Everybody has dream. The dream that I define as ideas or what you want to be in the future that you like to be and proud of that. The dream that might be come from your passion, needs, hobby or educational background. Our dream should not be related with our major, it might be different.

Now, we are go to discuss how is your way to catch the dream. Dream has a wide definition. It might be favorable place in heaven, happiness, rich, or whatever. But now let me simplify that definition into dream as craved job (pekerjaan dambaan).  Craved job might be businessman, civil servant, professional workers. It might be in our beloved country or in abroad. It might private or state ownership. Whatever it is, we need a process to get it in. Since we still young, we still have much time to learn and plan the strategy.

Let me tell you guys based on student perception. Now, getting job is not easy.We need much skill that can “market” ourselves. Academic and basic knowledge won’t be enough. In 2014, based on Indonesian Statistic Center (BPS) Data, There are 7.39 million people are jobless and 398.298 among them are educated jobless that graduate from Bachelor, magistrate, or doctoral degree. Getting a job is very competitive and it needs special strategy.

The government stated that the scholar must have competency and supported skill (quoted from m.detik.com). AFTA is officially launched this year, it can be an opportunity because it will easy to work in abroad, but it also can be a threat because the labor could from all of south-east asia countries that make it more competitive. It is worsened by new president regulation that will postpone the selection of civil servant and it probably five years (merdeka.com). While being entrepreneur is not an easy way. It needs much capital, good mentality and effort.

Based on that facts, we must realize that we should be ready to face the real competition. A planning is crucial step. Jusuf kalla said that good result is determined by good planning and strategy. Now, we must stop to waste our time “excessively” on movie, game, hanging out, or phone calling. Start to study hard and say no to drugs.

Written by : Zulkhaedir Purwanto | Universitas Hasanuddin 

It is had been discussed on 23th January 2015

The first time I decided to raise this topic to discuss, I was thinking about the social life around us, which has been impacting our lives. In this paper, I would like to raise  people’s bad habit that becomes attitude  when they cannot control it well. Therefore, every single person must be aware of their attitude.

There is a very well-known wisdom that actually describes how habit and attitude are inter-related. This wisdom insists that our destiny be determined by our mind. Let’s study the following wisdom :

Watch your mind, because it will become your word

Watch your word, because it will become your action

Watch your action, because it will become your habit

Watch your habit, because it will become your attitude

Watch your attitude, because it will become your character

Watch your character, because it will become your destiny

From the afore mentioned wisdom, we can clearly see that our destiny is derived from our thoughts. Let’s take an example when we’re facing something that hasn’t been familiar with us. We usually tend to say “come on, it is very difficult, only expert can do that. We? We’re just nothing.” This expression is a very common expression uttered by us responding to something new or to something we hate to do.

If only we always give our brain to think that it is easy, everything will always come easy. Even though, of course, there will always something unexpected linger around us but it doesn’t make any sense to excuse. One other fine example is when you happen to become a lazy person, you usually have other people do what is actually you have to do. If you continue to do that, you will end up finding yourself in a categoty of a person with a very gloomy future. No one will come close to you. No one will help you. No one will even greet you. Then somehow, you feel depressed and suicide. See? This is how mind works.

Many experts say our habit is the key to getting along with others and accepted in various environments without having to worry about our competence. Well, it goes without saying that we need competence to work, however, it doesn’t come the first when we’re talking about quality of a person. Why? The reason is that, refer to the above wisdom, our habit will shape our attitude. How we behave  to others is the first gate to win other people’s heart. The question of how we should keep ourselves doing the good deeds remains to be answered.

You now might be thinking of how we can avoid being a person with bad attitude. The good news is- I bet you already know- that bad attitude can be possibly changed. What we need to have is the courage to start and the commitment to keep ourselves in the right tracts. Many people, you might be one of them, actually dare to change however the environment where they live keeps them in a bad attitude. The environment is somehow the most responsible factor for people’s behavior. When you think that your current environment put you where you are now, in this case ‘bad habit’, then you should leave the environment in order that you instill new values and design new habits which eventually can get rid off the old attitude and make you a better person with a never-before-seen remarkable features.

To sum up, I would like to say that we must watch every single thing we think in order to keep our attitude good. If you think you have a bad attitude towards others, then change now. You may find changing our habit or forming a new habit difficult but it is a very possible thing to do. Doing good deeds will lead us to be a good person and vice versa. No matter how bad your attitude is, when you are willing to change it and be a better person, you will!

