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Archive for August, 2008


Will Your Social Networking Profile Get You Hired or Fired?

By Selena Dehne

By now, most of us have heard a handful of horror stories about how a person’s online profile wrecked his or her job search or career. Yet, every day people swarm social networking Web sites making the exact same mistakes. Maintaining an "It-won’t-happen-to-me" attitude, many people have no idea that the derogatory statements they just posted or the lewd pictures of themselves online may cost them the job of their dreams.

Fortunately, some job seekers are wising up to how they present themselves in cyberspace. Rather than developing a profile that could quickly get them fired, savvy professionals are increasingly using social networking Web sites to find jobs, develop key contacts and advance their careers.

"Having an online identity is becoming increasingly important as a way to establish your credibility and personal brand and to attract career or business opportunities," say Ellen Sautter and Diane Crompton, co-authors of "Seven Days to Online Networking." To ensure that people create a profile savvy enough to help them land a job, they offer the following tips.

How to get hired

Be consistent from site to site. Too often recruiters and hiring managers get mixed messages about job candidates based on their online profiles. For example, you might have a LinkedIn profile that portrays you as a driven go-getter with an excellent sales background, but your MySpace profile portrays you as someone who lives the life of an ’80s rock star. Make sure that every profile you create portrays the same person — someone who’s respectable, professional and high-achieving.

Master a brief sound bite. When looking at your profile, hiring managers and recruiters want to learn more about you. The "About You" section of your profile offers the perfect opportunity to briefly describe your work history, strengths and notable achievements. This paragraph should be similar to a thirty-second elevator speech you may have already prepared about yourself.

Develop a network. Some people prefer massive networks that consist of hundreds of strangers from around the globe. Others prefer a small network that includes only people they’ve befriended, are related to or have worked with. Crompton and Sautter suggest developing a network of 50 to 150 contacts through each site.

Showcase your skills through links. You should include links to your blog, webfolio or Web site, if they are relevant to your career. If you don’t have any of these things, consider including links to any projects or work you might have been involved in that can be viewed online.

Strategically use keywords in the "Tags" section. Similar to using keywords in a résumé, this strategy allows you to list words that help other people in your network or search engines find you. These words can include your area of expertise, job titles, industries, hobbies and anything else that defines you as a professional.

Just as there are plenty of things people can do with their profiles to help them stand out in cyberspace, there are dozens of faux pas people commit all too often. The following five mistakes are some of the most common social networking missteps.

How to get fired

Post a scandalous photo. You know what I’m talking about: It’s the photo of you showing off your hot, bronze body in a barely there bikini. It’s the portrait of you — in all your glory — bonging a beer while sporting a Bears jersey at last week’s tailgate. Profile pictures like this may be amusing and help you score a ton of friend requests, but they certainly won’t impress your employer.

View or update your profile on company time. You can’t help it. You have to accept a friend request as soon as you receive it. You have to know who has added pictures to their profile in the past hour. And as soon as you realize wakeboarding tops your list of interests, you have to immediately change your profile to reflect this. You jokingly refer to it as your Facebook addiction, but it’s no laughing matter to your employer. Instead, it’s considered a waste of company time if you’re scoping out these Web sites while at work. 

Post information that conflicts with your employer’s values. Remember that anything you wouldn’t want to share with your supervisor or co-workers is better left off your profile. This information may include how you spend your leisure time, how you feel about sensitive issues or any personal experiences you may have had. Also, be cautious about things your friends post on your profile that may portray you negatively.

Reveal why you’re a lousy employee. Ever taken a sick day to hit the beach, rather than nurse a cold? Or maybe you were supposed to work from home one afternoon, but your profile suggests you slept in and spent the afternoon catching up on your soaps. Believe it or not, some people actually make this information public on their profile! Whether you reveal this kind of information in your profile status or a friend has left a comment ratting you out, be aware that if others can see it so can an employer.

Vent about your employer, boss or job. Many social networking sites allow people to include their work history. Posting unnecessary, negative information about a particular aspect of the job, such as "Job sucks, but it pays the bills," gives an employer all the reasons he needs to slap you with a pink slip.

