New Career Path. The Ups and Downs

A study in 2008 found that 80% of people over 45 years old consider changing careers, but only 6% actually take the leap.

I was "only" 36 when I had that stinging urge and I took that shaky leap just earlier this year, after around a two year long contemplation.

Now, entering my six months' leading a small communications agency that I've co-founded, I am only starting accept these adjustments below:

• I can no longer afford my monthly fancy manicures. Well, I can. But since the company's revenue is not "there" yet, I do not feel like I have the right to enjoy what I am making at the moment
• Business owners advised me to "Give it a year or two." when it comes to feel a bit more secure. Like, you'll sleep better, the money starts to come in smoothly. At first, I was like "Whoa that is a long time." Bu, actually, no. My business model is quite unique and can actually be considered safe. I did not have to put a huge capital. So a year should be fine. I do not mind the wait. The sleepless nights on the other hand... Eugh
• Extra time? Not really. I promised my friends that I will be able to hang out with them more. But look at me now. I just cannot stand the idea of not using certain hours of the day not trying to make money. Because, every second counts. Also, I have one employee. Yes, that is enough for you to feel the kick on your ass every morning
• Every six months, I would usually do a spring cleaning on my closet. Any piece I no longer like, I will gladly give to colleagues, cousins, or anyone. Now? My next spring cleaning is in three weeks and I am thinking of tagging those pieces with a price. It sounds horrible to me... But, well, I also love buying second-handed items. So why not?

But it's not always hard and annoying and or budget related. There are so many things that I am so thankful of:

• Marilyn's condition is deteriorating.  Last June, her last seizure was so rough it took her six hours to recover fully. It is hard to not worry about money (her medicines, lab tests, therapy, neurologist), but if I am given the options to go back to my day time job or to work harder with this new start up while having the freedom to take care of my baby, I know I will never second guess my path today
• I have the liberty to decide on who do I want to work with. Or not. This is a bit tricky tho, because at the back of my mind I always want to say YES to every single opportunity that comes my way. But turns out, I cannot. Why? Because time suddenly valued way higher than it used to be. And values are timed more for me these days. One example here: I have a skeptical views on overpriced charity dinner, so when an organizer seeks for a possibility for me to work on their campaign, I refrain myself from taking the opportunity. How to sell something you do not believe in? Or, when an owner of some fancy establishments in Bali showed up two hour late on our first meeting, why would I even bat an eye for the next one?
• I feel much more empowered. Representing your own label somehow gives you this enthralling feeling you never thought you have. My past working experience are amazing and I am glad that the corporate discipline I gained is really helping me to stay on my new ground
• My horizons are changing. I am meeting people from different industries and with different background. Most of them making me feel like I have not learned enough. And that... is a good feeling to have
• Fun facts: I cannot get any work done before I put my red lipstick on. Haha!

Via Pinterest

Walking the talk

Don't you just love it when article tag lines promise to help us to discover “Who I’m meant to be.” Am I not already that person? How does one go about doing this? Could there be a less scientific pursuit?

I tried to be my skeptical self but then... well... This question been banging my head for almost two years now and I've lost sleeps thinking about it!

At the end of 2017, I've finally had the courage to stop talking about my fears and make that change. It's not just about the signs and all the coincidences, it's about what will make me go to sleep feeling less doubtful about what I am actually doing in life. I need to be the person that I am meant to be.

So, here goes.

Today is my official last day working in the hotel industry.

Yes, you've read that right.

And whilst typing the above, I was waiting for wave of emotions to shock me. To my surprise, it did not happen... it feels so natural. After ten years, after five properties. After making my path just enough people actually commented with "Wow, it's like the end of an era!"

I do not feel anything in that scale of magnitude. I appreciate the comments but deep down I know that none of us is irreplaceable. We just need to make sure we are creating our own legacy. No matter how small.

This feels okay. And if I am being brutally honest, my body feels like it's embracing its longing journey. "Where have you been?"

From tomorrow onward, I will embrace my "Act 2" with a small communications agency. Writing, creating content for much smaller establishments to pay the bills and to have enough to share and at the same time using my time for causes I am invested in  like this, this, or this.

And the book I've been talking about finishing? Goodness me.

Will this be a big break or an epic fail, I know I owe this to myself. I've been feeling so guilty for doing nothing about my own longtime dreams and hopes. 
And what's worst? I have been talking about it for years!

But all that stops now.

And I have faith that God is on my side. To Him be the glory.

Be Ready to Be Copied

As an amateur blogger, I am reading plenty of other blogs and discussion forums too. Therefore, I am fully aware that I am influenced by them. Topics can be the same as interests and trends might be similar as well as vary.

