This is still considered a beginning of the year. It’s the time when everyone sets new goals and aims but if you are still unsure about your goals, let this story of ‘Iron Man of dtac’ who could accomplish 100 km. Ultramarathon in 10 hours, Apichai Wongchindakhun, VP -Head of Business Security Dept be your inspiration.
Every accomplishment starts with “goal”
Before start doing anything, whether it is a sport or his job, K. Edward will always find a goal first. In order to find his goal, K. Edward will come up with the word ‘Why?’ in his head. This word always gives him a reason and value to keep fighting in order to accomplish his mission. Even though we have goal, energy and reason to do anything, as an athlete himself, K. Edward realizes that we shouldn’t push too much pressure on the first try and we need to forgive ourselves for any failure. This is to keep motivating yourself in the long run.
“When we first launch ourselves to reach a goal, we can make it big but do not expect to accomplish it in the first try. You need to ‘slice’ down your goal and you also need a time and patience to reach for it. Let me visualize this tactic. If you want to accomplish long-distance marathon, you need to practice with the range of 1-3 km. first. You must keep practicing step-by-step and one day, your body will be strong enough for a long-distance marathon.”
This tactic can also be applied with working. K. Edward believes that we should set our goal big but we must not use all our energy to accomplish it in the first try. To make your goal more fun, you must slice a goal into little mission just like what we see in a game. When you keep trying and winning for each missions, without knowing, we will come as far as we want.
Management is a key to success
K.Edward believes that a goal toward work and sport are no different because in order to reach your goal, you need a good management and that’s the fun part of the process. The most important thing is we must try many things. It does not matter if you are doing it wrong but what matters is that we must try to find the most suitable strategy for ourselves. “Let me give you an example toward my strategy to reach sport goal. If you want to compete in a 10 km. marathon, you need to come up with the practice plan and how many days do you need in order to prepare your bodies for it.”
Returning to work, K. Edward’s job is Cyber Security and protects the data. His goal is to educate fellow employees to have a better understanding toward how to use internet and electronic equipments safely. “I have tried so many ways but I emphasize on creating a workshop. People here tend to believe that Cyber security is not exactly related to them but in reality, Cyber security is vital for themselves and company. I have tried so many ways and found out that workshop is the most efficient as we can communicate directly and answer what they always wonder.”
By trying many things, K.Edward has found the specialty in himself. He believes that people will find their own skills and specialty during their experiment period.
Work-Life Integration is the answer
Everyone might be familiar with the term ‘Work-Life balance’ or the way of work which give equal significance to both work and life. This practice has been widely adopted by most of the people nowadays but K. Edward sees that it’s not compatible with his life. First, his job as Cyber Security sometimes requires him to work after the working hour and his passion for sport requires him to provide times for practice.
Hence, K. Edward doesn’t think that Work-Life Balance is compatible with his lifestyle so he adopts the concept of Work-Life Integration or the practice which combines working hour and leisure time seamlessly. After adopting Work-Life Integration, it improved his life better especially on the sport side. K. Edward always has a new sport goal and his work is busy, therefore, time flexibility is important. If his workload is tight then he will slow down a practicing pace but if the task’s deadline is far, he will divide time for practicing and be back on track with his work.
Edward has jokingly said that Work-Life Integration can reduce stress from work. “If you are not done with work but the deadline is faraway, after work you can hang out with your lover and then continue your work at home. Your work’s done, your lover is happy. Life is good.”
What matters most is happiness
Even though we have strategy, inspiration and tactic to accomplish a goal but the most important thing behind every goals for K. Edward is happiness. K. Edward views that if there is no happiness in your goal, you will get nothing once you accomplish. This can apply well with work, if we are truly happy about our work, we would not have to worry about how to divide times between work and leisure. For K. Edward, happiness in workplace is important because it will give a great encouragement to us in a dire time.