Happy New Year, Everyone! 🎁
2020, what a year, tough and special. If I could pick three words to describe my year, they would be grateful, self-exploring and productive (my content).
There are so many things that I feel grateful for, to name a few:
The city: Adelaide, Australia.
My job. Thanks to my lovely colleagues. Our daily WFH check-ins really helped.
The support from my family and friends, and the new friends I made online, primarily through LinkedIn.
My home alone time, which allowed me to explore myself further. Invaluable.
The video that my company made for me
What about my reflections? Here we go 😊
11 things that I’ve learned
1. Good tiny habits can go a long way
These are five things that I tried and found very helpful:
Allocate the first 90 minutes of the day to do the things that matter to my dreams the most.
Write morning pages (three pages of longhand, a stream of consciousness writing) and daily plan as the first things for my day.
Put my phone away while working.
Set up the tomato timer (work for a 25-minute block then have a 5-minute) when completing my tasks - such a procrastination killer, especially when writing my blog post.
Weekly meal prep
2. The importance of investing yourself in mentoring/coaching
I’ve always heard of it from books and podcasts, but I’ve never tried it until this year. It was amazing:
1) The coaching sessions that I had with Corrine really changed my mindset.
For example, I used to care too much about others’ thoughts about my content (I still have a big room to improve, getting there). I would get upset easily when my work didn’t get many likes or comments. Corrine made me realise that everyone has a different taste, which we cannot control. Therefore, we just need to strive to do our best, because our competitor should always be ourselves.
2) Attending sessions hosted by Kristina Karlsson taught me the importance of focusing on progress instead of perfection. It was a great reminder whenever I posted my content (my perfectionist side was too strong). Remember: it's always better to have something completed than undone. Also, I like the lovely community space she created. We shared our wins, dreams and struggles, which kept reminding me to dream big. Thanks!
3) Esther, my media coach, taught me many tricks about storytelling and how to make a better podcast.
3. Always think of a win-win situation and offer help to others
When I first met Julien, a friend and mentor of mine, I simply asked him if there was anything that I could support him. He then got back to me, and I became a part of his experimental mentoring project. In return, I got to know myself better. Later on, he offered me a paid storyteller opportunity, which became one of my best-unexpected surprises this year, forever grateful 😊
Also, by contributing, you become happier. For instance, I was invited to share my storytelling tips with other international students and immigrants at a session hosted by the City of Sydney council (thanks to Marcel). It was unpaid, but the positive feedback that I received from attendees made me fulfilled. We all want to add values to this world.
4. Be proactive to find your community
Whenever I saw people that I didn’t know who liked my post on LinkedIn, I would approach them. I found it was a great way to network and meet like-minded people. Also, joining the groups that interested me after researching (yes, we do need to do some work) helped too. This year I joined: Kensington & Norwood Writers' Group, Australia China Women's Network for a while (produced content and hosted a zoom event), and a story-sharing community group.
5. Be mindful about the energy that you receive when doing things or interacting with people
Some important questions that you can ask yourself are:
“What do I feel? Do I feel happy?”
For me, whenever I hosted a cultural sharing session or conducted an interview, I would feel very energised afterwards, which was a good indication. Life is short, so be selective. Give your time to the people and things that you truly love.
6. The power of sharing and listening
When shared my passions with others, I started to get opportunities that I’ve never expected before.
For example, when I shared with Marcel about the things that I am interested in, I got asked by him if I wanted to be a guest speaker for his Zoom public event.
Through doing my own podcast, I got a deeper understanding of the power of listening too. Many of my guests were very appreciative of me allowing them to share their stories by simply being there and listening. That reinforced me again: living in the moment and letting another person know that I see you and I hear you.
7. The magic of creating your happiness list
What makes you happy? Some items on my list are culture, learning, nature, music and exploring new things. Therefore, whenever I wanted to add some fun to my life, I would try a new restaurant or do something that I’ve never done before.
8. The importance of exploring yourself
Knowing my strengths, what makes me happy and what triggers gave me more insights about my values, passions and helped me to have a better relationship with others too.
For example, thinking of my past, especially my childhood made me realise: “Ah, I’ve always been a storyteller.” Also, thanks to these two books below, which sped up my progress:
9. Batch things together
It can be replying emails or messages at some certain time. A good time saver.
10. If you don’t ask, you’ll never get
I am glad I became braver to ask and try. You always have 50% of chance to succeed, very appealing, hey? Also, if you didn’t try, you might linger around later, thinking about the classic “what if” questions.
For instance, for a quiz session that I hosted for our students, I just asked my manager if we could have a prize for the winner, and I got a “yes”.
11. Just do it, and a lot of things may not as hard as you expected
For me, that was writing my first 10 songs, my second poem and the first review for WeekendNotes. Just trust your inner creativity. As Julien Cameron said, you just need to take care of the quantity and let the universe take care of the quality. I still can’t believe I wrote this poem below for only 10 minutes. A great achievement for me, haha 😊
The top 3 favourite new things that I tried
This year, I realised I’ve tried many new things, which gave me enormous joy. You can find some in the photo below.
But among all these more than 20 things, my top 3 are:
Zumba
Tree climbing
Improvisational
The most challenging and rewarding decision that I’ve made
My own podcast
To be very honest with you, the idea had never occurred to me, because I was too scared. But now I am so glad that I did it. You could find out more about my thought process from my blog post here or watch this video regarding my motivation and some highlights for my first interview:
My top 3 highlights
1. Feeling the power and joy from my content
The interview I had with Chris, a Filipino chef and owner, is a great example. Initially, I just wanted to take some photos in his restaurant. Then I was asked by a waitress if I wanted to interview him. So in the end, I discovered a very inspiring story, and this is the email I received from him after sending him my writeup.
I got so touched. It's like an affirmation message to me: I do have the ability. Also, it gave me so much meaning to the things that I am doing. Finally, I started to use and develop my potential/talents :)
So everyone, never underestimate what your passion.
2. WOMAdelaide
To be surrounded by music, arts and dance in this award-winning festival made my soul so delighted. Guess what, I even got the ticket for free from my dear radio station Radio Adelaide.
3. Got paid as a storyteller (thanks to Julien)
Being the only Asian speaker and combining some Chinese and songs to this session was so much fun. My speaker side seemed to start to show up.
Looking ahead, is there anything that I want to tell myself now?
Yes. In 2021, I hope you keep chasing your wildest dreams and being authentic, open-minded and courageous. Embrace every moment of your life, continue to try new things, sharing your natural gifts and sending more love, joy and positivity to this world. To the things I haven’t tried, places I haven’t been to and friends I haven’t met, I am coming.
All the best to you too in 2021. Keep shining! Leave a comment below for your reflections in 2020. I would love to hear too :D
