Carpe Diem

Really I do. I want to tell you what just happened to me in the past two months, I started to do what I hate and I can say now I think I am addicted. So sejak dua bulan yang lalu tepatnya bulan Juni, setelah kurang lebih tiga bulan di rumah dan ga keluar-keluar. Ada temen yang ajak untuk jogging seputaran komplek, we used to jog once in a while around our neighborhood. Saya cuma berpikir ini adalah kesempatan untuk fellowship, nothing more. setelah dua kali keluar, saya cedera (jalan ajah cedera…malu-maluin) setelah brenti ampir seminggu, something in my head told me: if out of this pandemic you gain nothing but extra weight, you are such a fool. That sentence is actually mine, I said that too often to too many people. So I don’t know where it came from, I have this urge to woke up early in the morning and put on my shoes and start jogging. After like a week of fast walking, I think I am ready for a new challenge, then I started to run. One thing appears to my mind every morning I moved my big butt out off my bed, one day I want to walk my baby down the aisle with a strong and fit body. Well, if she gets married when she’s twenty-five, I’ll be sixty-seven, I want to look like a Smokin hot sixty-seveners. Ha!

I realize that to be able to do that, I need to start investing in my body. And I need to start now. Jadi motivasi itu yang bikin saya mulai bergerak. I am a man of vision, I need reasons and motivations to move. I need the why behind every what. Dan akhirnya sekarang adalah bulan ke tiga saya jogging, I feel healthy, I feel fresh, and people start asking me if I am in the diet because I lost weight (not much, don’t worry, I’m still huge). Karena saya mulai hari saya lebih pagi sekarang, saya merasa saya bisa mencapai lebih banyak hal setiap hari. Jogging saya hanya sekitar satu jam setiap hari (yep, daily whenever possible), satu jam yang cukup untuk saya berpikir, mencerna, dan menemukan ide-ide baru. Hey, I don’t know why but now I kinda like jogging. (wait until I can change the “jogging” word to “running” because slowly but surely I will get there somehow.) Ada beberapa pelajaran yang saya ambil lewat jogging ini, I hope this can inspire many.

1. Driven by a vision, not by a temporary trend. Dalam beberapa bulan ini semua orang demam gowes (atau demam belanja sepeda) dan demam lari, demam trail run, demam yoga, demam masak dll. Banyak tiba-tiba di ujung pandemi ini, semua orang punya “tiba-tiba moment” nya sendiri. Saya rasa itu baik. Tetapi yang menentukan apakah ini temporary atau tidak tentunya adalah sebuah kata KONSISTENSI. Hanya konsistensi yang bisa dirubah menjadi prestasi, kalo sekedar eksistensi, cukup sulit untuk mengubahnya menjadi prestasi.
2. Focus. Most of the time I jog without my contact lens or my glasses, so all I can see is just the concrete one meter away. I cannot see people around me (so if you see me when I jog, I am sorry for not saying hello or nod) all I can see is blurry color running or walking. I love that, I love not being able to compare myself to other jogger or fast runner who runs over me. It feels so good to just focus on my own track, my own finish line, and my own phase (or pace in running term). Competition, a healthy one is always good to motivate us to keep going. But in competition, any competition, the focus is always the key to win.
3. Keep running. Dalam perjalanan saya yang baru dua bulan ini ada beberapa kali bolong, ada yang karena saya tidak berhasil bangun pagi, ada juga karena saya harus melakukan sesuatu yang lain early in the morning. Ada rasa kesal waktu liat history track dan ada bolong-bolong apalagi karena tidak disiplin sendiri. I think the only asnwer is just keep running, it’s normal to be a little preoccupied sometimes. What matters is that we keep doing it because that’s what’s really matter. I think it’s the same as my daily devotion, ada bolong-bolong but I keep on keeping on.
4. Surround yourself with those who can support AND CRITICISE you. Join komunitas yang bisa support dan juga challenge kemajuan kita. At some point, we need others to help us to reach the next level and break our comfortable pace.

I should say I like running now, it changes my habit a lot in a good way. This story is not about running. This is a story about one man who never run before and started running because it’s possible!