Wednesday, December 31, 2008

New Year

New year. New hopes. New dreams. New goals. New friends. New purposes. New challenges. New adventures.

Nah.

New year. New team. New home base. New mobile number. New apartment to find. New car to buy. New bank. New credit cards*

Happy new year 2009.


*nope, they are not my new year wishes ;) those are some of the challenges and issues I have to deal with due to my relocation

Friday, December 12, 2008

Write From Heart

A friend of mine asked me a question: how come it's possible for me to write my blog in between my busy schedule? He wants to follow my path in blogging so he needs to know how to start and to maintain consistency in writing. He claimed it was just a simple question that requires a simple answer. Yet it took me few days to reply.

First, I thought it's because the nature of my job requires me to always write to make documentation, to communicate via emails, to propose plan and so on. So I have to keep writing even outside my work to maintain the flow. Remember Newton's first law of motion: the object that is in motion will be in the same state with the same velocity until a force acts upon it.

Then I was thinking perhaps it's because I write to release the tension. Every time I feel under pressure from my work, I try to divert my mind by writing about something else. Something completely different with what I'm currently doing.
It always works, at least for me.

I also like to utilize my time, for example during the transit between flights, to write. I prefer to do this instead of sitting in the airport watching the people moving around, even I have to admit it is fun to do as well especially in big airport like Dubai or Singapore. I almost missed my flights few times because I was so focus with my writing.

Or perhaps I still can maintain my blog because I don't write that much. In average I write only 4 or 5 entries per month, and most of them are not technical.

And I only write what I see, what I know, what I have done. Even when I write something technical, I usually don't spend much time to check with the references. I write only as I understand, as I have experienced, and I use my own words to describe something that may have been described differently in the references.

My only issue with writing something technical in blog is I need to be careful not to disclose confidential information from my company. Whatever topic I want to write, I always have to honor my company's non-disclosure agreement.

Last but not least, maybe I can keep writing because I never worry if anyone will read it or not. I will continue to write in this blog even if I'm the only one on earth who reads it. I really use this blog as my life journal. Something to review my life and decisions I made in the past. I read the blog to evaluate myself and to make me always remember what I have been through to reach my current state. Freedom in writing. I think this is the most important.

Finally I found the ultimate answer. Probably it's just because I always write from the heart. I don't feel any pressure to write. I can write whenever I feel it, and whatever I feel inside my heart.

So, want to write a blog? Just do it. Start writing. Move the object. Then we don't even need to put additional force to maintain the flow, unless we want to change the velocity or make it stop.

Write for ourselves, and write from the heart.

Saturday, December 06, 2008

I Don't Want To See My Future

I believe I can see the future, Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails said. Not because he is a psychic or something, but 'cause I repeat the same routine'. I think I used to have a purpose. But then again, that might have been a dream.

When we are trapped in the same routine everyday, we get bored. We are bored because we know how this will end. Looking at the future is just like looking at the mirror. Everything keeps get repeated and no changes.

Even for someone who travel 80% to do work can still feel bored. Because everything is becoming the same routine. Project, meeting over web, fly to the destination country, lead a workshop, do presentation in front of the customer, make documentation, conference call, replying emails, testing in the lab, onsite implementation, project hand over, move on to the next country.

For those who have not done this before may find it looks compelling and challenging. But for those who always live with that, different projects, customers even new countries can form the same pattern. Repetitive tasks, that can bring boredom. First it requires skills that we need to learn, but eventually it has become second nature.

That's the reason I like to break the rules. Do the unexpected.
I don't want to use the provided template or follow a defined business flow. I always make my own template.

The purpose is to kill the boredom. To escape the pattern.

What have you done lately to break your routine?

Thursday, December 04, 2008