Running: activity or self actualization?

Saya tuh orang yang males banget foto-foto dan bikin collage. Padahal kan jaman sekarang pictures speak louder than words yaa...hehehe. Dianggapnya the action are best reflected on the pictures. Soalnya saya termasuk golongan orang-orang yang kadang punya pikiran sempit dan picik bahwa yang narsis itu pasti lebih banyak gayanya dibanding aksi dan esensinya. Hahaha, bayangin tuh piciknya kaya apa. Padahal kebanyakan karena saya ngga PD aja, selalu mematok standar tinggi yang tentunya ngga pernah bisa saya capai sendiri. Belum lagi foto saya lari kayanya menyedihkan semua, which is exactly makes the point that I ran incorrectly. Hahaha, ngaku nih. Banyak yang mesti dibenerin.

Running fever masih melanda Jakarta dan seluruh Indonesia sampe 2014 ini. Amazing sih.. masih awet. Hot trend? Gaya hidup modern? Agama baru? Urban style? Banyak teman-teman saya yang langsung jatuh cinta sama lari dan investasi gede-gedean: niat bulet, waktu berlatih dan metode latihan yang serius (it really takes a considerable chunk of your week end and week day time to do tempo run, strength training, hill work, and long run), gear lari yang nyaman dan gaya (sepatu, compression, kaos kaki, sport bra, visor, kaca mata, jam tangan mahal yang bagi mereka ngga masalah), gadget dan keanggotaan training/challenge program secara online, makanan pilihan buat refueling, dan rencana perjalanan ikut race event di berbagai kota dan negara (marathon/half marathon seri dunia bakal dikejar, andai bisa masuk kualifikasi). 

Hasilnya? Posting di media sosial, foto-foto berkegiatan yang bikin ngiler, pemecahan rekor/catatan waktu pribadi, kumpul-kumpul teman sehati, persahabatan (friends who run together, stay together  katanya), dan rasa puas telah menaklukan tantangan di luar pekerjaan dan tuntutan jenis lainnya (everybody  picks her/his own battle, one after another). If I suck or I am stuck with other things in life, then maybe running could save me. Mungkin ada juga yang berpikiran begitu.

Nike We Run, Dec 2013 #BajakJkt (review asik ada jg di http://www.rezafaisal.net/?p=891)

Ada lagi teman-teman anti mainstream: semakin sesuatu hal menjadi tren dan jadi komoditi, semakin nggak mau ikutan. Anget-anget tai ayam, ntar juga berlalu dengan sendirinya. Di Indonesia ini apa sih hal baru yang ngga laku? Sepeda lipet. Sepeda gunung. Zumba. Futsal. Food combining. OCD. Diet a la Dr. Grace (saya juga baru tau hari ini ternyata sebagian besar ibu-ibu kantor adalah pasien sang Dokter dalam rangka penurunan berat badan). Wisata kuliner. SK-II skin treatment. Foto pake bibir monyong. Selfie dan tongsis. Dll. Jadi wajar aja para anti mainstream itu ngga terlalu excited dengan tren yang satu ini. Salah satu kisah ttg pelaku anti-#etapi-pro mainstream olahraga lari yang kocak banget ada di sini nih. Ngakak berats deh.

Saya sih ngeliat kegiatan lari seperti olah raga lainnya sebagai cara untuk mengolah badan dan memperoleh manfaat terbaik. Sama kaya berenang, main tenis, yoga, senam aerobik, zumba, dan lain-lain. Kebetulan aja di Oktober 2012 saat saya ingin mencoba hal yang baru, saya pilih sesuatu yang sebelumnya saya nggak suka. Biasanya saya olahraga voli, basket dan yoga karena olahraga lain saya anggap susah dan saya males beradaptasi (baca: usaha). Apalagi udah merasa ngga sejago orang lain.