Making Sure Your Next Job Is the Best Fit

Making Sure Your Next Job Is the Best Fit

6 Questions All Job-Seekers Should Ask

by Caroline Potter

Researching a company can only tell you so much about how your experience would be if you made the transition from candidate to employee. But there are things you can do during the interview process that will help you determine if the opportunity is truly right for you.

Career expert Deborah Brown-Volkman has six questions every job seeker should ask themselves when pursuing a position.

1. Who’s the Boss?

If you’re in contention for a job, you’ll meet your future supervisor at some point. Pay close attention to how well you get along with this individual, as he or she will hold the key to your success — and happiness — in that position. Says Brown-Volkman, "If you notice on the interview that your boss does not get you or you do not get him or her, this will not change once you start working there."

2. Do You Click or Clash With Future Coworkers?

Some people hate their jobs but love their colleagues so much that it overrides any unhappiness they have about their daily duties. However, just as these folks can make your work life great, they can also make it miserable. Ask to meet your potential teammates before accepting an offer. Brown-Volkman, based in New York, says, "If you sense there is a problem with someone you will be working with, listen to what your inner voice is telling you." First impressions are often correct impressions when it comes to future coworkers.

3. Who Are You Trying to Convince?

"Wanting to be selected by an employer sometimes makes us talk ourselves into a situation we might not have taken if we were thinking more clearly," says Brown-Volkman, author of several books, including "How to Feel Great at Work Every Day." But as much as employers are trying to determine if you’re a fit, you should be trying to determine if the organization is a fit for you. Forget your ego, and focus on why, and how much, you really want any job.

4. What Matters Most to You?

Just like people, every company is different. What is permissible at one may be verboten at another. Before you get too deep into the interview process, understand your priorities. Do you require flexibility with your hours? The opportunity to work autonomously? The ability to telecommute from time to time? Know it and own it during a company courtship. "Deciding what you want ahead of time will give you the opportunity to ask questions to assess whether you really want the job," she states.

5. Is This Job Just Right, or Right Just for Now?

Your personal finances may dictate that you have to accept something less than your dream job. Brown-Volkman says, "I work with many clients who agreed to less-than-perfect positions believing they would stay for just one year. But that one year frequently became two, and then more, even though the jobs were not satisfying." If you’re taking a job just for now, plan your exit strategy. She adds, "An interim position is just that. Don’t sell out for the long haul."

6. Who Are You Fooling?

Don’t put on airs or make promises you can’t keep when going after a job. Ultimately, you and your career will pay the price. Concludes Brown-Volkman, "You may fool the people with whom you interview to get the job, but you will only be fooling yourself once you get there and you have to be someone else."

7 Prinsip Manajemen Waktu yang Kreatif

7 Prinsip Manajemen Waktu yang Kreatif

1. Selalulah aktif, bukan reaktif
Buatlah keputusan-keputusan aktif tentang bagaimana Anda
menghabiskan waktu Anda daripada reaktif terhadap setiap tuntutan
yang Anda temui. Tentukan apa saja yang penting bagi Anda, dan
katakan "tidak" terhadap segala sesuatu yang bertentangan.

2. Tentukan sasaran
Dengan menentukan sasaran, Anda tahu tujuan Anda. Tanpa sasaran,
Anda akan kehilangan arah dan bereaksi terhadap kesempatan2 dan
persoalan2 yang tidak pasti, dengan pandangan sempit atas akibat
yang mungkin timbul dalam kehidupan pribadi dan profesional Anda.

3.Tentukan prioritas dalam tindakan Anda
Begitu Anda telah menentukan sasaran, Anda perlu menentukan
prioritas tindakan guna mencapai sasaran2 itu. Kunci dalam
menentukan prioritas adalah dengan mengidentifikasikan apa yang
penting dari aktivitas Anda secara tepat dan menentukannya sebagai
prioritas.

