Seeking for Stability Makes Us Unstable
It’s been 2 years since I graduated from College, I’ve also been working for 2 years. In this blabbering I will tell you about my asdfg123456 in seeking financial stability.
I’m a man, also the first son, someone who had big responsibilities in life. Even so, I was known as a very Idealistic person, if my friends want to work in Government Institution or Company, then I want to work in a place that can fulfill my Passion, coincidentally at a Startup or Tech Company.
My first year at work I had many goals, especially before turning 25, I wanted to have a house, a car, and be able to marry my ex-girlfriend at that time. I even made a savings plan with my so-so salary which at that time was still XX% above the Surabaya UMR, I think it was enough for freshgraduate to meet the daily needs and savings.
After 6 months of working, suddenly a pandemic occurred, I heard and read a lot of news about layoffs and the fall of companies in the private sector. From there, I thought that nothing was stable in the private sector, I started thinking about preparing myself to enter PNS or BUMN for more stability.
When it was about 1 year, it turned out that there were a lot of needs that I didn’t include in the plan, so I had to increase my income through Freelance. Finally I started working on Fiverr to offer Illustration services, in a month I could earn $500, which is quite an interesting number for a side job.
However, it only lasted for several months because I decided to stop. The reason is because I was very tired and felt that the side job would not contribute for giving a good impact to the main field of my profession, UI/UX Design. I think that if I have enough experience and skills in my field, then I will achieve career stability, where I will not be confused about finding a job, because no one company is willing to reject me.
When I started my 2nd year of work, I got a pretty good salary increase at the company, this also made me not regret quitting freelance on Fiverr. However, instead of resting at night, I looked for ways to increase my skills, knowledge, and flying hours in my field. The goal is that I can more quickly get the financial and career stability according to my plan.
I even thought about how I could still work according to my passion, but with stability like a PNS, and a salary like the Top BUMN. Indeed, in reality my income continues to rise, I also have a team project and several sources of income, but I never feel stable at all, I think there are still many risks and threats that will make me unstable, for example when I get laid off or when there is no project come to us.
After I thought about it, it turned out that one of the things that made me want to be stable was because I grew up in PNS Family, where they’re stable without having to think about Plan B, Plan C, and so on. It makes my mental accustomed to stability, I strongly reject any risk or failure, this makes me anxious when in unstable conditions.
One day, my mindset changed after I watched the life story of the CEO of Tokopedia. He said in his talk that “Change is the only constant in life”.
He explained that the sure thing in life is change, failure is a natural thing experienced by humans. This is something that corrects my wrong understanding, where all this time I feel I have to get perfect stability and there is no room for risk in my life.
I also forgot that there is a power that is stronger than humans, it is God wills. PNS can be in big debts or even dismissed, even entrepreneurs can go bankrupt, anything can happen if God wills. Therefore, actually perfect stability is impossible for humans to achieve.
Back then again to the story of the CEO of Tokopedia, he said that to overcome change, we need the right mindset and mentality, Growth Mindset. This was about how we can accept the reality that change or failure is a natural thing to happen, our mentality must be accustomed to accept that reality, while mentally preparing for it, then we need to have a mindset to make us continue to grow and rise from all circumstances.
Finally I got an answer, that the main thing a man needs is not perfect stability, but a good mentality and mindset. Perfect stability is a myth.
Maybe someone who is recognized as a good man, husband, or father is someone who is mentally able to accept changes and failures in the future, has enough strength when bad things happen, has plans and strategies to move in a better direction.
Someone who can convince and give hope and security to those around him, there is always a way in every failure that will occur. To be able to do this, we need to improve our mentality and mindset to be able to adapt to change.
From Habib who wants to be a better man and designer.