Mindset kaya gitu lama-lama jadi halangan karena saya semakin nggak PD mencoba hal baru yang positif. Saya menyadari bahwa ternyata saya sendiri yang membatasi my own possibilities.  Olahraga lari saya pilih karena murah, bisa dilaksanakan, udah lama kepikiran (sejak liat bodi keren pelari cewek bule di Boulder,CO  dan Bloomington, IN) tapi ngga berani mulai, membuat saya senang, dan saat itu lari memang mulai jadi tren di Indonesia.

Murah karena modalnya cuman celana training dan kaos biasa serta sepatu Nike warisan dari Amerika seharga $40. Untuk sepatu cadangan, saya beli New Balance W480 di SportStation yang diskon 70% jadi cuman Rp177.000. Baru setahun kemudian saya beli Brooks GTS12 yang diskon 50% juga, jadi Rp665.000. Alhamdulillah 2 sepatu itu cocok dan nyaman dipakai. Pokoknya saya perhitungan banget. Ngga rela belanja mahal kalo ngga yakin bakalan berguna dalam jangka waktu lama. Saya tes diri saya dulu, kalo setaun masih betah lari baru boleh ngintip-ngintip barang lain. Long sleeve shirt paling nyaman dan saya suka adalah pink shirt-nya The Urban Mama yang saya beli di event Running Coach bareng Brett Money dan Alan Walker pada bulan Mei 2013. Rada mahal sih Rp269.000 tapi Rp40.000 diantaranya untuk nyumbang yayasan amal. Sayang ngga sekalian beli yang warna turqouise dan lime sekalian, soalnya stock cepet abis.

Bisa dilaksanakan karena kebetulan di kantor ada gym yang menyediakan treadmill sehingga saya bisa latian dari NOL: mulai dari jalan kaki, jalan kaki + lari 2 menit sampe belajar lari konstan selama 20 menit. Akses ke Taman Monas di hari kerja dan Car Free Day Jakarta di hari Minggu terbuka lebar sehingga saya bisa mencoba lari outdoor. Selain itu flexi time di kantor memungkinkan saya ke Monas/gym dulu baru masuk kantor jam 08.30 pagi karena tokh ujungnya juga emang hampir setiap hari lembur sampai jam 19.00an. Hari Minggu kadang lari (beda jalur) sama Babe Aris di CFD (Kaylia seneng nongkrongnya aja di GBK). Jadi dari sisi waktu, sarana dan family time  bisa diatur. Kalo ikutan event, Babe ama Kay diajak juga biar sekalian piknik. Untung bisa kompak, kalo enggak kan rada nggak enak hati tuh lari sendirian, serasa bersenang-senang di atas penderitaan orang lain...

Samsung Runseries #1 Jakarta 10K, 2014

Seperti yang saya bilang tadi, udah lama saya kepikiran untuk mulai olahraga lagi. Olahraga yang saya pilih dan (mungkin akhirnya saya) sukai. Bukan olahraga pas HUT RI di kantor (saya dikejar-kejar untuk menggenapkan pemain di tim voli atau basket) atau  olahraga pas gathering dan senam pagi bersama. Saya ingin sesuatu yang personal, bisa dilakukan sendirian aja, nggak mesti barengan atau tergantung pada orang lain. Waktu itu saya sedang malas yoga, padahal istrukturnya udah didatangkan ke kantor. Padahal yoga udah menolong saya ngatasin migren dan pegal-pegal punggung. Padahal biaya lumayan terjangkau. Padahal...padahal... Dasar males aja sayanya.

Saya ngerasa masih sreg dengan olahraga lari ini sepanjang itu menyenangkan, ngga dijadikan ajang dengan agenda aneh-aneh. Dunia ini udah repot dengan segala macam persaingan, jadi pastinya saya males banget kalo lari jadi media untuk bersaing atau adu hebat (hahaha, itu khas banget ngeles-nya golongan yang kalah mulu). Jadi saingannya dengan diri sendiri aja. Kalo bisa bikin time record lebih baik ya syukur, kalo enggak yaa diterima aja dulu.. nanti-nanti baru usaha lagi, ngga usah terlalu dipikirin.

