“Life is a journey and everybody has their own path, some follow others and some make their own. In each and every step we make, we learn.”
This is my journey trying to make my own path through its ups and down but I am sure I still have wonderful journey ahead. I hope by sharing my story, I can motivate and inspire others.
My name is Irene Ridjab and I am a mom with fabulous husband and children. I have some businesses that I manage so I am an entrepreneur as well. My life so far is hectic and everyday is a challenge for me to balance life between family, work and travel, social life, spiritual life and hobby (if possible). Before going further, I’d like to share some information about myself.
Since I was a little girl, people knew me as an introvert and straightforward person. Being an introvert, I didn’t have many friends but some best friends whom I was very closed with. Friends, who were not known me personally, saw me as uptight, rigid and sometimes arrogant person. Funny enough, how people can perceive us differently than we thought we really are. Well, I would say I did the same thing with some people too.
During my school years, I fell in love with sports. I would say it’s like my first love. I played softball, basketball, badminton and some others. My fondness with sports was not only for the game itself but also challenging myself to become a winner. Sometimes I won and sometimes I lost but the process to become the winner was the thing I appreciated the most. That’s why I think, after many sport competition, it did sharpen my competitive skills to be strong and determined person. I also found sport as my stress relieves. It worked very well to release all negative energy and helped me through my teenage years.
As people said first love never dies, it also applied to my sports activities. During my university years, a friend of mine took me to a gym. I liked it instantly and I want to create my own perfect body as my goal. Easy enough to say but practically it wasn’t run as smooth as I want, maybe because I have no high discipline in exercise, not doing any good diet, lack of knowledge in sport tools so it is just like my on and off activities.
Then my “Pursue Career” begins, I focused on my career path from fresh graduate to professional expertise. My personality, being an introvert, straightforward, strong and determined person, helped me to achieve high position in multinational companies that I have worked with. Sadly enough, the impact of having high pressure in works and demanding time on travelling made me less often going to the gym.
I was fortunate to open my own business after several years working with others. My first business was a travel agent and I had zero background in this business. Many people gave negative input due to my lack of knowledge and expertise but it didn’t stop me at all, instead it’s just triggered my determination to prove that they were wrong. I realized that the more people doubt me, the more effort I do to make it happen.
As you know, travel agent business is about serving people and I found it difficult because it’s contrary with my personality. Then I decided to open myself, learn to humble and compassionate to others like my staff and of course, my clients. To tell you the truth, I felt awesome.
Now I am 44 years old and I have more businesses to handle not only domestically but also internationally. This requires me to travel more often than before and it breaks my heart to be away from my children. Thanks to my loving husband who always support and remind me of the value of life. He also reminds me to take good care of myself so I will be able to take care of others.
It’s never too late to start something good so my first step of taking good care of myself is living a healthy life. Now I am questioning myself, have I lived a healthy life so far? Well, I have to answer with “NO”.
Being highly active above 40 makes me realize that living healthy life is not an option but necessity. So I made my decision and put challenge to myself by setting a goal to achieve perfect body in 6 (six) months by exercising more and eating healthy foods.
This won’t be easy but one thing for sure, it’s not impossible to achieve. I know with love and support from my husband and children, nothing is too difficult to deal with. For some people, my goal might sound simple and easy but no matter how simple it sounds, the most important is to put your passion in it. I am passionate to achieve my goal and I’d like to share this process with others especially women with similar background. I believe I will learn something during the process and hope you will too.
Welcome to my journey……