But, we must have different style, and habits of using certain phrases or notions, orders, expressions, or even instagram hashtags. They cannot all be the exact same... Can they?

Here's to inspiring bloggers I have learned a lot from and somehow keep me sane to be my own self: Refinery 29, Miss Moss, Hello Giggles, The Dish Daily and many more!

ps: Well said, someecards!

Guys to have fun with. But not to go home with

Presenting you my maiden article in Hello Bali, June edition: "Get your flirt on; Guys to have fun with. But not to go home with!"

Read it here: Get your flirt on!

ps: This is not my first officially published article, there are some in other magazines: Three years (and counting) in paradise; Bali through the lenses of a photo-mania etc. And I sure am working hard to get some more out there. 

Thank you for reading my pieces of wanderings, beautiful people!

xoxo
Tressabel Hutasoit

Great news from the desk of Tressabel's blog!

One of the hippest lifestyle-travel-food magazine in the island is publishing my personal article (read: my pitch, my angle, my idea)! 

It is safe to say that I am beyond ecstatic! And this time it is different with the ones I did before for other publication, as for this feature, I do not have to interview anyone. It is more like about social vibes and or happenings.

I cannot spill you a paragraph or two now but it is only weeks to go before the magazine is out.

So... I will surely keep you posted.

xoxo.

ps: Baby steps darling... baby steps.

I can so relate to this :)

Die known as....

A perfect stranger just told me this one simple line, when I babble about how I do not want to die known as a communication practitioner in hotel industry; "Maybe, you can die as a writer."
Ah, I would really like that...

Pinterest

Interviewing Inspiring People

As if I have everything under control...  I said yes to this free-lance writing job!

Managing 1 regular feature for this local magazine I have read quite religiously for years will be my main responsibility. This means, I have to go out and interview people! Interesting people live in Bali, to narrow them down. People with insights that inspire them about this island (or not). It can be things that changed the way they think, or a re-assurance of their beliefs... 

It also can be about a dream and how Bali apparently is the only place that makes it possible for them to make it come true. It's not as big as holding up a must read feature in Bazaar for example but I tell you now; I am super giddy and thrilled about it!

Yes of course, the maiden article should also be shared here.

Pinterest

I Write Because

Admitting my flaws, weaknesses and problems. Better write them down.
Deliver disappointments?
Yea, better write them down if I do not want to hear my own shaky voice turns to shrieks!

Telling you all my fears?
I cannot be too sure of them until they are all well-written.
Telling you to your face to "Get your own signature style and life!"? 
You know I cannot do that. Therefore, it's written.

Deciding on which way to go...
Maybe later. I have to first write the options all down.

Drugs for Writers

What are you up to this weekend?
I have done a few miles jog with may lab Marilyn and now enjoying my breakfast and coffee. Workers are now doing some project on the backyard wall and later in the afternoon, I am planning to go hunt for some vintage furniture. Just hunt, not buying them just yet*wink.

Great news; I got a promotion! Cannot even tell you how thankful I am and also nervous at the same time because this means bigger projects and responsibilities are waiting for me. Yesterday, as I started to work at my -what can be called as- satellite office, my mojo seems to overflowing. I always knew that I am a better person alone, but apparently at work, I perfom better in a quite environment too. Haha!

Well, here's a funny illustration I recently found. Makes me laugh hard!
Have a great weekend beautiful people.
 

Pinterest

 

What Creativity is Not

Having a hard time at work, I realize that it has been a while since I jump up in an excitement of eureka because of a new idea. Maybe I have to spend a long day at the beach, maybe I have to change my routine?

Questioning this, I am starting to come into a realization about something.

Creativity is something you can shape... through miles and miles of trial and error. But it is not something you can buy.

Creativity can be conveyed by someone who is your inspiration, it can be from your nearest and dearest, or a complete stranger. But if you steal it, it no longer is.

Creativity takes action, of reading, of browsing or stumbling from one page to another, be it in a book, a magazine or the drowning and magnetic world wide web. But it has to brought you to new ideas, new concept, new subjects. It has to embody your original self.

Tweaking, re-phrasing a paragraph or a topic... is not creativity. It is not you.

You have a life. Look for your shady mundane and pierce it. Scatter it into pieces. Paint them shocking pink!

Then you can start thinking about creativity.

Pinterest

Damn Good Advice

Damn Good Advice (for people with talent) by George Lois, has recently become an addition to my collection of Phaidon books. And I love it. Just like how I love all of Phaidon's other collections. So I have been sticking my nose so close to it the past few days.