Jika lari merupakan trend, saya anggap sebagai hal yang menguntungkan karena semakin banyak orang yang melakukannya maka semakin banyak pengetahuan dan sharing pengalaman yang bisa kita manfaatkan. Temen kantor bikin running club yang terbuka dan supportive untuk semua orang termasuk forever newbie seperti saya yang selalu menempati urutan akhir-akhir ...hehe. Tentunya di dunia maya pengetahuan dan pengalaman itu lebih bebas dibagi dan dialirkan ke mana-mana. Group chat, website dan blog pribadi nggak cuman berisi foto narsis doang kok, banyak hal yang bisa saya pelajari dari orang-orang yang sebenernya ngga saya kenal sama sekali. 

Ujung-ujungnya saya simpulkan bahwa apapun pencapaian mereka –besar atau kecil– merupakan hasil dari mengelola kesehatan, waktu, energi, uang, dan kehidupan selain urusan lari. Perihal ada yang eksis lebay, big talker, egois, narsis, dll itu mah biasa. Orang kaya itu kan ada juga di olahraga atau kegiatan apapun di dunia ini, udah bawaaan orok masing-masing.

Beberapa website dan blog yang saya suka intip ttg olahraga lari adalah: Runner’s World, Singapore’s Running Society, dan Dunia Lari Indonesia.

 

Blog asik para girl runners dari berbagai latar belakang yang saya temukan secara acak: pelari mbak-mbak bule yang gila-gilaan, fashion and fitness enthusiast from Singapore, Mama Thea dari Yogya, Mama Slesta dari Singapura, Jeng Karla dari Amerika.

Jadi, lari itu aktifitas atau salah satu cara aktualisasi diri nih?

Kesimpulannya: ngga bisa dipisah yaaa... sama deh dengan kegiatan lain. Dari sekedar beraktifitas, lama-lama serius dan bisa jadi cara untuk tetap sehat, cantik dan seksi :p. Lalu jadi lahan untuk eksis, untuk persahabatan, untuk berprestasi, untuk menorehkan personal legend, untuk mencari dan menjawab banyak pertanyaan di dalam diri masing-masing.

Di luar faktor tren dan narsisme, mungkin awalnya iseng atau pingin sehat aja,  lama-lama jadi ketagihan ‘feeling good’ from natural #endorphin, trus jadi antusias untuk terlibat lebih dalam karena manfaatnya ternyata seperti mendapatkan nafkah/kepuasan lahir batin (jiaahh...kaya perkawinan nih), dan akhirnya berkomitmen untuk menjadikannya life-time activity. 

Semoga saya dan keluarga tetep semangat untuk berusaha hidup sehat dengan berlari atau kegiatan lainnya. Suatu saat saya pasti bosan, frustasi, atau malas atau ngga mampu lari berlari... Dan hal itu mungkin harus diterima dengan lapang dada dan kesadaran bahwa we run to make our lives better, filled with good deeds and great actions. If it doesn't make it, maybe we should stop. Or wiser: maybe we should take a look back that we might not do it right all this time.

Pocari Sweat Run Indonesia 2014 – 11 Mei 2014

Hello there! Udah lama banget yaa event-nya, tp baru sempet sekarang nengokin blog ini lagi. Nggak papa deh, highlights-nya aja yang saya sharing. Mohon mangap fotonya seadanya.

Kenapa niat ikutan Pocari Sweat Run? Ini adalah pertama kali Pocari Sweat mengadakan event di Indonesia. Mungkin sebagai produsen minuman olahraga, mereka ngeliat pangsa pasar yang besar di negara kita, terlebih dengan adanya tren lari di Indonesia. Pocari Sweat mengambil moto #SAFERUNNING. Sebelumnya Pocari Sweat rajin menyelenggarakan event lari di Singapura sejak 2012. Pemenang race dan undian di Indonesia akan ikut serta di Pocari Sweat Run Singapore tgl 8 Juni 2014. Yang jelas sih saya tertarik karena kaosnya ada yang girl’s cut with V-neck, race pack OK, medalinya bagus serta penyelenggaraannya rapi. Ya iya sih, untuk ukuran race 10K biaya Rp250.000 termasuk ngga murah juga, jadi wajar untuk ngarep :p

Pocari Sweat Run (www.pocarisweat.co.id/run/info.php) adalah acara 10K pertama saya di tahun 2014, jadi pengennya saya sih saya bisa ngelakonin dg lebih baik dibanding Stanchard 10K dan Nike We Run 10K tahun lalu. Saya niatnya ngga pake jalan kaki sama sekali.