4. Pertahankan fokus Anda
Maksimalkan produktivitas Anda dengan berkonsentrasi pada satu
proyek yang utama satu per satu. Setelah menentukan sasaran dan
prioritas tindakan Anda, pantaulah perkembangannya hingga proyek
itu selesai. Apa pun yang Anda lakukan, lakukanlah dengan seluruh
kemampuan Anda.

5. Ciptakan tenggat waktu yang realistis

Tenggat waktu yang realistis dapat membantu Anda tetap fokus pada
sasaran jangka panjang dan terutapa pada prioritas jangka pendek.

6.Lakukan sekarang (DO IT NOW)

D = Divide. Bagi menjadi tugas yang lebih kecil.
O = Organize. Aturlah bagaimana melakukannya.
I = Ignore. Abaikan gangguan yang mengalihkan perhatian.
T = Take. Ambil kesempatan mengetahui bagaimana melakukannya
sendiri.
N = Now. Sekarang.
O = Opportunity. Ambil keuntungan dari kesempatan yang
menguntungkan Anda.
W = Watch out. Waspada pada pemborosan waktu.

7. Seimbangkan hidup Anda.
Untuk menerapkan prinsip2 manajemen waktu yang kreatif ini tidak
hanya dalam pekerjaan, tetapi juga dalam gergaul dan beraktivitas
mengisi waktu luang. Jadi seimbangkanlah hidup Anda seperti
menciptakan waktu bagi diri sendiri, sahabat, saudara, dan yang
lainnya.

Meng-Update 9 Skill Manajemen HR

Meng-Update 9 Skill Manajemen HR

Ketika mewawancarai calon karyawan, seorang staf HR harus mengikuti sejumlah prosedur baku untuk menguji kandidat tersebut. Antara lain dengan mencocokkan keahlian-keahlian yang dimiliki oleh kandidat berikut karakteristik personalnya dengan persyaratan yang dibutuhkan untuk posisi pekerjaan yang akan ditempatinya.

Menguji untuk mendapatkan orang yang paling tepat untuk mengisi jabatan tertentu hanyalah salah satu dari keterampilan yang harus dimiliki oleh seorang profesional di departemen HR. Pada dasarnya ada 9 keterampilan yang harus selalu di-up date oleh orang HR agar senantiasa siap menjalankan peran dan fungsinya sebagai mitra strategis bagi bisnis dalam mengelola karyawan.

1. Organization

Manajemen HR memerlukan langkah-langkah pendekatan. Data-data yang rapi, kemampuan mengelola waktu dengan baik, efisiensi personal merupakan hal-hal yang mendasar dalam fungsi HR. Sebagai pimpinan atau pun staf HR, Anda berurusan dengan kelangsungan hidup dan karir banyak orang. Ketika seorang manajer lini meminta data personal seorang karyawan atau meminta rekomendasi mengenai kompensasi yang sesuai dengan organsasi maupun industrinya, Anda tak bisa dengan enaknya mengatakan, "Tunggu ya, aku lihat dulu ada apa enggak."

2. Multitasking

Menjadi orang HR harus punya banyak "tangan". Pada menit ini Anda menghadapi karyawan yang sedang "curhat" tentang masalah pribadinya, menit berikutnya membereskan klaim biaya meeting yang diajukan karyawan lain, dan pada menit yang lain lagi memikirkan strategi rekrutmen yang tepat untuk situasi sekarang. Berbagai prioritas dan kebutuhan bisnis bergerak dan berubah dengan cepat. Klien A tidak mungkin menunggu dengan alasan bahwa Anda sedang sibuk dengan kolega B. Anda harus bisa meng-hadle semua.

3. Discretion and Business Ethics

Profesional HR adalah hari nurani perusahaan, di samping juga penjaga kerahasiaan informasi. Seiring Anda melayani top management, Anda juga harus memastikan bahwa karyawan juga tetap berhak memiliki privasi yang terjaga.

