already finding myself different from when I set my vision for 2024
THEME - creative inspiration
January was awfully and inadvertently busy, and it felt like 2023 was not quite done with me yet. There were projects from the previous year that felt they were loitering for the sake of lingering on. So, when February rolled around, I finally had a sense of a new beginning.
I felt energized and eager to take on new challenges, and in the heart of the exciting energy was creative inspiration.
GOALS - art class & certification
The goal I’m most proud of accomplishing was signing up for a minhwa art class. Minhwa is Korean folk art that originated from the Chosun Dynasty. It was created by traveling or unknown artists without formal training, capturing everything from everyday perspectives to mythology and symbolism. In modern days, the genre was overlooked by academic snobs who worshipped Western art traditions. It's only recently that it's garnering popularity and being reconsidered as a respectable traditional art form. I started attending one of the weekly group classes at a studio run by the renowned Indang @minhwagarden. Please check out her Instagram feed, bearing in mind that her feed features a lot of works by her students. It doesn't do justice to what a profoundly amazing artist she is.
This has been a game-changer for me. I love getting in the zone of flow while I color and paint. I become meditative and lose the sense of time. Indang also shares many legends, myths, and histories associated with the things we draw and the tools and materials we use. It’s a lesson of history, craftsmanship, heritage, culture, and society.
Also, I'm getting to know a lot of interesting local women artists in the area. These women are also teachers, business owners, homemakers, project managers, and executives of all sorts. I’m learning how to socialize with others, but also how to focus on my own world. I’m learning how to communicate, but also how to work in silence. I’m learning how to think, but also how to turn off my logical mind. I’m learning how to create and produce, but also how to enjoy the process of it. I’m learning how to be myself, but also how to stretch myself.
Taking this class is directly in line with one of my core values of creative expansion & sharing. This is my idea of resonant productivity.
I also earned PCC. This was my goal way back when I first began my coaching training nearly more than three years ago. Back then, I had no idea what or how long it would take. I grossly underestimated all the work, expertise, discipline and self-development required by this standard. Looking back, I really knew nothing.
But here I am. The process was rather simple since I had already fulfilled the majority of the requirements more than a year ago by earning CPCC from CTI. The only other requirements I had to meet were to accumulate an additional 300 hours under my belt, which took about a year, and then to take the written exam, which I just did. I was happy to find out that I scored much higher than when I took the same exam for ACC a year ago.
I finally feel like I’ve reached the minimum standard level of competency required as a professional coach and this is a monumental milestone that represents years of my sweat and tears. (And lots of money!)
HABITS - UNHEALTHY HICCUPS
February was marked by an unexpected health crisis. The three red vertical stripes in the tracker stand for the days during which I went for the annual physical exam and was knocked out by peritonitis immediately aftwards. I would never wish this condition on anyone because it comes with abdominal pain that is just excruciatingly debilitating.
Also, the test results have shown that I have a whole host of conditions that require immediate or ongoing attention. This is the first time my health check-up didn’t come out clean. Despite my futile effort to pinpoint a cause, the reality is that the body that I’ve got is finite and that after forty-something years of use, it’s beginning to show signs of deterioration. Life is forcing truth and wisdom down my throat. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but swallow with courage I did.
Sick or not, my dedication to driving habits in Feb was rather spotty. But, I don’t judge myself for it in any way because I gained a new perspective about my relationship with my own body - that I do not know anything about how to connect with my body - and it got me think about different ways of looking after it.
This perspective shift naturally influenced my outlook on life and career as well. My priorities have shifted. My vision and goals that I set earlier this year are not so relevant anymore. I am not the same person that I was two months ago. How am I different? Well, in a nutshell, I’m eager to make things happen and accomplish a lot in life, but I’m not at the same time. I’m hopeful, but I’m also letting go of all the expectations about what I should or could do with myself and with my life. I feel like I'm finally learning to ride the waves. I’m going with the flow.
VIBE
Dune Part 2 -This movie made me fall in love with going to the cinema again. I watched this movie in my neighborhood, and then shortly afterward, I drove to the city at 11PM on a weekday to watch it again on a big screen and it was totally worth it.
Downton Abbey S1-S5 rewatch - What can I say? It’s timeless.
Jjimjilbang - I just love bathing and sweating out so much. This is something I have to continue making conscious efforts for - carving out the time for more consciously so it becomes a habitual ritual. I also wish I could find fellow sweating & bathing enthusiasts around my age who are not shy about bonding over these raw activities.
The Season 6 of F1: Drive to Survive : Anticlimactic at best. 👎
16 Carriages & Texas Hold’Em - Only Beyonce can make me listen to & enjoy country music.
Hell’s Kitchen - The more I watch it, the more I admire the mentoring skills of Gordon Ramsey.
I'm not the same person as I was when I first set my vision for 2024. The definition of a meaningful life is constantly changing. I feel I'm keeping up with my own evolution, but also I'm getting behind and also I'm getting ahead all at the same time. And I'm totally okay with all of it.
Wanna chat about bullet journaling?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joonyoung Kim is a Productivity and Leadership Coach based in Korea. Through her private coaching program for women leaders Redesign Productivity, she shares her deep passion for helping women leaders rethink what being productive means so that they can spend their time and energy meaningfully to drive fulfillment and abundance in life and at work
She is one of the first Korean-English bilingual coaches in Korea to be certified by Leadership Circle Profile™, the most innovative 360° leadership assessment tool available in the market.
In addition to developing women leaders, she also partners with EZRA Coaching, Leadership Circle, and Coachdot as an executive coach and develops corporate leaders from diverse industries across APAC. She's certified by the International Coaching Federation, Co-Active Training Institute & Leadership Circle, and she coaches & trains in English or Korean on Zoom across time zones.
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