contentment is on the other side of comparison

in my mind's eye, i see the world as having two types of societies:

1) the ones that tell you to climb up the corporate ladder, earn a chunk of money, settle down and live a middle class (if you're lucky, upper class) existence till the day you die. 

2) and then there's what i like to call, the 'new society': the ones that judge you based on how well-traveled you are, or how brave you are to have quit your 9-5 job and started your own gig while traveling the world, or how noble you are for abandoning option no.1 and doing life the 'hipster' and 'unconventional' way. 

like many post-digital millennial zombies, i've always felt trapped in between the two societies, though i mostly lean to option no.2 (maybe some of you too).

for a while there, i had bouts of feeling sorry for myself coupled with sessions of telling myself to focus on my goals, but i would usually end up distraught and wondering why i'm no #digitalnomad or #livingauthentic but stuck in my advertising job, clocking in and out, and living a 'regular life'. 

it's not that i've not tried to apply for jobs overseas. i have. 

it's not that i don't want to travel. i can't travel as and when i like because travel involves money and money doesn't fall out from the sky. i may have the luxury of traveling once a year but that's about it, with the type of salary I'm earning. 

thankfully, i woke up this morning and had a new perspective. 

as i observed the sun rising triumphantly above the clouds, i decided to give thanks. 

and i decided that i will live my life as how i see fit whether or not it goes against what's trending or what societies no.1 or no.2 say. no one should put themselves under any form of pressure to be what society tells them to be. no one should compare themselves with what other people are doing. everyone is entitled to how they want to live their lives, whether or not it's climbing up the corporate ladder or 'forsaking all for the sake of #wanderlust'. 

to recap, here are three things that I'm thankful for: 

1. People: specifically my parents and my sister, my boyfriend, my Crave superheroes and my best friends + people that I care about and highly respect

2. Career: I didn't get into the fashion & lifestyle industry though magazines as how I hoped I would, but i made it work by going through another door: digital advertising. I'm excited (and scared) to work for upcoming (big) projects for big brands that will stretch me out of my comfort zone and take my portfolio to the next level. 

3. Life: I'm thankful for the chance to live. To breathe. To chase dreams. To laugh. To love. To travel.

do yourself a favour and stop comparing. stop comparing with the #digitalnomad and stop comparing with the workaholic. do life your way. contentment and joy is on the other side, waiting to embrace you. write down your goals and dreams and work for it. shut off the noise and listen to your intuition. please go out there and live. stop wasting money on self-help books but pick yourself up and do what you need to do. stop living vicariously online and go on an adventure with yourself. just go out there and do it. eat well, sleep well, live well. most importantly, take care of yourself. 

like how a wise woman once told me, 'living well is more than just organic fruit.'

i hope that you'll find the wisdom in that too. 

maybe the detour is a spark

truth to be told, i'm exhausted. 

i get up and ask myself, 'what exactly am i doing?'

i never imagined myself to be doing something other than my 'dream job'. for the longest time, i've always wanted to be in magazines. not just any kind of magazines, but magazines like Porter, Esquire or Vanity Fair. I would imagine myself as a features writer, profiling notable individuals, writing about culture, art, beauty, style, etc. 

i never thought that i would end up in social media, a job that never existed when i was 14 and excitedly flipping through magazines, dreaming that i would work for one in the future. 

i did, actually. 

i had applied to two magazines, one that was the dream magazine and the other was a backup, in case i didn't get the one i wanted. just as how i predicted, i got the backup and i accepted the offer (thinking that i need to start somewhere eventually), worked at it and realized how powerless i felt writing for a magazine that i didn't care about. 

i had applied to a few more magazines but nothing was working out. eventually, i had to come up with a plan B and that's how I ended up in social media and digital copywriting. i love the job, i even wrote an entire blog post about what i do, but there's that gnawing feeling of not achieving my old dream, a dream that i once held so deeply, a dream that i worked so hard for only to never see it come to pass and to eventually give up. 

so, here's the part of my life that i call a detour. 

i'm writing this to encourage those out there who are the dreamers, specifically the dreamers who did not achieve their dream because of unexpected circumstances. 

perhaps we can see the detour as a means of self-growth. 

perhaps the skills that we're gaining through the 'detour' phase will push us out of our comfort zones and spark a new dream. 

