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A few of you may know, I have been studying Korean for the past few months - for a total of 24 hours. This doesn’t seem much, so I fished out my 10,000 hour tracker, which is based on the idea that it takes 10,000 hours to achieve mastery of a subject. (There’s an interesting video from Veritasium on the ‘4 things it takes to be an expert’ that explains this further).

With this new tracker, my goal is to finish 1 page - 100 hours, and shade in a square for each hour that I studied for, and then eventually reaching 300 hours, which should be enough to get me to pass any basic level tests.

Why am I studying Korean?

Korean is quite similar to Chinese and English, as it borrows a lot of sounds and words from both languages. This makes it easier for me to quickly understand and learn Korean, as soon as I put in the hours. Despite translation being so easy nowadays, I wanted to practice learning a new skill and challenge myself to master a third language.

As we enter the new year, I have been reviewing my systems and monthly plans, reflecting on how I can improve them in order to make life more of a breeze. I find that creating systems in business enhances operational efficiency and provides structure for smooth delivery of services, which applies directly to personal life as well. My systems (like when to get groceries) help my ‘auto-pilot system’ work for me, rather than against me, as I settle into the little rhythms of life.

It’s easy to forget all the things that happened in the past year, but I cannot fail to mention that vision boards really do work their magic. It’s not an over exaggeration to say that I am able to achieve 98% of what I put on my vision board. Shout out to Shivani Gupta for encouraging me to make one in the first place!

After 3 different versions of vision boards, I have settled into a format that works best for me:

An example of a theme for me is ‘Why not?’. The essence of this is whenever I have an idea, inspiration, opportunity, I say ‘Why not?’ and go ahead with one action that allows that idea to become a reality. For example, ‘What if I listened to music for 30min every day?’ —> ‘Why not?’. The idea is that even if I feel anything but excitement and possibility towards something, I allow myself to be in a state of openness, and just see what happens. I delay judgement of ‘whether something is possible or not’ to after I tried it. It’s much more encouraging and satisfying, as I let go of my own limiting beliefs of what I can or cannot do.

The magical thing about vision boards is when something comes true without my direct action. For example: it ‘just so happens’ that I walk into a temple that looks exactly like the one I put on my vision board.

The other big change that I made is in regards to something that has bothered me for quite a while - stomach and gut problems. I finally booked a consultation with a Nutritionist and Dietician, and did a comprehensive gut microbiome test to show me the exact balances of bacteria strains in my gut. I admit that I had to take the leap in trusting someone else to know what’s going on in my body and really lean in to one of my affirmations “Trust is conditional; people earn my trust, and I earn theirs as well. I can give trust to different people in different areas of my life”.

This step forward has proved worthwhile, and turns out the ‘problem’ was easily fixable, as it only involves supplements and minor changes to bring the microbiome back into balance. For this reason, I highly recommend anyone to seek professional help if there’s anything that feels ‘off’ in the body. In the long run, the investment to maintain good health is worth it!

Podcast: Friend Forward - Danielle Bayard Jackson, Female Friendship Expert

Book: The Magic of Thinking Big - David J. Schwartz

Tools: Orange Juicer - Fluicer by Dreamfarm

Music: Italian Vibes playlist

“What’s been your biggest win this month?” - let me know by replying to this email!

Since this is the first issue, I’ll keep it short. Thanks for reading until the end.

Wishing you all the best until next time.

Kind regards,

Kate

P.S. My favourite thing about you is {{ My favourite thing about you is | your smile }}