4. Dual Focus

Profesional HR harus mampu berdiri di tengah-tengah antara kepentingan dan kebutuhan karyawan dan manajemen. Ada saat ketika Anda harus mengabil keputusan untuk melindungi karyawan, dan pada saat yang lain Anda akan dihadapkan pada panggilan untuk melindungi organisasi, budaya dan nilai-nilainya. Dengan posisi ini, Anda akan mudah disalahpahami, dan kuncinya ada pada komunikasi.

5. Employee Trust

Karyawan berharap pada orang HR untuk membela kepentingan mereka, tapi Anda juga dituntut untuk mendukung setiap kebijakan dari top management. Dengan menyeimbangkan antara dua kutub yang sama-sama menarik tangan Anda itu, maka Anda akan mendapatkan kepercayaan.

6. Fairness

Komunikasi yang jelas, saluran aspirasi yang tersedia, adanya kesempatan bagi semua orang untuk mengemukakan pendapatnya, aturan yang ditegakkan dengan konsisten, mengembangkan sikap saling menghargai…itulah hal-hal yang harus dijaga untuk menciptakan suasana keterbukaan di kantor.

7. Dedication to Continuous Improvement

Profesional HR harus selalu siap membantu manajer mendampingi dan mengembangkan karyawan di lini masing-masing. Dengan begitu, kemajuan dan inovasi bisa berkelanjutan, dan jika perlu dibarengi dengan pemanfaatan teknologi untuk meningkatkan fungsi HR sendiri.

8. Strategic Orientation

Berpikir ke depan adalah bagian dari peran kepemimpinan dan strategi manajemen yang dimiliki orang HR. Mengisi kebutuhan perusahaan akan tenaga kerja berkualitas, merancang skema penggajian yang baik, memberi pelatihan kepada karyawan untuk mendukung pertumbuhan bisnis merupakan perwujudan dari ungkapan yang sudah sering Anda katakan di mana-mana bahwa, "Karyawan adalah aset terpenting."

9. Team Orientation

Dalam dunia bisnis saat ini, tim adalah raja. Manajer HR harus senantiasa memahami dinamika tim yang ada, dan melakukan upaya untuk menjaga semangat kebersamaan dan membuat tim bekerja dengan baik.

Keeping Yourself Positive

Keeping Yourself Positive
By: Brian Tracy

The most important thing you do for your success is to take control of the suggestive elements in your environment. Be sure that what you are seeing and listening to is consistent with the goals you want to achieve.

Listen Your Way to Success
Listen to educational audio programs in your car. The average person drives 12,000 to 25,000 miles per year which works out to between 500 and 1,000 hours per year that the average person spends in his or her car. You can become an expert in your field by simply listening to educational audio programs as you drive from place to place.

Take Courses in Your Field
Attend seminars given by experts in your field. Take additional courses and learn everything you possibly can. Learn from the experts. Ask them questions, write them letters, read their books, read their articles and listen to people with proven track records in the area in which you want to be successful.

Get Around the Right People
Associate only with positive, success-oriented people. Get around winners. As we say, fly with the eagles. You can’t fly with the eagles if you keep scratching with the turkeys. Get away from the go-nowhere types and above all, get away from negative people. Get away from negative coworkers. If you’ve got a negative boss, seriously consider changing jobs. Associating on a regular basis with negative people is enough in itself to condemn you to a life of underachievement, frustration and failure. Associate only with positive people. Get around winners.

Visualize Your Goals
The last thing before you sleep and the first thing in the morning, think about and visualize your goals as realities. See your goal as though it already existed. Your subconscious mind is only activated by affirmations and pictures that are received in the present tense. See your goal vividly just before you go to sleep. See yourself performing at your best. See the situations that you’re facing working out exactly the way you want them to.

Feed Yourself Mental Pictures
See yourself living the kind of life that you want to live. See yourself with the kind of relationships, the kind of health, the kind of car, the kind of home you really want. Visualize just before you fall asleep at night. The first thing you do when you get up in the morning is to feed yourself mental pictures. Those are the two times of the day when your subconscious mind is most receptive to new programming, when you fall asleep and when you wake up.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do, all day long, to keep your mind and emotions focused on your goals and financial success:

First, listen to audio programs in your car and when you travel around. Continue feeding your mind with a stream of high-quality, educational, motivational material that moves you toward your goal.

