{"id":38863,"date":"2022-04-28T18:20:16","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T08:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jenkuo.com\/?p=38863"},"modified":"2023-05-25T20:31:53","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T10:31:53","slug":"2021-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jenkuo.com\/2021-review\/","title":{"rendered":"2021 Review: Realignment & Grounding"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Note<\/span>: My year runs from April to March. Each annual review can be found here: 2022<\/a>, 2021<\/a>, 2020<\/a>, 2019<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Overall Reflection<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

2021 was the year of realignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unknowns of what life was going to look like with the continuation of the pandemic, multiple lockdowns and restrictions presented the perfect opportunity to further ground myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I finally learned to really slow down<\/strong> after finding myself recovering from yet another burn out early in the year, realising that the marketing work I thought I wanted to do was not my path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the year I stopped being a “bulldozer”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stopped myself from getting caught in the hustle & grind energy that came from the insidious conditioning underpinning our society and culture \u2014 its never-ending thirst for “more, bigger, and faster”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had finally learned to let go of the toxic achievement mindset that has overshadowed my life by correcting my old habits of always wanting to mow down goals with intensity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I asked myself “Who am I becoming?”, the lesson from The Tortoise and the Hare kept surfacing in the corners of my mind…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Slow and steady wins the race.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

After watching Kung Fu Panda<\/a> (1, 2 & 3), it became clear to me that a version of Master Oogway<\/a> is someone I aspire to become, so I decided to adopt the tortoise as my spirit animal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The catalyst that helped me to continue to do the self work I needed was learning about my human design and finding out that I’m designed from birth as an Advisor<\/a>. Human Design<\/a> deepened my understanding of how I’m designed to best use my energy and operate in the material world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s the best body of work I’ve ever come across that gave me the knowledge I needed to really understand the core of “what” I am in the world. I was able to start understanding why I am the way I am, why I’ve done what I’ve done in the past, and what I can do to move through work and life with more ease, flow and abundance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because I was blown away by the accuracy, depth and nuances<\/strong> that no other personality assessment tools were able to provide me, I decided to study the BG5<\/a> Foundation Course in order to integrate this work into my own work for clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of being patient with myself, a new career and business direction has emerged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highlight of 2021<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

My self worth is no longer dependent on my achievements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I noticed that I don’t have anymore negative chatter in my head, and I’m not particularly worried or stressed about anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mind is at the quietest it’s ever been, and nothing is over-consuming my mental space. I’ve finally began to experience a sense of inner peace I’ve never experienced before and it feels amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel at peace just being<\/em> me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things To Celebrate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Optimal Mental & Emotional States<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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This is the domain of life I am most proud of. How I think, feel and relate to myself and others is at the healthiest it’s ever been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s unreal to see how far I’ve come, and witness how much I’ve changed as a person from the time I struggled with the idea of taking my own life in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mental and emotional tools were the core life skills I recognised I needed the most in order to live a quality, happy and fulfilling life. Coming into the realisation of the importance of self work over the years helped me see with crystal clear clarity that how I thought and how I felt about my experiences governed every domain of my life \u2014 health, love, work, finances, family, social life, and hobbies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developing these 2 core pillars of our human makeup, are the powerful interconnected Archimedes levers<\/strong> that either makes everything else in our lives better or worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn’t until I went through the pain of watching my entire life fall apart that I’ve come to recognise the importance of doing self work, and it has remained high on my priorities since my first wake up call in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I spent the year navigating the unknowns and uncertainty of what the pandemic brought, I was able to approach this somewhat heavy challenge of “figuring out what to do with my life” with a sense of lightness and joy, due to my much improved mental and emotional capacity<\/strong> to handle stress, frustrations and demoralising emotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though from the outside looking in, my life seems stationary (since nothing has materialised yet in the form of a career and business), there’s now a sense of stability I feel that helped me stay calm. The centeredness I feel is instilling the inner belief and trust in myself that everything will work out ok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Piano Practice is Back<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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In the beginning of the year, I committed to practicing the piano twice per week. Then something interesting happened 11 weeks into this new commitment…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. I found myself spending 90min per session.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the time I sat down at my keyboard, to when I caught a glimpse of the clock… I found myself saying “Whaaaat? It’s been 90mins already?!”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they say, time flies when you’re having fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. I found myself performing better in other domains in life.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playing the piano does multiple things for me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n