Saturday, April 30, 2011

Disconnect and recharge

"To manage the storm around us, we need to quiet the storm inside ourselves". I've been quite a follower to Tony Schwartz's blog in the past year. A proponent of productivity and engagement at the workplace (and how the way we're working isn't working), his musings often touch on how to get the best from our daily tasks and actions without sapping ourselves of our precious energy.

At the same time, Tony's writings are also personal. The way he relates his theories to his day-to-day life and activities give me a strange comfort in knowing I'm not alone in experiencing detachment and burnouts in my workplace.

It took me a number of job applications made in haste and an interview with another prospective (but nonetheless incompatible) company to made me realise what I hate in my current job is not the job itself, but the mindless operating robot I've turned into. It took me a week spent among the project network stakeholders (not to mention the much needed time out of the office) and a night mulling over figures and numbers to remember again what actually inspires me about my work;

The satisfaction of completing one little project at a time, reading and writing about issues I believe in, understanding science behind everything, the enriching experience I get when I speak to everyday entrepreneurs and industrialists, the ability to see the big picture, picking apart drivers and barriers governing our decisions.

In the grand scheme of things, they might be futile. What I'm doing may account for only one single little dot in the gigantic map of global struggle, but they will drive me forward. They will be the crutch to keep my feet steady, to keep me walking until the end - limping or not.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yati yang saya kenal adalah seorang yang dengan sengaja memilih jalan yang payah dalam hidupnya.

Yati yang saya kenal juga sa-orang yang berhati batu.

Kerna Yati yang saya kenal ada definisi payah dan batunya sendiri.

Unknown said...

Pojan,

Not sure whether that is a compliment or not, but thanks. I think it pretty much sums up everything.

And that's why I don't mind writing my heart out here, because I know those who reads my posts are those who knows me well enough to understand.

Anonymous said...

Compliment, for sure :)

Saya lihat yati cenderung membuat keputusan yang lain dari orang lain, dan yati juga bijak mencari madu-madu manis dari cabaran mendatang.

Saya cemburu sejujurnya.

Unknown said...

Pojan,

Kadang-kadang Yati cemburu juga bila orang selalu pilih jalan-jalan yang stabil dan predictable. Senang zahirnya.

Sometimes I think I'm destined to live in a state of continuous dysfunctional confusions, it's exhausting.

But, maybe it's a blessing in disguise, who knows kan?

Anonymous said...

Ya betul.

Saya setuju.

The end

After nearly ten years, ati-the-reader.blogspot.com is now concluding its final chapter. The blog has been a definitive part of my life, an...