Forget a mediocre job. Live your dream life doing what you LOVE, being who you were created to be!
A year ago, I was a young working professional about 2.5 years into corporate life.
At that time, I was still trying to figure out how I can build a career doing what I’m passionate about, but I didn’t know what that would look like and where to even start.
I was struggling with feeling like I was wasting the prime years of my life building someone else’s dream, but I didn’t feel confident enough to go after my own dreams.
I was living for the weekends.
It was like I was having a midlife crisis, but I was only 24!
I had officially hit the quarter-life crisis WALL.
I was miserable because I knew I didn’t want to stay where I was at, but I had NO IDEA what I needed to do to get out of there!
Do you ever feel like you are constantly stuck in the sidelines as you watch other people go do great things in life?
Have you ever thought to yourself, ‘there HAS to be more to life than this!’?
Well if you have, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Well, actually 3 to be exact.
It was definitely an ugly cry.
I was at my church’s prayer night and I just broke down bawling because I was so frustrated with my life.
You see, I grew up checking all the boxes of being a typical good Asian American daughter:
But do you ever feel like you are stuck at a good job…?
So there, I was, on a Wednesday night, crying because the future of the path I was currently on seemed so suffocating.
Then, as if by chance, something AMAZING happened.
I ran into an old friend who told me he was doing career coaching!
I immediately told him, “I need your help.”
Amazingly, after only few sessions, I became crystal clear on what my next action steps were.
Before working with a coach, I was struggling with a jumble of thoughts on possible career options. I was on page 20 of Glassdoor, trying to figure out which job out there best matches my resume. But I realized that’s the WRONG, possibly the WORST way to go about a job search when you feel lost.
Here’s 3 things you need to start doing NOW to find the right path for you:
Through working with a coach, I learned a step-by-step process to evaluate which career paths best align with my strengths and goals.
Despite feeling lost and discouraged for MONTHS previously, I finally knew exactly what I needed to do to move forward in the right direction.
1st lesson learned: Talking to a coach who can help you right where you are at will save you months or maybe even YEARS of trying to figure things out on your own.
This was my plan:
After working with a career coach, I realized entrepreneurship was something that best aligned with my strengths and my life goals. (I didn’t know what kind of business yet, but I just knew I wanted to be my own boss one day!)
My first plan of action was to reach out to everyone I knew who were young successful entrepreneurs for quick informative phone calls.
One of the people I reached out to was a friend who’s the same age as me, but had started his entrepreneurship journey many years before me, and had built a successful digital marketing agency.
He saw the spark of ambition and determination I had, and believed in me. He became my first entrepreneurship/mindset coach, and we started hoping on weekly phone calls.
This was when I started to get MOMENTUM in turning my dream into a reality!
At that time, I was working as an Account Executive at a big media company. I was doing over $1 million in media sales per year, and I was veryyy busy, doing overtime to keep up with all my client accounts. I felt like I NEVER had time for myself. After coming home and eating dinner, I was just too tired to do anything…
But during one of our calls, my coach friend told me this one thing that shifted my mindset: “Use your 9-5 to pay the bills, and your 5-9 to build your dream.”
This inspired me so much, and knowing that I would be hoping on a call with him every week to keep him updated, I immediately started TAKING ACTION.
I started waking up at 5AM to use that extra time in the morning to research different business models, journal, and set goals.
I started bringing my laptop to work, and during lunch breaks, I would be reading case studies, and then after work, instead of going home, I would sit at a coffee shop to work on building my dream.
2nd lesson learned: Mindset is everything! Commit to make time for the things that matter.
Then this happened:
After a few months of first working with a coach/mentor, I had launched my first e-commerce business!
I was working on it for few months while I was still working my full time, but after saving up enough money to last me at least 6-12 months (frugally), I quit my 9-5, and moved out of LA to go live in Canggu, Bali (AKA the best hub for digital nomads! I met some of the most inspiring young, successful entrepreneurs there!)
After just 1 month of being in Bali, I became a Lady Boss Speaker and I spoke on the topic of being “Authentically You In Whatever You Do.” (Which was an incredible personal achievement because public speaking used to be one of my biggest fears!!).
Everyday, I couldn’t believe that THIS was now my reality!
I was just so proud of myself that instead of complaining about my job, I did something about it.
I took a “I want to…” to an “I did.”
Yup. You’ve read it. It was going great, until it wasn’t…
I was making money online, I was living in Bali, even made money while I was traveling in Singapore, and life seemed great, right?
Wrong. First year of entrepreneurship and trying to build my dream life was NOT easy.
My first e-commerce store failed. I started a business that I realized I couldn’t really relate to, and I didn’t have a clear vision for.
I was selling dog clothes online when I’ve never been a dog owner myself.
I gave a whole talk for Lady Boss about being authentic in whatever you do, but I felt like I wasn’t being authentic with my own business, so it made me back away from my own store to reevaluate what it is I actually want to build here.
3rd lesson learned: Spend time getting to know what your long-term vision in life is, and what your ultimate mission and purpose is FIRST before you just jump in and do a crazy life change.
The good thing about failures:
Failures are like data points that point you in the right direction.
Under the stress of trying to figure out what my next business move should be, I reached out to couple mentors and close friends. In the process, I asked myself these three questions:
Once I was able to better understand what kind of IMPACT I want to make in this world, it became like a compass to check if my business/career is going in the right direction or not!
Pulling together all the things about who I am, what my purpose is, and what my strengths are, I started sharing more of my thoughts and the things I’ve been learning in my journey on social media to encourage other people. I just leaned in to the thing that felt most authentic to me and started unofficially coaching people to help them just like how many coaches I’ve worked with have helped me.
I LOVED coaching people so much and I started to see amazing life transformations in those I coached!
Fast forward to now, though it sounds crazy to me, since then…
What my previous clients say about their experience working with me!
Testimonials Continued!!
My gift to you:
