Work Life Balance and the Concept of Mindfulness
I was struck by a horrifying question: “If you only have today to live, would you do what you are going to do today?”
Living this long (well, though I’m only 30) and facing countless lost of families, friends, and colleagues makes me question things that matter the most. In addition, the lost that I have faced never occurs in a “slow and predictable” way — it was always sudden and saddening. The same thing happened to our colleague in Traveloka, one of the biggest startups in Indonesia, which recently lost its CTO.
Then, what really matters? Will I still go to the office when today could be my last day living? I would definitely say “yes”.
Work: Does It Really Matter?
I have worked in a place where I simply thought that I wasn’t important to the company. Who am I, indeed? Even if I’m gone, the company could find any suitable candidate to replace me.
To make it worse, I did not think in the slightest that my work could make any impact to the company’s goals, or even to society. A mere staff like me, whose regular job is to count numbers in a Support Department, was like being a single asteroid in the universe. The result is as you might expect, I did not stay for long.
How is my previous job different from my current job? Meaning and Impact. Shortly before resigning, I realized that those two traits were something I need to find in my professional career. Or else, why would I want to spend 1/3 of my time daily?
I need to find a certain purpose in life, and that includes my work life. Surprisingly, these have been highlighted also in Google’s quest to search for the perfect team ( I will discuss this in another article — I promise you). People involved in that team would feel they are being valued, and simultaneously performed the best of their abilities.
My current position in Customer Services (CS) is to help customers solve their problems in the friendliest way possible. However, as a Leader, I personally still have another goal to be a worthy mentor. When my former subordinate texted me, saying, “Thank you very much for teaching me all those skills, and showing me perseverance in how to get the job done!”. Right then, I realized that my own personal achievement is that of developing others.
Currently, I am able to help outsourced CS Staff gain more skills needed for them to compete with other permanent employees. After taking a specific leadership program called FAZZ-Track some employees are able to advance their career as permanent employees not only in my department, but also in other departments. I couldn’t be happier.
I am fortunate to come to work everyday, because I could learn something new, and I could share what I learn with others.
Life: Will It Be Left Behind?
As a mother of one son, I surely do not want to put my family interest as “second” priority. I am someone who believes that “work life” and “personal life” is the same life I have right at this moment. Sometimes, one must be first priority, and at other times it could not.
That’s why I regard my colleagues as “the neighbors next cubicle”. I think I need to know how her wedding plan going, or how is his sick mother’s condition after being hospitalized. One moment that I could not forget was when my dear colleague, Septi R., told me that she was diagnosed with Cervical Cancer.
I was so petrified that I could not utter any words. She is one of the most active woman I’ve met, or else she would not have a career in Sales. She also had the healthiest lifestyles among us, she worked out regularly, she’s a vegetarian, and goes home early to have a good rest.
Later on, she underwent an operation and successfully recovered. Though she still needs to go for several chemotherapy sessions, she is grateful that her condition did not get any worse.
From that point on, I also learned that we cannot neglect the needs of our body to get rest and be healthy. Even, Handry Satriago, CEO of GE, wrote this on his twitter: “Leader must have a stamina! Sacrifice those delicious and tempting “gulai tunjang” and do the sport 30 minutes a day! #belajarjadiCEO”.
The Concept of Mindfulness
What is the perfect work life balance? How we could balance these two?
As I do not have a clear vision of how to do that, I stumble upon the concept of mindfulness.
In mindful, it is stated that, “the goal of mindfulness is to wake up to the inner workings of our mental, emotional, and physical processes”. Taking some of our busy time everyday to stay calm, think back through everything, and be present right at that very moment. That will help me decide every possible choice through life, and I am still learning.
At the end, we all should be able to answer this modified question: “If you only have today to live, would you regret what you have done today?”