The practice advices and anecdotes in it are just entertaining, witty and feels like an ignition to my -about to get numb- brain. I want to keep my creative juices flowing!

And, as if the content (and the design) is not enough, on its last page, my favorite poem is written.

Yes, Invictus by William Ernest Henley that I have posted in this blog for a couple of times:)

 Damn Good Advice (for people with talent)

Calvin and Hobbes on Writing

Another reason to like writing? :))

Calvin and Hobbes

A Writer's Snacks

At work, I am not a real big fan of snacking tho I love a big breakfast and big lunch while trying not to have big dinner at all times. When I write, I write better without food around me. A full tummy, a tall tumbler of coffee and some music. That's all I need.

For years... I always think that most people who write are accompanied with nothing different than those three.

So when I found this cute graphic, not only that I now realize how wrong I was, I am starting to wonder... 
Will my writings be any different if I munch  crackers or drink a different kind of beverage?

I have a box of weet-bix bites, bananas and cheese. 
Let's see what they can bring to my ideas :)

Nerd Quirk

The Bell Jar

Have you read Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar ? What do you think about it? Honestly, I only read the book few years ago, maybe in 2010. 
I think it is one of the most twisted yet brilliant book ever. Deceiving too! I mean, how it started as an easy reading but then it gets funny then it turns dark and bitter and... Ah :')

And the fact that The Bell Jar is Plath's only novel (not to mention her mental illness and her tragic death) sets  it to the shelves of a "legendary work".  

See this picture below that describes what we can learn form Plath about writing. What a genius :(

ps: I am re reading The Bell Jar this week. Are you in?

from Write Now

Trent Walton on Blogs

 “There’s something sacred about reading a blog post on someone else’s site. It’s like visiting a friend’s house for a quick meal ’round the breakfast table. It’s personal — you’re in their space, and the environment is uniquely suited for idea exchange and uninterrupted conversation. In many ways, we should be treating our blogs like our breakfast tables. Be welcoming & gracious when you host, and kind & respectful when visiting.” – Trent Walton

Agraphia

I have one big confession to make. 

I am having a severe pain of what people call as a WRITER'S BLOCK. 

This is so serious I cannot even write anything nice or sweet or funny and obviously cannot do a piece that has all those three components. Can I blame it to the weather? The stormy days here in Bali and the fact that I did not get enough sun? Or does it sound too insane if I point fingers to my insomnia ? (Yea, it stays with its stubbornness) 

I cannot believe that this genius book is not helping this time and even watching movies gets me wander in uncertainty instead of striking me with ideas.

Please help me if you can. What do I have to do?

I am dying to be back.

from Other Worldly

Write drunk-Edit sober

Have you read any of Ernest Hemingway's work? I only read The Old Man and the Sea when I was in college. 

I remember I found the book at a rusty used book store in Bandung.

Not an easy one I must say, but I adore him . 

Now I just read this absurdly smart quote... Make me feel like I need to read The Sun also Rises anytime soon! 

But I highly doubt that I am going to get drunk tonight. 

It is Friday evening and I am being intimate with my laptop and noodle soup instead of sipping cocktails at a party. 

Hence as I am typing this with all consciousness, I allow myself to embrace the fact that this post is not a masterpiece material.

Therefore, I write

I am not always good in a long winding conversation and not always comfortable being surrounded with lots of people. I have so many things twirling in my mind and sometimes have no single idea what to do with it.
Therefore, I write.

I am not a sweet tooth so chocolate does not entice my endorphin to burst as well as it does to anyone who is a choco aficionado.
But scribbling words while being caffeinated does. Therefore, I write (whilst coffee runs through my vein)

I do not always have time to hang out in a bar, not always in the safe zone to do a shopping spree, nor always in the mood for partying or do any other retail related therapy. But I always... always find it releasing, freeing, to be able to phrase a paragraph or two. 

Therefore, I write.

It is therapeutic. It is rewarding. It is a part of me that I will never question why and what for.
It is my way of telling you things I may never be able to say in person, or my method of asking you stuff I never thought I wanted to know in the first place. 

I am one confused soul and most of the time, I wander if I am not lost. 

I have a constant need to be found over and over again. 

Therefore, I write.

From Wendi K

Definition revealed

This is too funny. I got it from " And so we ramble ". Loving the introduction of the page too. As from the saying below, I laughed so hard on the description of "K"  and "Never mind" :))

Stay Creative

Thanking wiseword for sharing this on tumblr. Now I have to get away from the computer and read this book I just bought last week. I still have 2 more books to finish before the end of  the year:)

Stay creative sweethearts!