, then I need to be the expert on it; and
  2. Being out of control brings me regret afterward. The sarcasm, the yells, the uncontrolled anger, and the decisions I made when I was angry… those are the things that I wish I never did.

I know that people won’t believe that I’m capable of achieving these new personal goals. Anger problems are indeed on my blood already. However, even if it takes months, years, or maybe forever, but as long as I try to do my best, then I believe there will be no such a thing like wasted effort.

Best of luck to me!

6 Trik Untuk Menghilangkan Rasa Minder

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Obrolan sore Jum’at kemarin menginspirasi gue untuk menulis judul yang satu ini. Obrolan tentang rasa minder atas penampilan diri kita sendiri. Satu judul yang gue tulis berdasarkan pengalaman pribadi gue. Bukan sekedar teori sok tahu, tapi betul-betul sesuatu yang sudah gue praktekkan dan membuahkan hasil yang positif untuk diri gue sendiri. Maybe… these tricks will work for you too!

  1. Jangan terlalu sering memuji kecantikan perempuan lain. It’s good to be fair, but it’s not good to spend a long chat just to tell people how gorgeous other girls are. Terlalu sering melakukan hal ini justru hanya membuat kita semakin merasa ada yang kurang dengan diri kita sendiri. Kalo menurut gue, daripada sibuk mengamati kecantikan perempuan lain, lebih baik kita berkaca dan berpikir, “What can we do to make us feel pretty?”
  2. Jangan selalu mendengarkan pendapat orang lain tentang penampilan kita. Beda orang, beda pula pendapatnya. Jadi kalau mau selalu dituruti, maka tidak akan pernah ada habisnya! If it makes you feel comfort, secure, feel pretty and feel good about yourself, then just wear it!
  3. Tersenyum saat mendengar pujian orang lain, tidak perlu repot-repot berpikiran, “Jangan-jangan dia memuji karena ada maunya!” Nikmati saja pujian mereka! Dalam keadaan sebaliknya, tetap saja tersenyum tipis saat mendengar kritik pedas dari orang lain. Tidak perlu dipikirkan, karena toh, mereka belum tentu berpikir dulu sebelum melemparkan kritik pedas itu…
  4. Jangan menanamkan pikiran bahwa rasa minder itu sifatnya manusiawi. Ya, memang manusiawi, tapi bukan berarti kita boleh terus-terusan merasa minder! Jangan jadikan ‘manusiawi’ sebagai excuse untuk terus tenggelam dalam perasaan negatif macam itu… Hidup akan terasa lebih mudah, lebih indah, dan lebih bahagia saat kita menjalaninya dengan penuh percaya diri. Trust me!
  5. Malas berdandan. Kita tahu bahwa sedikit make-up bisa membuat kita lebih percaya diri. Kita juga tahu bahwa bantuan sepasang high heels bisa membuat langkah kita terasa lebih mantap. TAPI kita tidak punya waktu untuk dandan! Dan pakai high heels itu bikin pegal! Padahal kalau dipikir lagi, apa sih yang bikin perempuan-perempuan modis itu terlihat lebih menonjol? Make-up, pemilihan pakaian, dan sepasang high heels-nya bukan? If they can do it, then why can’t we?
  6. Other girls are pretty doesn’t mean that we are ugly. Pernah merasa sudah tampil cantik tapi langsung mendadak merasa jelek begitu sampai di tempat pesta? Hanya karena banyak perempuan lain yang terlihat lebih menawan? Throw that thought away! Di atas langit akan selalu ada langit. Jika kita sudah tampil semaksimal yang kita bisa, maka itu saja sudah lebih dari cukup! Kita toh sudah tidak bisa pulang ke rumah hanya untuk ganti baju baru… Lagipula siapa tahu, di mata mereka, justru penampilan kita yang terlihat lebih keren! Just relax and enjoy the party!

Seperti yang gue ceritakan sama teman-teman gue sore kemarin… Dulu, gue pernah jadi cewek yang sekedar menghampiri SPG untuk minta ini-itu pun bisa bikin gue ngerasa ragu-ragu. It was so terrible that I determined to change it!

I don’t need to have a plastic surgery, I don’t need other people telling me that I look pretty, I only need a NEW mind set, put a little of make-up on my face, dress-up in the morning and walk gracefully with my favorite pair of heels! Just one hour in the morning, then I’m good to go 😉

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P.s.: If you think that only pretty girls who are capable to work with these tips, well you’re just wrong. I was not born pretty, there’s even one reader who once said in this blog that I was ugly 😉 If I can survive such ‘virtual bully’ and stay confident, then why can’t you?

My Sunday Thought

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It might be sad but in fact, not everyone deserves their success at work. That kind of people that leaves us wondering… how could this life be so unfair?

Some people are easily on top because their dads owning the company. Or some kind of reputable people in the country. Some of them have proven that they deserve that tittles on their name cards, but some of them are simply the ones who make people think, “This is the generation where the empire will go down.”

I also spotted so many people going far and faster than everyone else just because they went to some school abroad. Vacancies for cool jobs in Indonesia sometimes only open for overseas graduates. I’ve worked with so many overseas graduates, even the bachelors or MBAs from ivy schools, but trust me, it doesn’t make them so smart that they deserve to lead the team. Some of them are indeed have learned so much more than us, but some of them are just the ones who apparently did not really do well in their colleges.

Another heart breaking reality is how a foreigner can be out of the blue our new boss at work. Some people from developed countries working in developing countries thinking that they know what they’re doing here. Some of them are amazing, but some of them are better going home. I’ve come to learn that it’s not about our nationalities, it’s instead our capabilities to prove ourselves.

I write this post not because I envy. I may be everything but envy. I simply want to share my thought that it happens. It happens and there’s nothing we can do to change this reality. There’s no such a spell that can reveal the ‘real’ them. Hating and hoping they will miserably fail is completely a waste of time. It is what it is and I’m afraid, we just need to live with it. Wherever we work, we may always find some people like them.

However, I’m not saying that it’s okay to let them win from us. It’s NOT okay to give up just because we were not born rich, not either born somewhere in western part of this world, not even believing that we would be nothing just because we only went to ordinary schools. Even though our countries and schools are a part of our identities, I’m a strong believer that they don’t necessarily define who we really are.

Even if we didn’t manage to study in a fancy school, it doesn’t mean we cannot get the fancy job we always dream of. If we also want to get into that fancy school, then go for it! We’ll get there, maybe longer and harder, but we’ll get there. And about the not-so-goof expatriates… just show them what a smart Indonesian we are! Learn from the good ones, but don’t be too much irritated by the annoying ones. At the end of the day, this is OUR country. They can’t be so cocky, they earn a living in our country.

So guys… never ever feel inferior for who we are. Do our best and be proud of it! Be so fabulous that people can’t ignore you. Make people want you! Do not envy, just grow gracefully and let people envy you back, even before you know it 😉

Have a great Monday and one great week ahead!