Second, resolve to associate with positive, optimistic people most of the time. Get around winners and get away from negative people who criticize, condemn and complain. This can change your life as much as any other factor.

Unlocking Your Creativity

Unlocking Your Creativity
By: Brian Tracy

Creative thinking can be stimulated by two things; intensely desired goals and pressing problems. Your creative capacities need something to hone in on and your job is to provide it.

A Continual Stimulus for Ideas
Intensely desired goals, clearly defined with detailed plans for their accomplishment act as a continual stimulus for ideas to achieve them.

Visualize Your Goals
To trigger your imagination, write out a clear description of your ideal end result or goal. Be clear about the goal, be flexible about the process. Think about it, visualize it as realized over and over. Project your mind forward to the picture of the realized goal and then look back to the present.

Define Your Goals Clearly
Think on paper. Make a plan and then work on the plan, updating it, changing it, adding to it as you think of new ways to work toward the goal. The more clearly defined and keenly desired your goals, the more of your natural creativity will be released for goal attainment.

The Proper Approach to Problems
The second stimulant to creativity is pressing problems. The key to idea generation when you face a problem is to approach the problem confidently, expectantly, with the attitude that there exists a logical, practical solution just waiting to be found.

The most creative people have a relaxed attitude of confident expectancy that causes their minds to function in original and imaginative ways.

Diagnose Your Problems Accurately
Define your problems clearly in writing. Accurate diagnosis is half the cure. Sometimes you will find that you are dealing with a "cluster problem," one that is made up of several smaller problems. Your job is to sort them out and then go to work on each one separately.

Break Up the Clusters
In many cluster problems, there is a core issue surrounded by a lot of symptoms. Creative thinking requires that you separate the core issue, and then focus on resolving that before worrying about the smaller problems.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to stimulate your creativity.

First, be absolutely clear about your goal. Write it down and make a plan to achieve it. Think of different ways you could accomplish it.

Second, define your problems clearly and then make a list of all the possible solutions to your problem. Take action on at least one idea immediately.

Create Large Chunks of Time

Create Large Chunks of Time
By: Brian Tracy

This strategy requires a commitment from you to work at scheduled times on large tasks. Most of the really important work you do requires large chunks of unbroken time to complete. Your ability to create and carve out these blocks of high value, highly productive time, is central to your ability to make a significant contribution to your work and to your life.

Thoughtfulness may be defined as a careful concern for the secondary consequences of each decision and each action. This is the essence of strategic thinking.

Start Immediately on Number One
Successful salespeople set aside a specific time period each day to phone prospects. Rather than procrastinating or delaying on a task that they don’t particularly like, they resolve that they will phone for one solid hour between 10 and 11 AM and they then discipline themselves to follow through on their resolutions.

Many business executives set aside a specific time each day to call customers directly to get feedback.

Create Specific Amounts of Time
Some people allocate specific 30-60 minute time periods each day for exercise. Many people read in the great books 15 minutes each night before retiring. In this way, over time, they eventually read dozens of the best books ever written.

The key to the success of this method of working in specific time segments is for you to plan your day in advance and specifically schedule a fixed time period for a particular activity or task.

You make work appointments with yourself and then discipline yourself to keep them. You set aside thirty, sixty and ninety minute time segments that you use to work on and complete important tasks.

Create Preplanned Periods
Many highly productive people schedule specific activities in preplanned time slots all day long. These people build their work lives around accomplishing key tasks one at a time. As a result, they become more and more productive and eventually produce two times, three times and five times as much as the average person.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, organize each day to create large chunks of time you can use for key task completion.

Second, make a written appointment with yourself to work on a key task at a specific time.

