The Overlapping Spheres

“I love my job”

“I love my hobby”

I think the best luxury in my possession right now is to be able to say these two statements not on separate occasions. Not because I am successful in turning my hobby into a job, no.

After all, I have a wide range of hobbies, among others are reading, listening to my favorite music, playing Dota2, collecting yellow duck souvenirs, walking alone in late afternoon, or sitting quietly contemplating random stuffs—all of which have little to do with my day-to-day job as a translator.

What I mean is that I am in no time or spatial restriction on when to do which. I can work, then read a magazine, then work, then drink coffee, then work, then leave my laptops on the table and go for a walk, then go back to work.

It has allowed me to retain a wide perspective on this world. Not one confined to a single spot from a window of an office chair. Having no mode of transportation, I walk myself to different spots where I can sit, open my notebook, and call that place my office.

I move periodically, I always want to change the atmosphere, alter the setting, read different stuffs I could find stashed in the coffee-shop I visit, think about everything I see, every conversation I hear.

I don’t want to be two different persons, shifting between two different spheres. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to work as a professional, while experiencing everything that is so emotional, so profound, so simple, so personal.

This has been a luxury I will not trade away for anything in this world. And for this, I am thankful.

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JC

Room to Grow

If there is a single aspect from myself worth bragging, well . . . apart from being repeatedly mistaken as gay (how do I manage to get a girlfriend again?), it would be my English proficiency, which ironically is far better than my command over the Indonesian language (No, I’m dead serious; I suck hard when it comes to writing in Indonesian—every piece I’ve ever attempted so far are like excerpts torn from parking tickets).

With such proficiency, my day-to-day task often revolves around writing, translating or reviewing documents for grammatical errors, in which I recently realized that I’ve become my own worst editor.

This blog serves a good example. I find myself coming back again and again to a content for revision even when it is already published (don’t be surprised if a sentence you’re reading on this blog suddenly deletes itself). Sometimes my times spent on revision exceeds the time spent actually writing something.

And because of that a question came to my mind: “can you ever be too critical of your own performance?”

By working, I really mean this

Now, while spotting your own mistake before anyone else can prevent a future disaster, it is important to know what to improve before going straight for a revision that can potentially ruin what’s already well established.

But how to be sure whether an aspect of our work is already well established? After all, it is very difficult to be objective of our own work.

As an example, I may think that sophisticated words nourish my content with elements that may better appeal to those with delicately mature taste; so does elaborated albeit long winding explanation, that comes, in not one, but so very many, numerous, frikkin, commas. My readers on the other hand might find them repulsive, distracting, discouraging to even follow through.

This bias, this preconception of our own product makes it impossible for objective assessment on our part. And at times when it does seem possible, it often leads to an over-correction that only replaces a problem with a completely different one instead of solving it.

Also, even though we can always take our time off the pen and let the thoughts sip for a moment, that won’t completely disregard our bias. After all, this bias is also the center of excellence that conducts the production–we shouldn’t resent it entirely.

The only option left for improvement then is to put aside our ego and let the assessment be performed by a third-party.

But third-party evaluation generally sucks, and more than often it feels like “How can this mediocre mind even comprehend my genius? He should be honored to even get the chance to read this masterpiece. Oh look, he is not even laughing at the line where I put my amazingly crafted joke—THAT VERY AWESOME JOKE!! HOW DARE HE *&(%%$^&$#$@#^&*(??!!”

However, no matter how annoying it may feel, the cold hard truth is that it is our best bet. It is okay not to take the advice on what to buy as a hobby—duck plushies or RC cars, how to properly take a shower—sing or no sing, or what to read during pooping time—shampoo bottle or The Economist. But when it comes to producing something for others’ consumption (be it writing, crafting, anything), feedback is a crucial element of consideration.

What? You still need us to tell you that this sucks??

Now to reconsider the question “can you ever be too critical of your own performance?” The answer depends. But in the end, after putting our best effort at the producing, improvement means leaving the evaluation to anyone else but ourselves. Peers sometimes notice flaws better than you—customers, often.

At least the HR department hasn’t filed any complaint on me being a bad boyfriend

The Entrepreneurship of Self

Okay, let’s be honest, this is the first time I’ve ever used the word “Entrepreneurship” or even “entrepreneur” for that matter. I think this is among the most overused words in the pages of social media. That being said, my using of the word has its own risk of falling into the crater of pretentiouship (is there even such word?) But by all means, let me justify myself.

While business can come in concrete forms–restaurant, cafe, game center, shop, you name it; the advent of social media has enriched the possibility of the forms business can embody theseadays. Now, I am not a person who is successful in establishing business of such forms. I am more the kind who dearly wishes I can work freely in space and time of my choosing–a true freelancer at heart.

Speaking of freelancer, it is perhaps the only title anyone can bring up without giving out any clear notion of what economic tools or means of productions are at their disposals–or putting it simply, folks who call themselves freelancers rarely seem to have any job at all.

You see, there are two types of Freelancers in general. The first type are those who answer to endless waves of jobs (not to say “overwhelm themselves with jobs”); the second type meanwhile are those who have been the first type for a loooooong time before screaming “enough!!! I want to have a life! I need a date! I want to be fit! OMG, I need to get my hair cut!!”