perhaps the detour is a way to bring us back to our old dream, this time with new skills, new perspectives and fresh inspiration. 

i hope you will be able to rekindle that flame that once sparked the birth of your dream. 

i hope i will do the same too. 

what on earth do you do for a living?

it's been three months since my stint at a digital agency as a social media manager and a lot of people have been asking me about my job. most of their queries entail 'what do i do' to 'how do i do it' and and lots of others in-between.
even my mom doesn't quite know what i do for a living!

social media marketing is a relatively new role in the business and marketing industry. most of them function under the PR & Marketing wing of a company or some of them (like me) function on its own. i can understand why people (mostly in Malaysia) are still blur to this new concept. sometimes, even i get a bit overwhelmed and confused to what i'm actually doing.

i decided to type out this simple post on what i actually do as a social media manager, especially for those who are curious about this line of work or for those who might be thinking of jumping onto this new digital field. please note that the role differs from company to company. i will just share what i've been doing in these last three months. i currently manage two clients on social media while playing the copywriter/content writer role for two other brands.

8am-10am
although my working hours begin at 9am, i usually begin my work around 8.15am when i'm in the train on the way to work. after all, all i need is just my phone and data connection. i start with scrolling Instagram and catching up on what i missed the night before. i reply to comments on my clients' accounts, scour the feed, check on the brands' competitors and if i have content to post, i usually post around this time because most people are active on Instagram at this hour due to the heavy commuting traffic.

once i reach the office, i get cracking on my emails and log in to Twitter to check on advertising/marketing trends, including industry news that's related to my clients (i currently manage a fashion brand, a beauty brand and an energy/motorsports sponsor). i also spend this time doing a lot of reading on content marketing, social media news and OCCASIONALLY, celebrity gossip or cute cat videos.


11am-12.30noon
sometimes, i have client meetings or internal team meetings. if it's a team meeting, that's when we discuss our progress or collaborate on existing projects. i'm also involved in brainstorming where we create digital campaigns, etc. i work very closely with multimedia designers, web developers and project managers to ensure that we're on the same page. occasionally, i conduct fashion shoots for a client to create visual content for social media. this sometimes involves working with influencers. if i have a shoot coming up, i usually spend this part of the day developing the mood board, the shoot concept and organizing the location, date, budget, etc.


1.30pm-4pm
this is when i start my on my copywriting/content writing projects for other clients. i find this to be the most difficult part of my job, which is why i do it in the afternoon because i find that this frame of the day is my optimal hour for writing. some people enjoy writing in the morning or late at night, but i find myself more productive when it comes to writing during the afternoon. must be the energy from lunch. this is when i play my music and tune off so that i can concentrate better while writing but i OCCASIONALLY goof off and check Pinterest or Tumblr when I'm stuck/in need for inspiration
sometimes, i may have client meetings, other product/lifestyle shoots happening around this time but i make it a point to schedule the writing bit for the afternoon.


4.30pm-6.30pm
once i'm done writing, i usually leave the entire thing and start on scheduling my Facebook posts for the month. this is when I organize the editorial content calendar and queue the posts, so that I can forget about it once I've set it to 'schedule'. Because this particular client is a huge motorspots sponsor, i will usually save the motorsports-related posts as a draft and update as needed.
once i'm done with scheduling, i'll go back to the copy that i wrote in the afternoon and begin editing it. i find that it's easier to edit copy once your brain has stepped out of something completely different.


6.30pm-8.30pm
before leaving the office, i will check the social media channels of my clients' for the last time. i also use this time to write my to-do list for the next day so that i wont waste time in the morning figuring out what i need to do. on a good day, i leave the office at 6.30pm (official working hours end at 6pm) but if there's a deadline, I stay as late as 8pm.


this is just a rundown of my schedule but it differs from day to day because there will be unexpected meetings, fashion shoots that take up the entire day or worse, a day when my creative juices refuse to budge. i find that in order to succeed in this line, you definitely need to be an expert organizer and a content creator with the mind of an analyst and a bit of a 'kaypoh' news hunter. it can be a lot to juggle but for those who thrive in an 'organized chaos' (like me) setting, then this might be the job for you.

if you'd like to read more about social media, check out Hootsuite's blog. they have some pretty interesting stuff up there.