7 Tips Menyampaikan Training Perubahan Perilaku

7 Tips Menyampaikan Training Perubahan Perilaku 

  1. Mulai dari sebuah contoh dari kehidupan yang pernah kita alami. Ceritakan juga hambatan dan kegagalan yang pernah kita alami. Hal ini membiarkan peserta untuk menghayati bahwa perubahan perilaku  adalah sebuah proses.
  2. Mengenali “raw material” peserta dengan baik. Dapat digunakan beberapa inventory test sederhana yang bisa membantu (self assessment). Dengan mengenali bahan dasarnya seorang trainer lebih mudah dalam melakukan pergeseran pola fikir.
  3. Menggunakan tekhnik eksplorasi dengan memberikan kesempatan kepada peserta untuk mengeksplorasi diri dalam diskusi kelompok kecil maupun diskusi menyeluruh.
  4. Menggunakan cerita-cerita penuh makna. Hal ini bisa dibingkai dalam success story, maupun cerita rekaan yang menarik. Aktivitas ini membantu peserta membuat “cermin ideal”nya
  5. Membungkus teori dalam bahasa sederhana, mudah dicerna, dan mempertimbangkan kode budaya peserta.
  6. Aktivitas yang melibatkan peserta di tema-tema inti. Bisa berupa permainan yang memiliki hikmah yang paling “eye catching” dengan tema inti.
  7. Membuat komitmen perubahan. Dalam membuat komitmen perubahan kearah yang lebih positif diusahakan mengkomitmenkan aktivitas yang terukur dan bisa dilihat, serta memasukkan unsure “self punishment” jika tidak melakukannya.

Semoga bermanfaat

Is Your Dream Job a Reality?

By Michael Gregory, Author of "Career Chronicles: An Insider’s Guide To What Jobs Are Really Like"

As we progress through our educational pursuits, we all are faced with one of the most important decisions of our lives: "What do I want to do with my life?" There are more than 16 million students enrolled in colleges and universities in the United States. Many of these students entered without a clue as to what career or profession they should select. Yet at some point, relatively early in their collegiate experience, they must declare a major. For most students, the decision is rarely a clear one. For many, it can extend the time it takes to graduate, because they change their major at least once. These individuals realize that the career path they mapped out for themselves does not fit their goals, their personality or their picture of the future. Others simply defer this pivotal life decision by escaping into graduate school, hoping that immersion into a particular area of concentration will somehow provide them with the career direction they are seeking. Even those individuals who felt drawn to a particular profession early in their college life can find, after several years of real-world experience, that their initial image of a career and the realities of such are vastly different. And for millions of other Americans each year, the need to re-examine their career choice is brought on by actions totally beyond their control, such as mergers, acquisitions, downsizing, layoffs and restructuring. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 20 million Americans change jobs each year. The bottom line for all these individuals is that they find themselves facing a career choice. The more real-world, practical information they can gather about a particular profession, the better the chance their selection will be a good fit. Interviewing real-world professionals about their careers Career development directors on campuses throughout the country, as well as career counselors within American industry and business, always recommend having as many "informational interviews" as possible before making a decision. The more advice students receive from real-world professionals, the more informed their decisions will be. But just what questions should you ask those whose profession you are considering pursuing? The goal should be to ask questions that will produce more than the traditional well-tailored marketing pitches often found in promotional materials produced by representatives of various professions. What you should be after are candid "insider" observations about "the good, the bad and the ugly" of a profession. During these critical informational interviews you need to include questions such as: "How would you compare the reality of your profession to the picture you had of it while in school?" "What most surprised you about your chosen profession? "What are the best parts of your career?" "What are the least enjoyable aspects of your profession?" "How many hours do you work each week at your career?" "Have you found advancement within your profession easy or difficult?" "What do you spend most of your day doing? Describe a typical day." "What changes do you foresee for your profession? Do you find your daily job fulfilling?" "Would you choose the same career again? " Discovering our goals and expectations Most of us approach choosing a career based on a variety of criteria such as salary, hours, advancement opportunities, health insurance coverage and geographical location. Yet in search for our life’s career, most of us ignore the most critical component — will we be happy in our chosen profession? In our capitalistic society, money is the way we keep score. Who has the highest salary, the biggest house, the coolest car? Who goes to the best schools or travels to the most exotic places? It is easy to get caught up in such comparisons, and yet as the years fly by, it can begin to feel like a race with no finish line. Yet aren’t our careers and professions about more than just making money? What if we focused on becoming enriched rather than just rich? What if we kept score not in comparison with others, but with ourselves, with our own goals and expectations? To discover these goals and expectations, there is one question we can ask ourselves that gets to the core of selecting the right profession — if you had all the money you needed, what career would you choose for your life? In other words, if you didn’t have to work, how would you spend your time each day? There is only so much golf one can play and beaches one can walk on before the brain starts to turn to mush. As individuals, most of us seek an intellectually stimulating life — one that makes you want to get out of bed in the morning. This has been a universal yearning for centuries. Shakespeare wrote more than 400 years ago, "To business that we love we rise betime, and go to’t with delight." We all have different dreams and expectations, and none of us can ignore our monetary obligations for long. If we are going to have to work to support ourselves and our families, wouldn’t it be a more delightful world (as Shakespeare noted) if we loved what we did? Doesn’t it make sense to be paid for doing work you enjoy rather than for work you simply tolerate? Rather than select a career that pays well and then hope it makes you happy, we should all strive to select a profession that makes us happy, and let the monetary rewards be derived from our your productive and creative efforts at a daily endeavor we enjoy. Career advice from Hollywood I have always loved movies, especially ones based on books. In a scene from 1985’s Oscar-winning best picture, "Out of Africa," Robert Redford (portraying an English big game hunter living in Africa) tells Meryl Streep (who plays his lover): "I don’t want to come to the end of my life and realize I have lived someone else’s version of it." The secret for all of us is first to identify the version of the life we want to live, and then not be afraid to live it.