Picture : http://www.masterkeywisdom.com

by Sabah Laitupa – Moslem University of Indonesia

Imagine you experienced these things. On each day the alarm went off at the same time. You snoozed for the same ten minutes and did your morning routine. But driving to work was different yesterday, could it be because it was Monday? The sun was shining and the constant glare was irritating. Fellow drivers seemed grumpy. You looked at a few faces to see them scowling back at you. No-one was letting you in at the intersection, and everyone seemed in a bad mood.

Today however, the sun is shining and it’s so uplifting. Everyone seems smiley and cheerful, even letting you in at the busiest point of the road. At the lights, you can see a driver next to you obviously singing along to the same song on the radio, and you acknowledge one another with a friendly smile.

I've been told so many times that everthing you think will eventually go just like the way you think about it. And indeed, it seems everything works that way. But something still bothers me much. Was it really so? So, I tried to look for some corresponding references about this. People, from what I found, generally think that no matter how you think about something or someone, it always reflects yourself. I'll give you one case as an example. Have there ever been times in your life when you met someone and thought : ”Oh My God, he is really boastful (adj : sombong)”? Or maybe, after you talked to someone, you thought : “Damn, he is opinionated (ajd : keras kepala). I’m glad that I’m not like that!”.

I used to think that when we presume a person is arrogant, for example, we actually are successful identifying someone's personality. But I was wrong. Only once I learned more about this did I realize the mistake I had made, the injustice I had inflicted (v : menimbulkan) upon all people whom I've interacted with. You might be asking a question "why"?

The term "perception is projection" should be enough to answer this question. “perception is projection” means that whatever you perceive (v : melihat, bukan secara fisik) to be outside yourself is - on some level - within you. Whatever you don’t like about someone else mirrors some behaviour within yourself, which you are not yet fully aware of. Well, it actually means that we are fully responsible of what we perceive from other people. One of the references said that simply put (adv : secara sederhana), when we recognize others as being arrogant or opinionated or any other charming description, we actually recognize a part of ourselves, otherwise how would we be able to know what it was? So, basically, what we see in others is really ourselves! What I'm not really in step is "how would we be able to know ... ".

From my point of view, this will not always happen. It's very obvious that everyone possess a particular character and behaviour. This can be observed by asking some people to assess a certain person on his personality. Even if it's not always but those people will eventually come to a conclusion that the person is either a good or bad guy. This shows that what we perceive from others does not always end up with our projection because we can't project something which has already been projected.

Another reference said that what others do or how they act is their choice, it is our choice though how we perceive their actions. So, people in our lives will act the way we unconsciously want them to. That means that we get what we focus on! Hence, we project onto others how we want them to act, and once this projection or judgment comes to our conscious attention, it is our projection. This opinion does also not always bring the afore mentioned reality. It's always though to make people act the way want them to because it's againts their will.

As a conclusion, it's true that we don't need to take care about what others do because it's none of our concerns. But what we see in people, according to me, is actually things that they have not we have. That's why, just provide a wide range space for them to act the way they like. You may judge others but you may not project it onto yourself since it might not be in yourself.

Reference : Achievement in Mind, Heart Force
Picture : http://www.flowithin.com

by Naskar Hansam | Networker

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Our life is fashioned profoundly by personality, gender, religion, and race. The foremost important aspect of personality is based on the temperament dividing us into introverts and extroverts. Thus far, people construct the new personality styles telling us that to be great so be bold (adj=berani, tegas) and to be happy so be sociable.

According to a study one third of a person is introverts. This statistic seems surprising knowing that it is hard to find an introverted person nowadays. It might be because most of introverts are pretending (v=berpura-pura) to be extrovert ones. The reason why introverts hide themselves is that the extrovert ideals are implemented more in the society.

The universe believes that the ideal personalities are sociable, alpha, and assertive (adj=tegas), contrary to those of the introverts which are shy, apathetic (adj=acuh tak acuh), and timid (adj=malu-malu).

Extroverts and introverts work in a different way. Extrovert seems to be working fast and comfortable with multitasking and risk taking, contrary to the introvert who works slow, deliberate (adj=tidak tergesa-gesa), and focus. They also have a different social style. Extroverts attempt to be self-confident and dominant. They think out loud and prefer talking than listening. They charge their energy by socialize even though it is just a small talk. Introverts are in contrast. They might have good social skill, enjoy a party, or hang out with each other but after a while they need a time to be home alone. They prefer spend their social energy with close friends, colleagues and family. They prefer listening, express better in writing, and enjoy deep conversation.

Introversion is always treated as either disappointment or disease by one nearby the introverts. Some parents apologize for their child being shy. In school they are being taught to come out of their shell. Even there are some drugs that are intended for children in “special need”. It is believed that most of the people don’t really know or even care to what are “inside” the introverts mostly believe that the only way to handle them is by fixing the introversion. They believe that this shyness will make them end up with bad thing like alcoholic and suicide.

Shyness is often compared with the introversion. Shyness is fear of humiliation while introversion is the preference of environments that are not stimulating. Shyness is exceedingly (adv=sangat) painful but introversion is not. Sometimes people are confused between these two things because sometimes they overlapped. It also because most of introverts are shy. This shyness does not always come from the introversion but mostly from the way the other treats their introversion.

However, no matter what you are, either an introvert or an extrovert doesn’t mean that your behavior can easily be predicted. We cannot say that all introverts are nerds (n=kutubuku) or all extroverts enjoy party as well as we cannot say that all women love cooking and all men love sport. As a wrapping up, there is no such thing called pure introvert or pure extrovert. It is not only because we are all a complex individual but also that there are so many kinds of introverts and extroverts, each of them interact with their own way, producing weirdly different kind of people.

by Ahmad Akram | Faculty of Engineering | Hasanuddin University

Hola, guys, how are you doing? Good, huh? I bet you are! When reading my greeting, each of you must have different expressions indicating how your feeling respond to it. It tells us that we are unique creatures. You might realize that you always get different treats from people around you, sometimes they are good, fun and enjoyable, but sometimes really annoying. Why do people act in different manner? You already know the answer! Each of us was uniquely created by God for His glory with distinct appearance, characteristics, spiritual gifts, intelligence, abilities, talents, and personality. The key to getting along with others is being able to recognize their way of doing things has validity and a reason behind it, even if it seems the complete opposite of what we would do. Then how could we identify others’ personality and deal with it?

Florence Littauer, a personality development book author, wrote a book which amazingly exposes the way we could spot people’s personality and should react to it. Although people are unique, Littauer suggests they fall under one of four personality types. These are choleric, sanguine, melancholy and phlegmatic.

Popular Sanguine – emotional and demonstrative, the Sanguine is the life of the party and is all about having fun. They make work into fun, and they love to be with people. They see excitement in each experience and are outgoing (adj : ramah) and optimistic. They love colors, are dramatic and prone to (adv : rentan terhadap) exaggeration (n : pernyataan berlebihan), and are great on stage, thriving with an audience. They love touching and hugging (v : memeluk) people. You will laugh and laugh with a Sanguine. After all, they are happy, bouncy, often loud, talkative, great storyteller, lots of fun.

Powerful Choleric – dynamic born leader, dreamer of the impossible dream, always aiming, reaching, succeeding. The Choleric is ever achieving and everything will be fine as long as you obey his rule: “Do it my way NOW!” He is outgoing and optimistic, but has little need for friends (socializing wastes time and doesn’t get things done, btw do you know who he is?). He believes everything will be fine as long as you do it with him in charge. He gets more done than the other temperaments. He rises to the top, is goal - oriented, and has innate (adj : bawaan) leadership abilities.

Perfect Melancholy – deep, sensitive, organized, detailed, lover of lists. The Melancholy is quiet, undemanding (adj : tak banyak menuntut), and likes to be alone. He follows schedules right from the beginning and will not adapt well to having his routine upset. They are neat, tidy, and perfectionistic. They are frugal (adj : hemat) and have deep compassion (n : kasih sayang) for others. The fact that I always love and serve people around well is a point that I might be under this category, well, more or less. The Melancholy is creative, introspective, and analytical. That’s why personally, I always ask the people whom I always interact with not to prevaricate (v : bohong) because it’s always easy for me to unveil (v : menyingkap) what is behind their stories. Without Melancholies we’d have few artists, writers, philosophers, and composers of music. Btw, I am neither an artist, writer, philosopher nor composer. LOL

