Comment of The Year

Beberapa hari setelah postingan 13 Pelajaran Sebelum Tahun 2013, seseorang mengirimkan email yang berisi tanggapan dan komentar atas 13 hal penting tersebut. Seseorang itu bernama Dyah Supriyadi. Dia adalah yang gue sebut menghitung mundur ke tahun baru di status Blackberry Messenger-nya. Berikut komennya. 

Fatsi – 2013 Blog Comment

First of all... Let me congratulate you on finally publishing these thoughts of yours even though the initial plan was to have it up on the 13th, better late than never right?

Honestly, reading this blog gave me goosebumps. Why? Because it is very critical, analytical and raw. You can so tell that you are writing from the heart, your personal opinions and your point of view on matters that means so much to you. Very concise and straight to the point.

Since I miss writing, I’m going to take this opportunity to comment and put in some personal anecdotes on each of your self-improvement bullet points. Consider it as my x-mas gift to you.

1.Patience

Good point. I guess with the constant stresses of work and life in general, modern society has become very short tempered. I’ve had a couple of incidents in 2012 which involves my short temperedness and believe me, it doesn’t feel great. In the end, the loss is on you. Oh how I envy free spirited people with no care in the world!

2.  Health 

There was this article in a magazine I once read which said that the ages people have heart attacks and strokes nowadays are getting younger by the year. The ages are between 25 – 35, your prime years. The reason? Work stress, unhealthy eating plans and lack of sleep are to blame. The solution? Eat right, get enough sleep, exercise and schedule “me” times. I should really take my own advice.

3.  Family

I’ve explained to you about empty-nest syndrome right? Spend as much time with your family especially your parents while you can. Time is ticking. Sometimes we take them for granted because we know they’ll always be there and regret not spending as much time with them when its too late.

4.  Love

Let me just say, you guys have it easy. Men can go to a party or any social interactions and “choose” the girl. If it didn’t work out, leave and find another. If it happened the other way around, we (girls) gets labelled as being “aggressive”, a “bitch” and sometimes even “easy”. I guess Indonesia is not ready for empowered women just yet.

5.  Friendship

Ditto! I had a friend who was anti-social, this is the brother of one of our good friends. I felt sorry for him, having no friends, it must feel lonely. I took pity on him and started inviting him to our get togethers, it worked well for a while, we were all happy he was socialising and getting out of the house. Until he got himself a girlfriend and ditched us, Ouch! Definitely hurt, but at the end of the day, if he did break up and come back to us, I’m sure we would embrace him with open arms. Why? Because that’s the beauty of a real friendship.

6.  Traveling & Weekend Getaway

I can’t further emphasize how important this is! Work hard, play hard. Even day trips can do wonders for the soul.

7.  Passion VS Hobby

This is interesting. I’ve never thought about it that way. Now I’m starting to wonder what are my “passions”, since by your definition all the things I considered “passions” are all infact, hobbies. Is shopping considered passion? Cause that’s the only thing I can’t live without at the moment.

8.  Planning

I agree to some extent on this one. While it is good to have a plan, it is also good to be prepared for things that don’t go according to plan. That way, it leaves no room for dissapointment. That’s a valuable lesson I’ve learnt this year.

9.  Leadership & Managing People

I’m still a newbie in this area. All I can say is, working in a culture where “seniority” is still a major influence in the work place is a challenge in itself. How to overcome this? Maybe you have some advices for me.

10. Teamwork

Talking about teamwork, please pray for me that the new GM in my company will be able to adapt well to all of us or us to him/her. As you say, a team player needs to be able to adapt, communicate and coordinate. What happens if we aren’t able to do that? Does that mean we are a failure? Please advise.

11. System & Procedures

This is so simple and yet so important! I’ve told you about how my work place is in chaos because there are no proper SOP?! I just don’t understand, wouldn’t that be the first thing a company prepares before running?!

12. Coordination & Communication

This is so simple yet so hard to do! From personal experience, there always seems to be a communication failure between Departments! It is so hard to teach people to take initiatives and see the bigger picture. Even getting your subordinate to cc you in an email needs constant reminding! Is this just a cultural thing or is it a universal thing?

13. Persistence & Consistence

I couldn’t agree more. I like this quote, “Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them -  a desire, a dream, a vision” – Muhammad Ali. In order for a desire, dream and vision to become a reality you need the persistence and consistency to do so and to not be afraid of failing, as “failure is simply the opportunity to begin again. This time more intelligently”.

Well there you go, 13 comments for your self-improvement list. Overall, I enjoyed reading the blog, its such an eye opener. The points you made are spot on and is probably what all of us want to improve on in 2013.

Hopefully in 2013 you will continue to keep this blog updated and I’ll be looking forward to hear more of your thoughts and experiences.

Have an Awesome New Years Fatsi!

Dyah Supriyadi