Visualisasi dan Afirmasi

Suatu ketika seorang sahabat memperlihatkan sebuah buku kepada saya. “Pak, ini ada buku yang sangat luar biasa. Bagaimana menurut bapak tentang buku ini?” ujarnya berapi-api.

“Mohon maaf, saya belum dapat memberikan komentar. Sejujurnya saya belum pernah membaca buku ini.” kata saya.

Mendengar jawaban saya, sahabat tersebut tidak berkomentar banyak, tetapi saya menangkap bahasa tubuhnya mengatakan, “Kok bisa, ya? Buku best seller dan banyak dibicarakan orang-orang dari kalangan trainer sampai orang awam belum dia baca.”

Saya kemudian tersenyum kecut terhadap ketidakpedulian saya pada perkembangan dunia training di Indonesia. Akhirnya sahabat saya ini meminjamkan buku yang dimaksudkannya kepada saya.

Ternyata buku tersebut berisi rahasia untuk mencapai keberhasilan dalam hidup. Penulis buku itu meyakini bahwa manusia mempunyai kekuatan untuk mendapatkan APAPUN yang diinginkannya seperti layaknya lampu Aladin.

Jika hal itu yang dikatakan buku tersebut, sebetulnya bukanlah merupakan rahasia baru. Itu adalah barang lama yang dikemas ulang dengan lebih menarik. Hanya kali ini disajikan secara multimedia, sehingga bagi yang malas membaca bukunya cukup menonton filmnya.

Isi dari filmnya pun tidak kalah menarik dengan menampilkan kesaksian dari berbagai tokoh; baik yang nyata ataupun tokoh imajiner. Persamaan dari kesaksian mereka adalah jika seorang manusia mampu melakukan visualisasi dan meyakini apa yang diinginkannya maka alam semesta pasti akan menyediakannya.

