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span class="inline inline-right">Photo courtesy of Zivanna Letisha SiregarModel Zivanna Letisha Siregar is not just another pretty face. The 23-year-old holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Indonesia and has firm stances on various issues, including orangutan conservation and health issues.

As a youth ambassador for Yayasan Jantung Indonesia (Indonesian Heart Foundation), Zizi, short for Zivanna, is responsible for raising health awareness, especially related to heart disease, among young people in the country. The Jakarta native is also a spokesperson for USAID’s Orangutan Conservation Services program.

Zizi says that she is quite busy between her role as presenter for a new TV show on KompasTV and intensive rehearsals for Opera Batak, a musical based on Batak culture, which is set to run Sept. 1 to 2 at the Jakarta Convention Center in Central Jakarta.

Although her schedule is packed with tons of activities, Zizi says that she will never give up her personal time for reading. She says she is currently reading 18 Minutes: How to Find Your Focus, Master Distraction and Get the Right Things Done by Peter Bregman. She finds it as a good self-help book.

“I’m the kind of girl who is gets distracted easily. I also happen to be the kind of person who judges a book by its cover, so I usually am drawn to a book by the cover art, but when I start to read, I find a lot of good and meaningful stories,” says the 2008 Putri Indonesia beauty queen.

Besides the 18 Minutes, Zizi says that two of her all-time favorite books are The Secret by Rhonda Byrne and Negeri 5 Menara (Land of Five Towers) by Ahmad Fuadi.

18 Minutes: How to Find Your Focus, Master Distraction and Get the Right Things Done by Peter Bregman

This book emphasizes the power of pausing. In life, we are accustomed to moving forward, but at the same time we also get confused about which direction we are heading in. 18 Minutes tells us that, sometimes, we need to pause for a little while.

There’s a story in the book about a father and his child playing together in a pool. The father acts like a shark in hunting mode, while the kid is the prey. When the father is busy chasing after his child, the kid chokes on water and asks for a time-out.

The story is like an alert that if you can take a time-out during playtime, why don’t you apply it in your daily life? While we’re running around, why don’t we take a moment for a deep breath before we continue? We can start things new and fresh all over again.

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

The theories in this book about the power of positivity are well-written and are just true. I’ve also watched The Secret movie. So far, I’ve been applying the book’s theories on a daily basis, and I believe that they help us to continue working for what we desire.

One of the theories says that if you have a dream, visualize it, down to a detailed level. It’s like if you want a house very badly, put a picture of that dream house on your wall, and one day, you’ll get there. I practiced that exact thing years ago before I read the book.

Things that I have visualized have become realities. One of those things was to become Putri Indonesia.
I still remember that old paper where I wrote about my dreams, one that was on the list was becoming Putri Indonesia in 2008. I drew a crown on a piece of paper, and it truly happened.

Negeri 5 Menara by Ahmad Fuadi

It’s an inspiring novel and is full of dreams. The story is definitely a zero-to-hero type of story. In the book, there’s a group of young people who don’t really have any idea what they want to do but they promise each other to return and meet again at that exact place one day.

It is a good book for my morale.

 — Niken Prathivi