The Return of the Unspoken Spirit in 2022

It  has been 4 years since I last put something on this blog. I started this blog more than 10 years ago. Well, time really flies without waiting for the moment that we think we can pause and wait. Well, this is ain't a movie or video games , and you are not holding the remote or the game console. You are the player, and the games keep on moving, whether you like it or not.  

Let me try to recap, what had actually happened for the last 4 years. 

2018 : I was working in the shift pattern and life was like a rotating wheels , doing almost the same thing , over and over again. Nothing much to explore and I was getting tired of the copy paste of life, day in and day out. This was also the year that I saw some of my close friends , one by one left the company. And some were forced to leave. I knew someday my time will come, it was just a matter of time. I spent a lot of my time doing things that I like the most, which was the online singing or karaoke. Well, i started this hobby in 2016. After 2 years of doing the online singing, it thought me many lessons. There are pros and cons of having the engagement in the social media world. As a person, you must know your limits. Do the Right Things, and Do Things Right. Make mistakes, and learn , move on , never repeat the same. Like what George Bush used to say, "Fool me once, shame on .... ". 

2019 : Working life was getting chronic and toxics , it was like the worst year of my 20++ years. It all started with the political changes in the organization, and like any other political games , I was caught in the middle of the chaos. There was not much of  motivation to grow as the environment was politically control by a bunch of clowns and dictators, which did not excite me to be part of them. I was taking the risk as I was holding to my principle.

But my take was simple, a person who do not have his/her own principle/values are just living in someone else dreams. Like my favorite artist, Kurt Cobain used to say ,  "It's better to burn out, than fade away"

But seriously, i didn't put blame 100% on the situation, it is just that i have my own beliefs and values , and simply didn't give a way my values , just to be part of the immoral groups of people (dictators) . This was the year where i gave a lots of thought about what I like (my passions) and what I was doing. One of my personal traits is that I love to entertain people and make people happy, either via arts like singing , music's, acting's or activities. And that has been in my DNA. After getting some encouragement from my close peers, i had made the move to try out something new in my career. At the end of my shift work career, about 1 or 2 months before I moved to the Office Shift, i had experienced a series of illness, unexplained by modern medications. Medically , it was known as terminal insomnia. I had it  for months, and that was the most painful period of my career. I was pretty lucky that I found the cure and able to recover within few months. And I also switched my job to a full office work patterns. That helped a lot to balance up the biological clock in my body. 

2020 : I made the career move, and was given the opportunity to rebrand myself. At first , it was quite vague as it was new , not just to me, but to the organization. There were times that I thought of time to let go, and start something new. There were days that I was lost without direction. It was like living in a Cold Storage and I could not really see where I was supposed to go. 

It was the same year where COVID 19 hit the world. Few months working from home and it was like a joke to me, looking at the laptop without having a clear directions. Few months after that, I started to come back on site, helping some of the preparation and set up, to make the work place ready for COVID. Those were the moments that brought back some values of being in the team. I had no chance to thank a person, who had helped me a lot, he passed away due to heart-attack few months after we had set up the workplace to be as conducive as possible. To be exact, we have set up the Suraus. I prayed that Allah SWT would reward him Jannah for all the good deeds that he had made. I was then, fully transitioned to a new team, where we focus on making the work place, a Great Place to Work Again, with all the new norm challenges. This was also the year , I spent lots of time closer to my families. I led the prayers and even had the chance to recite the Khutbah for Hari Raya. Something that I could never imagine , i would have done, if not because of COV19. 

2021: This was the year that I rebranded myself , trying new things in the new environment. For some , COV19 would be a nightmares, but for me , it actually brought opportunities for me and my team to design new way of doing things. In my new job, our small team focus on making people happy and comfortable to come to work. We did a lot of communications, videos and virtual activities to engage people in the new challenging environments. I was also felt so grateful that I was part of the team that work on the vaccination programs for the employees. Alhamdulillah, despite the challenges and sad news of some colleagues passed away due to COV19, overall, the team had endeavored the golden milestone of completing as much as possible employee's vaccination. I was grateful to have given the opportunity to work with best of the best people , regardless of age, race , religions, we worked as a team to help the mankind. This was the second year that we celebrated Hari Raya Aidil Fitri (Eid Mubarak) under the MCO (Movement Control Order). My second time, being the person leading the Aidil Fitri Prayer for my family (including my mother who stayed with me during that time) , delivering the Aidil Fitri Khutbah (simplified versions).   

2022 : This was the year where the momentum of my career had started to roll and grow. I could feel that my decisions to follow my heart pays off. Follow my heart in the sense of doing something that of my forte , which is to serve people , and make people happy. This was the time where I connected some of the dots and made miracles and magical things happened. Steve Jobs was right, we could only connect the dots looking back-wards, and one day all the dots just came back and served us. 

This was also the year where the dreaded virus COV19, entered my house. Yes, my wife was the first in my house to get infected by COV19. Me and my son had to stay at level 2 of our house and my wife occupied the Level 1. I had to set up my own kitchen in the room and most of the time ordered online food. But not long after that, I got infected too. I was lucky that the virus was the light OMICRON. Only experienced some head aches for few days. 

This was also the year, where I was given the trust to lead a big event site wide, across the entire company of approximately 12,000 employees. But I was assigned the thing that I like to do, which is the Talent Competitions , involving Singing and Creative Talents. So, it didn't feel like work to me. I was blessed by a committed team members and we had successfully completed the 6 weeks events. Having to do event virtually brought a different set of challenges. Well, a very good learning process and lot of experiences. 

At the moment , I am planning a series of physical events for the Departments and also Site Events. Since more people had been vaccinated , we have some relax rules where physical events can take place after 2 years of restrictions. And again, I am doing what I like(my passions) and it doesn't feel like a dreaded work at all. 

But of course, I have to meet certain key results and standards in order to justify that all programs benefited the company. I have also expanded my role to jump into the Lean Journey, it is not something new but it has different challenges. Hope everything's went well for this. Going into the month of August, our team is planning a Merdeka Live Concert, again , this is my passions and I am willing to even do it for free :-). Have been doing this since primary schools and college time. Hope people will enjoy and have fun. Work Hard, Play Hard and Enjoy the Ride !