Proses pendaftaran berjalan mudah, ada diskon 10% buat group registration  temen-temen kantor jadi untuk 10K cuman bayar Rp225.000. Kaylia, Ihsan, dan Mba Siti ikut yang 5K. Race pack collection juga lancar. Pre-race entitlement  yang utama adalah T-Shirt Adidas warna biru (bagus deh kaosnya) dan waterbottle Pocari 1 liter. Yang lain saya dah lupa.

Pas hari H, jam 4-an pagi kita sekeluarga udah berangkat menuju Alam Sutera, Serpong. Kami disambut hujan yang cukup lebat. Setelah dapat parkir di basement mall Living World, kita sholat Subuh di mushola kecil di parkiran karena ikutan peserta lain. Padahal ada Executive Mushola  juga di lantai yang sama, yang lebih bersih dan nyaman. Ya sutra lah, namanya juga ngga tau karena ngga pernah ke mall tsb.

Race sempat ditunda sekitar 10-15 menit untuk menunggu peserta lainnya yang sempat terjebak hujan di perjalanan sekalian panitianya berusaha mengeringkan sebagian jalur awal supaya ngga licin. Akhirnya race 10K yang diikuti sekitar 2500an peserta dimulai jam 06.15. Kondisi sehabis hujan ternyata membawa berkah: udara lebih segar dan nggak terlalu panas.

Saya yang emang udah bawaannya lambat plus niat ngga pake jalan, ngambil posisi mojok aja di sisi kiri supaya ngga ngalangin jalan orang lain. Tapi lama-lama ngga enak juga ternyata, pandangan saya jadi kealingan orang di depan. Padahal saya seneng banget liat-liat pemandangan kompleks Alam Sutera yang rapi. Walhasil saya ambil jalur di tengah-tengah, orang yang mau nyalip bisa lari dari kiri atau kanan saya hehehe.

Water station (WS) menyediakan air mineral dan Pocari setiap 1,5 km. Biasanya kan di race lain minimal setiap 2,5 km. Wah hebat deh...namanya aja POCARI RUN, kita ngga bakal dehidrasi deh. Saya bawa botol minum sendiri dan baru berhenti di WS untuk isi ulang Pocari di KM7,5 dan minum.

Satu-satunya penampakan di Pocari Sweat Run 2014

Alhamdulillah, saya bisa finish urutan 1.838 dari 2.235 peserta 10K closed (hanya WNI) sesuai dengan target untuk tidak berjalan, kecuali minum beberapa detik. Catatan waktu chip 1 jam 30 menit. Saya udah pasrah, pasti ngga ada foto saya waktu finish karena biasanya fotografer race-nya udah bosen nungguin. Kelamaan sih... hahaha. Saya liat di photo gallery peserta yang difoto dengan tampang puas di finish line adalah yang finish time 10K-nya di bawah 1 jam (ada Rio Febrian juga lhoooo....*kedip-kedip*). Setelah finish, peserta mendapatkan medali finisher dan handuk dari Pocari (lagi-lagi warna biru). Senangnyaa....

 

Foto diambil dari website Pocari Sweat Run

Kombinasi antara cuaca yang bagus, hidrasi berlimpah, penyelenggaraan yang oke, jalur yang rata dan post-race entitlement yang menghibur itu menunjukkan kesuksesan Pocari Run di tahun 2014. All and all, kita sekeluarga happy deh.