Peaceful Phlegmatic – buffers (n : penolong) for all the other personalities to bring stability and balance. The Phlegmatic is peaceful and the great leveler (n : orang yang suka menyamaratakan sesuatu atau seseorang) in life. He says, “It really doesn’t matter that much” – and it usually doesn’t matter! The Phlegmatic is content (adj : memuas - muaskan), easy-going (adj : santai), not pushy (adj : ambisius), balanced, on an even keel, doesn’t easily offend, and quietly does what is expected of him. “Whatever” seems to be the Phlegmatic’s life motto. He is a “learned (adj : terpelajar)” leader and with proper motivation, he will rise to the top, because of his outstanding ability to get with everyone and avoid conflict.

Despite its diversity, it is common for individuals to have many traits (n : sifat) from one or two of the personality types and smaller amounts in the others. There are four possible combinations can be found in someone’s personality. 1) Natural Combination i.e Sanguine Choleric, 2) Complementing Combination i.e for relationship – oriented : Sanguine Phlegmatic and for goal – oriented : Choleric Melancholy, 3) Opposite Combination i.e Sanguine Melancholic and Choleric Phlegmatic, 4) Small amounts from all 4 types can be generally considered either Phlegmatic, perfect man, or the person whose past was over – directed, strictly controlled or severely oppressed (v : ditindas). I considered myself under Complementing Combination for goal – oriented, but I – even it is negligible – also have some Sanguin features. Littauer encourages people to take the profile test to determine in which categories their personality lies. But in this occasion, we would not do that. If you wish to know more about yourself and others through Littauer’s personality test, you may join us in our Mobile English Discussion in STKIP YPUP (contact us for further info).

We need to learn what our strengths are and amplify (v : memperkuat) them, and what our weaknesses are and overcome them with God’s transforming power. We need to understand the personalities of the people around us as well to have the best relationship possible with them. Otherwise, they can drive us crazy! Trust me, they can and they will!

Reference : The Personaity Plus Book by France Littauers

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by Naskar Hansam | Nobody

Positive thinking is a mental attitude that admits into the mind thoughts, words and images that are conductive to growth, expansion and success. It is a mental attitude that expects good and favorable results. A positive mind anticipates happiness, joy, health and a successful outcome of every situation and action. Whatever the mind expects, it finds. 

Not everyone accepts or believes in positive thinking. Some consider the subject as just nonsense, and others scoff at people who believe and accept it. Among the people who accept it, not many know how to use it effectively to get results. Yet, it seems that many are becoming attracted to this subject, as evidenced by the many books, lectures and courses about it. This is a subject that is gaining popularity. 

It is quite common to hear people say: "Think positive!", to someone who feels down and worried. Most people do not take these words seriously, as they do not know what they really mean, or do not consider them as useful and effective. How many people do you know, who stop to think what the power of positive thinking means? 

Positive thinking is contagious. All of us affect, in one way or another, the people we meet. This happens instinctively and on a subconscious level, through thoughts and feelings transference, and through body language. People sense our aura and are affected by our thoughts, and vice versa. People are more disposed to help us if we are positive, and they dislike and avoid anyone broadcasting negativity. 

Here are a few actions and tips to help you develop the power of positive thinking :

1. Always use only positive words while thinking and while talking. Use words such as, 'I can', 'I am able', 'it is possible', 'it can be done', etc. 
2. Allow into your awareness only feelings of happiness, strength and success. 
3. Try to disregard and ignore negative thoughts. Refuse to think such thoughts, and substitute them with constructive happy thoughts. 
4. In your conversation use words that evoke feelings and mental images of strength, happiness and success. 
5. Before starting with any plan or action, visualize clearly in your mind its successful outcome. If you visualize with concentration and faith, you will be amazed at the results. 
6. Read at least one page of inspiring book every day. 
7. Watch movies that make you feel happy. 
8. Minimize the time you listen to the news and read the papers. 
9. Associate yourself with people who think positively. 
10. Always sit and walk with your back straight. This will strengthen your confidence and inner strength. 
11. Walk, swim or engage in some other physical activity. This helps to develop a more positive attitude. 

Think positive and expect only favorable results and situations, even if your current circumstances are not as you wish them to be. In time, your mental attitude will affect your life and circumstances and change them accordingly.

by Iryanthi Farida Saiful | Hasanuddin University