Don’t Be So Hard on Yourself

Last Christmas I went to Bali with two girlfriends. I’ve known them from my grad school days in the UK. During that one year period, they were two of my closest friends – N and P. While P is Indonesian and I got to meet her regularly, N is Russian – she’s still living the UK, and I haven’t met her since I left – five years ago. We still keep in touch though, and finally, she decided to visit Indonesia.

5 years seemed like 5 days to us. We instantly bonded again, conversations were flowing flawlessly. We shared good laugh, stories, and of course, great adventure in the island of Gods.

After exchanging stories about each other’s lives, how life has treated us the past 5 years, things that have happened and has not happened (yet), on our fourth/final day in Bali, we finally decided to agree on one simple life purpose.

That is, to be happy.

Meeting N again after 5 years was like a dream to me and P. It’s amazing how she is from a very different culture in a far far away country yet our minds are very much alike. Thank you N and P for a truly inspiring yet crazy short getaway. I hope I won’t need to wait another 5 years for us to be reunited again 🙂

Anyway – After I drove her to the airport as she was going to her next destination, I heard this song on the radio. Surprise, Surprise, it’s a British singer’s – Jess Glynne. Though she was not around 5 years ago during our time in the UK, I hereby declared this song as our official anthem for this trip.

Here’s my favorite part of the song:

I learned to wave goodbye
How not to see my life
Through someone else’s eyes
It’s not an easy road
But now I’m not alone
So I, I won’t be so hard on myself no more

And of course, the reff:

Don’t be so hard on yourself, no
Learn to forgive, learn to let go
Everyone trips, everyone falls
So don’t be so hard on yourself, no

As I am writing this for self-reminder, I want you to also keep this in mind: Don’t be so hard on  yourself –  you deserve to be happy. Cheers!

32 thoughts on “Don’t Be So Hard on Yourself”

  1. That’s really true mba. Don’t be so hard on yourself. There was a friend of mine who said the similar words. We have to enjoy our life since we only live once. Semoga persahabatannya langgeng terus ya mba 😉

    1. Ur welcome Deny, semangat!! Hehe akupun masih PR supaya “not to see my life from someone else’s eyes” alias jgn peduli omongan orang ketika ditanya “kapan kawin” dan sejuta pertanyaan lainnya.. Hihihi

  2. I love it when relationships last long. I have one myself. We met during her stay in Denmark back in 2009. I’m visiting Italy in August, so it will be great if we can meet up 🙂

  3. bener banget… cuma ya kadang kita mesti naruh garis juga ya jangan sampe akhirnya jadi terlena dan gak memotivasi diri juga. nanti jadi gak berkembang ya gak sih. hehe

  4. Thanks for this inspiring post Mbak :)). Suka deh dengan lirik lagunya, benar banget sih. Kalau kata anak-anak kekinian zaman sekarang: jangan lupa bahagia :hehe. Jika saya boleh menambahkan, jangan lupa bahagia dengan keadaan diri sendiri, sih. Di lagu itu juga dibilang “how not to see my life from someone else’s eyes”, kan :hehe. Kadang kita terlalu suka membandingkan… jadi berat sendiri, deh :p.

    1. Sama sama 🙂 iya liriknya bagus dan iramanya bikin semangat yah!

      Betul bgt, itu makanya kalimat favorit aku, jgn peduli kata org lain misalnya ditanya kapan kawin dan juga jgn banding2in diri sendiri hehehe.. Saking banding2in jd lupa sama prestasi diri sendiri, akhirnya patah semangat.. Padahal kalo dilihat2 kan sebenernya kita harus pd sama prestasi diri sendiri kaan.. Abis kalo kita nggak muji diri sendiri, siapa lagi Gar? :))))))))

  5. Senang bangat yach kalau ketemu teman lama.

    Liriknya keren yach walaupun nga familiar ama lagunya. Ada saatnya kita lembek dengan diri sendiri dan ada saatnya hrs keras dan ambisius. Kadang batas itu susah dipahami hehehe.. apaan sich bahasa gue.

  6. Ahh. Christa. Happy New Year.
    You really have great friends. No distance and culure would make you apart.

    And really love reading: just to be happy. Simple, powerful yet need strenght to achieve it.

    Hopefully, you can achieve it. Cheers.

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