When I was young, every time when teachers asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, I felt like a failure for not being able to come up with an”answer” that really fires me up. My eyes were wide in admiration when I see my classmates rose and spoke with a dose of certainty of who they wanted to, and probably will become 10-20 years later. Call me rigid, but this question keeps popping up from the back of my mind every once in a while since then.
I do have many passions though, which when I look back, they can all be categorised under the “Personal Growth & Development” category. Since I’m interested in helping people grow professionally, it made sense for me to start my career in Human Resources and spent a decade on both the demand and supply side of talents.
My first 5 years was very exciting and fruitful, at least on the surface. As a Corporate Management Trainee at an International Hospitality Group, I got lots of exciting project exposures, working with brilliant people around the world and across various fields. I gave it all in, and my hard work was rewarded with 3 promotions in 5 years. But stress accumulated, together with inhumane workload and hours, challenges and responsibilities that were way beyond what I could handle, I started to question what positive impact could I bring to the world if I continue to work like this.
Inside, I feel depleted, torn, numb, and utterly lost. Is that all that is for life??
There is such a huge contradiction for Human Resources Professionals that, we are working for the benefits of the employees on one level, but we are expected to focus on protecting the business ‘s revenue and interests, which sometimes it could mean going against the people. There were times that I’m forced to make perfectly logical “business decisions” that were actually unethical and unfair to my value standard. This internal value conflict was particularly torturing to me, because, no matter what “hat” I was wearing at any given moment, I just cannot do things that go against my core values as a human being.
My Quarter-Life Crisis
You must have heard of that Dec 21, 2012, was supposed to be “the end of the world” according to the Mayan Calendar. So if things remained unchanged, on the “doomsday” I could see myself sitting at my desk working on those tedious, meaningless spreadsheets till 11 pm; and on my last breath, what I could do might just be glancing out of the window from 60/F and say goodbye to this suffocating city Hong Kong. This mental image was so depressing and frightening to me that eventually at age 27, few months before Dec 2012, I decided to take a career break to find out what I should do with my life.
And I had no plan of what’s next, yet.
In Chinese, it’s called “naked resignation”, which refers to those who quit without another job offer on hands. As you can imagine that brought some hassle to those around me. And that was the first time I realised resignation can indeed be “rejected”! I told the Director that I did not want to be in Human Resources anymore. She screamed at me: “Then what ELSE CAN you do? Be a programmer and join an IT startup?! Come on, be realistic, girl! Go take a vacation and come back to work! ” I was furious – not to her but to that limiting worldview. Just because I worked in a field for 5 years then I become “destined” to a profession ??! This is such a humiliation to human potentials.
Since then, I have decided not to conform to the BS rules that the society places on us to define my future anymore. There must be a better way. My Way.
Soon after that, I made a decision to fully utilise my sabbatical to experience something new and meaningful. I heard an inner calling telling me to organise a Service Trip to India and Nepal, so I started finding companions from random forums. Eventually, a total of 8 of total strangers who met online from Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong spent one month in India & Nepal spreading love and warmth to several local villages.
Their smiles were priceless!
Praying for World Peace at the Peace Tower, Pokhara, Nepal
That 1-month service trip was definitely a life-changing experience. After many reflections and cultural stimulation, I had the below epiphanies:
- People living in the villages do not have many resources, but they are always so happy with broad smiles. Happiness can be very simple.
- If I cannot explain how I can add value and help people in less than 3 sentences, my work might not be that utterly meaningful to the human race. Like I had the challenge to explain to the village people that why there is such a job category called Human Resources in the first place. Human is not “resources”!!!
- The core reason for my job dissatisfaction stemmed from the mindset that I had “delegated” my personal career development plan to my employers. So if we take back the control of career development, instead of waiting for parents, teachers, counsellors, bosses or even the government to tell us what we should do, we are in the driver seat of our future.
My Coaching Journey
My new discovery prompted me to share these ideas with others – how I wished someone has told me earlier! I also figured out that my greatest passion and job satisfaction comes from helping people to bring out their best, which is coaching! Moreover, my amiable personality, my quiet and attentive nature, and my strengths in connecting the dots and seeing the unique qualities in each person empowers me in becoming an outstanding coach when I have the proper training and practice.
So that was what brought me into Career Coaching since 2013, starting out as a career advisor at a University, and later on going solo and expanded my services to mid-career individuals.
That was also when I started experimenting with Human Design in my own life, and eventually get trained to become a Human Design specialist.
As my coaching evolves, now I think I’m ready to step up and spread the message to a larger audience. This website is just a starting point.
It is my life purpose, and calling, to empowers you to find yours, so you can thrive and be your best. Together, we can contribute to the greater good and make positive impacts to the humanity. I believe I can inspire others by my stories, my message, and my real actions. I have taken my life as an experiment, so you can skip some of yours when we share and learn from each others’ experiences!
