It is a Monday, Oct 9th 2023, a rainy day in Hongkong affected by typhoon Koinu (Typhoon No.14) in South China Sea. It started on Saturday 7th October. For this reason, today there is no office in Werfen Hongkong, everyone is working from home. Most businesses are also closed, no Uber service. Luckily, the cafeteria NOC near the hotel where I stay is still open and I could come to have my morning coffee and a little special ¨Vanilla Apple croissant ̈ and read a bit of my new book ¨Designing Your New Work Life¨ by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans. While reading the book, it makes me rethink about what has been happening to me during this trip. This is the longest business trip I’ve ever made. I first boarded the plane to Taiwan on the 29th of June 2023 and my return ticket will be on the 27th of October. Which is to say, while sitting here and writing my thoughts, I still have 19 days for the rest of the trip. Four months, that is the time being far from my home, my bed, my kitchen, my people, etc.
I remember how I struggled preparing the trip by myself and even at the moment I boarded the plane I still didn’t feel ready mentally, but then I told myself that ¨You can do it. Let’s go with the flow¨.
A week of intensive training for the new CS members coming from Hongkong, South Korea, Taiwan in the Taiwan’s office was really intense as the title implies. Then started the training privately in each country: one week in Taiwan, followed by two weeks in South Korea. I took a break of five days in Vietnam to renew my passport, stayed with my family, then continued with two weeks in Hongkong. After that, fortunately, I could come back to Barcelona for my ten days of vacation but not stay in my place, while getting the visa for Japan, South Korea again and also took advantage to process my Spanish citizenship. After ten days, I departed again on the trip. Started with two intense weeks in Japan for the integration between Werfen and Immucor, followed by two more weeks in South Korea, a break of one week in Vietnam with my family, and embarked to Hongkong where I am now. Woow to me!
The first month was the toughest time. The tiredness from the jet lag made me couldn’t have enough rest. One night I could sleep, then the next one stayed awake the whole night and the next day went to work directly. Plus the intense work I had to perform created stress constantly, the feeling of being far from where I used to be, alone. I remember many days, I was crying at bedtime and on the way back to the hotel. I consider this trip a challenge for me in many aspects: step out of my comfort zone, put myself to the limit of my mentality, my capacity at work, challenge myself to stay firm and positive. I’m also seeing the fact that I am learning so much from it.
Back to the point why I wanted to write something today while reading the book ¨Designing Your New Work Life¨. I just started it but I liked so much what they called ¨Reframe Not Rename¨ and what to reframe is ¨Good enough is Great-for now¨ – not forever, just for now.
In this book, they talk about the acceptance of one’s situation and reframe the point of view. ¨Good enough for now¨ makes it possible for everything in our external situation to transform.
During this trip I encountered so many situations in some which I could reframed to just ¨Good enough for now¨ that helped me to stay motivated, some which still bother me much.