Malam itu saya tidak dapat tidur karena teringat kembali segala tipu daya dan kebohongan yang pernah saya lakukan kepada para mitra bisnis saya. Terutama pada saat memotivasi mereka agar memiliki omzet penjualan yang besar. Pada saat itu,bukan saja visualisasi yang saya ajarkan melainkan juga segala bentuk afirmasi. Misalnya, meminta mereka menggunting gambar impian dan menempelkan di tempat-tempat yang mudah terlihat. Jika perlu di langit-langit kamar tidur agar setiap mau beranjak dan bangun tidur selalu mengingat impian tersebut. Melakukan afirmasi setiap pagi dan sore di depan cermin dengan kalimat, “Anda adalah apa yang Anda pikirkan. Jika Anda pikir bisa maka Anda pasti bisa!”

Sambil mengingat kembali keheranan saya ketika belajar NLP. Mengapa para founder yang saya kenal tidak mengajarkan konsep visualisasi dan afirmasi untuk meraih sukses seperti yang saya pelajari sebelumnya.

Jika ditanya, mereka rata-rata tersenyum simpul. Ada yang mengatakan, “We don’t use that for outcome.”, sedang yang lain mengatakan,”Wellformed Outcome is enough.”

Setelah menamatkan Master Practitioner, saya kembali melanjutkan bisnis saya melalui penggabungkan ilmu NLP dengan visualisasi dan afirmasi sehingga melahirkan ilmu baru yang saya namakan visualisasi dan afirmasi ala NLP.

Langkah-langkah itu lebih sistematis, logis dan menyemangati bagi yang mempraktekannya dibandingkan jika ilmu tadi berdiri sendiri-sendiri. Tetapi anehnya, kok malah bisnis saya jadi hancur dan rumah tangga menjadi retak (baca: PETUAH YANG DISALAHGUNAKAN (1)). Apanya yang salah, nih? Semakin dicari jawabannya, bukannya mendekat malah semakin menjauh.

Saya sangat marah kepada SANG PENCIPTA AGUNG. Mengapa mempermainkan diri saya? Saya pikir sepertinya sudah banyak yang saya lakukan untuk kebaikan sesama, tetapi kenapa saya masih dibalas dengan duka nestapa serta derita tiada akhir?

Saya teringat kembali akan orang misterius yang menyadarkan saya tentang inti Outcome. Saya pikir inilah saatnya membalas dengan menguji pertanyaan ini kepadanya. Saya yakin dia pun pasti bakal kelimpungan. Tetapi ternyata jawabannya semakin membuat saya marah dan kesal. Dengan entengnya dia cuma bilang,”Selama kamu masih melakukan PEMBENARAN dalam hidup ini, outcome kamu tidak akan pernah tercapai.”

“Apanya yang PEMBENARAN?!!!”, maki saya dalam hati karena setiap ditanya, jawaban yang diberikan seputar itu-itu melulu. “Saya ini sedang ada masalah dan mencari jawaban serta solusi atas masalah yang sedang dihadapi!!! Bukan sedang bermain tebak-tebakan!”

Sampai akhirnya di satu titik, saya kembali tersadarkan akan KEBENARAN dari presupposition “The Map is Not The Territory.” Saya sekarang menjadi paham akan jawaban dari para founder NLP terhadap visualisasi dan afirmasi.

Saya sadar bahwa semua keyakinan saya mengenai afirmasi, visualisasi ataupun terori-teori sukses dan kekayaan itu semuanya adalah Map dan bukanlah Territory atau kebenaran yang sesungguhnya.

Apa yang menjadi kebenaran yang sesungguhnya?

Ada banyak orang di dunia mempunyai map yang sangat besar dan luas. Map mereka mengatakan : manusia adalah ciptaan special dari SANG PENCIPTA AGUNG.

Seandainya Map itu benar dan merupakan sebuah aksioma, timbul pertanyaan dalam diri; saya ini siapa? Sampai berpikir dapat memerintah SANG PENCIPTA AGUNG - THE GREAT BIG BOSS?

OH LORD, Ampuni aku yang telah mengelabui, membohongi dan melakukan tipu daya pada banyak ciptaanMU dengan mengatakan ada CARA lain “secara sains” untuk membuat ENGKAU mengabulkan SEMUA KEINGINAN kami yang kadang hanyalah untuk pemuasan hawa nafsu belaka. Amin.