Sekali keluar rumah, 2-3 acara dilakoni rombongan sirkus: lari, nengok keluarga di Tangerang, dan belanja bulanan.

#4: What Mommies Do with the Money

“If you can not control your emotions, you can not control your money”

–Warren Buffet.

I’ve read books, attended workshop and talk show, done my own little research and number crunching, conversed with friends, I even passed Level 1 FRM some years ago after my MBA, yet my attitude toward money remained stagnant, not going anywhere. It’s like money and I don’t relate; that it is just a complementary element of my life. Absolutely absurd because on the other side, between hubby and me... it’s me who made plans a lot, spent a lot, regret a lot. I always say planning is halfway to good life. I always make excuses that the hike in our spending accounts was also to meet other’s needs: socials, gifts, emergencies, including unlikely-paid receivables. So every once in a while (most probably during tax report period), I whine again and again that we don’t manage it smartly.

The basics? That, I got the points:

• Don’t spend more than you earn (I knew it since I was about 7 yo when my allowance was practically zero Rupiah).
• Everything that doesn’t generate profit, go into “Liabilities” side (kitchenwares, shoes, wardrobes, gadgets, make ups I only used once in a blue moon).
• Keep the total debt at the max 35% of your take home pay.
• More investing, more zakat and infaq and less consuming (we invested more in “faith, happiness, books, experience”, we don’t let ourselves be materialistic animal :p).
• There is a factor called real inflation that will make me more likely than not to think over about sending my kid abroad for college (at first I thought about US colleges with their 35 grands tuition fee per year and other 25 grands for living cost. Then I fainted and woke up considering Europe which give more G-to-G scholarships, then Australia, and now maybe... Singapore won’t be a bad idea at all. I’ll say to Miss K: It’s near home, it has great universities and parks, and jogging paths, and it comes with multicultural aspects, right? But if you insist in going to dad’s university at Depok campus, we’ll welcome the idea as well).
• Unit link is no good, better to separate investment from insurance.
• The ads say, somehow, mutual funds will resolute all your financial planning problems...IN THE LONG TERM (that’s the keyword... if you invest wisely and long enough, you’ll get the result alright).
• We need emergency fund (a.k.a. idle money) about 6-9 times our monthly expenditures.
• How we plan to live as retirees with some grandchildren 20 years from now? Never too early thinking about our pension fund plans and our little K’s wedding funds, don’t we?

Those things linger in my mind in the last 5 years. But not really doing some real action with plausible strategy, except opened traditional saving accounts for Miss K, took home-and-car refinancing, and closed our unit links accounts to pay for our pilgrimage’s down payment. Good but not enough.

So this time I try to think about people with financial success. And I mean real people in my life, not Warren Buffet, not some celebrity mommies, not top business women, not someone I didn't know in person.

It’s not hard for me to seek a real person with real result to look up to. I remember how my mother was the “financial planner” in my family. My parent were both government employees with low-to-moderate fix income so she managed it very carefully. No single Rupiah went in and out without her consent. She was a natural treasurer that kept the cash flow balance. My dad had little (if not no) power or bargain in this matter. In her own quiet way, my mom set the vision for my family’s financials and made sure my bro and I were well provided and supported for our education.

When I told her about school amenities and class activities that cost something, however pricey it was for our financial condition, she always said, “Okay, we’ll keep that in mind. Don’t worry, we’ll settle them down in time.” And we indeed settled them down just in time, including school tuition et al for my cousins whom she believed would make a difference with their own futures. When I asked something out of that primer lists, she would say, “Let’s think it over in some more time. See if we really need it.” Most of the time, the last kind of replies would end up with nothing. If we kids didn’t talk about the dolls and toys and other items that we asked anymore after some time, then probably they were not important enough to be bought.

If we talked about consumption with my mom, it meant good and healthy food (didn’t necessarily come with variation, if you know the truth), education fee, decent yet minimalist homewares and wardrobes, transportation costs, and some stocks for family gathering (I mean in-house gathering, not so much on traveling idea, that’s why we didn’t travel often). 