The crucial difference between the two lies in the realization of how crucial the allocation of time is. I believe that time spent not doing anything is a waste of time. That does not mean that all have to be allocated for work, though. I proceed with a belief that it is this balance between personal life and professional life that truly defines a person. All work and no play makes Jeremy a dull boy. All play and no work on the other hand makes Jeremy a homeless.

“But Jeremy, what does this have to do with entrepreneurship? You pretentious hipster!”

Well, you see, to delve in the optimal point between work and life is no easy task. It is a comfort zone that takes hard work to arrive at. And this hard work is parallel with a manufacturing process that takes your SELF as the raw material to produce a much improved version of yourself–let us call it Jeremy 2.0 Beta (put your name over here, Jeremy, Santos, Grace, Sasha grey, whatever).

This manufacturing process requires you to be an architect of your own means of production, which are time and space above all else. Freelancer perhaps is the one with the most versatility and room to experiment with them. To work in the space and time of your choosing is indeed a luxury, but to comfort and make you feel like a king of your own trade is not the sole purpose here, the most important thing about it is its impact on your product.

Whoever you are: content-writer, proofreader, designer, or translator like me, allowing yourself to work in time and space of your choosing is conditioning your mind to work with the best setup. By contrast, Imagine working in a crowded space with an empty stomach or with sleepy eyes at 12am at night chased by deadline. Having a luxury to choose space and time of work can translate directly to the improvement of the quality of your products as freelancer.

This is how Freelancer might look like at your local cafe

But the scheduling of proper time and selection of space is not everything. We often forget that what makes a good career out of each of us is, well, our body. Take a good look at the mirror and ask: mirror . . mirror on the wall . . who is the fairest mofo of this land and ask yourself if you have been taking a good care of yourself lately.

You see, when I persuade people to go to the gym, their formal response is “I am soooo super busy right now” (read that in Ted Mosby’s voice). Those people work full-time and hope that they will make free time for their health somewhere down the road, which often is true in the end (mostly after their doctors diagnose them with illness rooted to excessive stress and lack of physical activity).

The thing is, nobody ever has enough time for everything, you make the time for it. And that is why becoming an architect of your own working space and schedule complements this physical factor so much more.

Now, you can add tertiary factors like lifestyle or recreation to the equation. But make sure you only add recreational activities that are important to you, that can support the productivity of your mind in one way or another. List them in questions like “Can I live without  . . . ?” to identify which ones are important and which ones do not deserve that much priority. Here are some example:

-Can you live without seeing the new Star Wars movie? Neither can I!

-Can you work without getting annoyed by all your friends posts on instagram or memes on 9gag spoiling the Star Wars movie plot? Neither can I!

Selvi: I am your Vader

The bottom line of all this jabber-jabber is that taking into account every aspect of your own being that is related with productivity and making improvements and adjustments wherever possible will not only amplify the quality of your products (be it translation, editing, writing, etc); but will also keep you motivated, productive, happy, and fit for the long run. If building up to a product of self so optimized in those aspects cannot be classified as “entrepreneurship,” I honestly don’t know what can.

Of course for me, this all holds up until my mother tells me I need to get a real job I get to shift to a career with an outlined job description and preset schedule, which, to be honest, I doubt I will ever do.

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 JC

Edging the Central

The most important lessons of our lives are often found in places we never expect. For me, they revolve around the topic of time. The catch is that, with time, we do not have the full control over the “when” of spending it. The moment we are sitting around not doing anything is the moment we waste it. The clock never hesitates, the countdown never ceases. This practically makes time the most unrenewable resource of all. And while it is crucial to learn how to spend it, another delicate practical concern of equal importance for me is with whom we spend it.

We all have the highlights of our weeks, or months, years. You know, those time we spend laughing half-drunk with our closest friends, or those small birthday parties with our loved ones, those moments we genuinely enjoy that are forever etched in our memory. Of course, I am not here to exclude the possibility that some people out there find their highlights in seclusion, though I have to admit that I come with an assumption that such cases are rare; that one of the most important foundation of highlights is company. However, beyond that, it takes a great deal of expertise to end up with the company of our selection.

Just how many times have we got stuck with work when our friends are hanging out? Quite recently, I missed my girlfriend’s band show because it coincided with a drama-performance in which I was a committee member. I have to admit, despite how amazing the drama performance was, despite the applause it garnered at the curtains-close, I’d rather have spent the evening attending my girlfriend’s show. Reflecting on that event, I realized that my error often lies in my submissive tendency towards work. I accept project here and there without realizing that only very few precious moments truly mean something and leave marks in my life—the highlights.

This leads to a realization that I have been living my life without a clear guideline on the process. Clearly, most of us (including me) already have goals set in our minds—the days we wish to arrive at and savor, a finish line to earn through all that hard works. But only so few of us know how to wisely live every other day outside of it. If highlight is so important to my life, if that is the central, how exactly do I edge its peripheral? This obviously is still a personal reflection in need of an answer. But it opens up the senses that while highlights have been sort of random encounters in most of our lives, it is really up to us to arrange the timetable–to say no to appointment with people who are not really up there in our social circle, to make sure that we sit on a dinner table of our choosing, to cheer in a party we really belong, to get drunk together with the right folks, or to end up in a seat of a performance we truly wish to see.

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 JC