When she talked about investment, she would talk about growing people of our extended family to be financially independent through education and fostering approach, then maybe sparing some money to acquire one or two property to prepare our college fund. That was it, not much but enough. With that simple formula they afforded some best extracurricular courses during our high schools (best English courses, good basket ball club for me and best art prep school for my bro), sent us to good private colleges in Bandung, and had my wedding party a bit more blasting than I expected (aside from proudly dispatched half dozen of cousins into their better and bright futures).

Our family was not debt-free, though. When I was in primary school, early each month my parent took us to visit a nice old lady who lived in a very big beautiful house in Cipaganti area. We didn’t know who she was then since she was not family member. All we knew was that she was okay. She always welcomed us with her big warm smile and offered us cookies and candies. After some chit-chat, my dad usually put down a white envelope in the table and pushed it toward her with a sentence full of deep gratitude. It lasted over years. Now I know that the nice old lady was their “godmother” who lent them some money to build our house when I was a baby. Since then, they had paid back their mortgage religiously every month until all was settled.

Then a new era came, we never made monthly visit again to the old lady except for holiday. My mom became the treasurer of the credit cooperative in her office and she was keeping the log strictly to everyone, herself included. Some people came to our house to borrowed some money from the cooperative. She never complained a thing about this business but I could see –from the number of people who came periodically to settle their payment compared to people who only came once to pick up the money they borrowed– that some people were not as eager to pay the debt as they were to get it. My mom burdened the default risk, but she smartly made some connections with the HR manager of the foundation they were working for, so my mom would short cut their monthly salaries after the “observation” period was over. She used to say that she knew which people would turn into success or failure by knowing their behavior toward debt/money. This stuck in my head since she was seldom wrong about it.

So it’s time for me to start because the right time is NOW. Better late than never. I get some help from Prita Ghozie’s “Menjadi Cantik, Kaya, & Tetap Kaya”, Ligwina’s “Membangun Masyarakat Indonesia yang Kuat”, and Panji + Diana Sandjaja’s “Make Your Own Plan”. I followed articles from www.ngaturduit.com as well as Robert T. Kiyosaki and Suze Orman’s website. I read some cool mamas’ blogs to flourish my financial literacy. I talked to some insurance agents, marketing staff of investment firms and banks (I’m still amazed by how little they know about the products they’re selling), a fin-planner wanna-be, property developer, in laws, and close friends. I’m so excited by the variability and possibility that I can make use of from their experience and suggestions. For the time being, we decide to go on our own and not engage in some formal and fee-based financial advisory.

We’ll thinking about term insurance as protection since we are both the breadmakers of the family; also car insurance since it was ended when the car loan was closed last year and there is little chance that we could afford to let Miss Livi go in a short while. We don’t plan to take anymore debt and wish to tap our credit card balance at minimum since a lot (I mean almost all) lists with the card resulted from dining out, shopping little this and that at the malls, and other alluring life style spendings. 

We’ll consider some from a variety of investment baskets for us to put our fresh eggs in: gold, mutual funds (seriously... this is the only hope for us that Miss K would go abroad... except maybe we will ‘encourage’ her to pursue some scholarships, haha), and maybe manage to get a small property to generate income to cover the debt. We’ll figure out how to build our emergency funds and construct our retirement “Decent yet humble life” plan later on.

My target is that by the end of 2014, we will have a sound financial plan for my family with a clear policy and steps regarding debt (credit cards, employee loan, cooperatives loan), investment, insurance, and consumption. I don’t think the LV tote I’ve had an eye on for a long time will match into this financial plan (*sinking heart*). 

I also want to introduce my girl to the basic of the personal finance (that the money doesn’t just come out of the ATM by itsef and the credit card can be AWESOME as well as AWFUL). I will tell Miss K that our financials –i.e. how we earn and spend– confirm our profiles, resemble our objectives and priorities in life, and be evidence of how well we make our decisions, be it big or small.

I am so thrilled by this huge project. Wish me luck to be a mommy who’s doing good with money!