In other words, navigating my new normal
Today I purchased a bar of soap at a local grocery store. Not just any bar of soap — but a bar of the pure castile, “not tested on animals” kind.
This is clearly not the most mind-boggling or exciting fact in the world, but for me, it’s new. It’s different. It’s me venturing into something I don’t normally do — buying bars of soap. I’ve always been a body wash and loofah kind of girl, so the fact that I was even looking at soaps was a surprise even to me.
As I walked the beauty and bath aisles…
On being intentional with your time and other ways to become less distracted
Recently, I was roasted by my eight-year-old daughter.
While glancing at my computer screen one day, she saw that I had a lot of tabs opened on my browser. Now, if you know me well, you’d know that I have (what I consider) a major character flaw — I always have too many tabs open, because I always think, “I’m going to get to that eventually.” That ‘thing’ can be a video that I want to watch, a podcast I want to listen to, or a website with beautiful pictures that I can admire, or something related to a task…
On belief systems, identity and working your mind muscle
If you walk into the self-help section of any bookstore or library, you might come across a simple, bright cover book with an eye-popping word — “badass,” which might prompt you to stop and glance at it. The author, Jen Sincero, isn’t someone you’ve heard of. In fact, if it weren’t for the book You Are a Badass, and the two subsequent ones, you may never have heard about her at all!
In the mid-2000s, Jen Sincero was in her 40s living in a garage in Venice Beach, California when she realized that she had no money in her savings…
These are the most common traits that one should have
As someone who aspires to be an entrepreneur (or rather, work for myself), I’ve always been fascinated by people in business, technology, sports, entertainment, and/or creative industries who seem to embody the kind of personality that enables them to succeed. It wasn’t until I made a conscious effort to learn more about entrepreneurs from all types of industries that I soon realized how little I knew about the struggles of entrepreneurs.
To be an entrepreneur requires a lot more than a certain type of personality. It has very little to do with upbringing and more to do with persistence, passion…
A tale of some noodles that almost killed me
Recently, I realized that one of the most common things I do is also one of the greatest mysteries — eating spicy foods. Consider, for example, the following phrases:
Koreans are obsessed with spicy food. (Kimchi, anyone?)
Asians love to eat noodles.
Everything’s better with sriracha.
The first two are common stereotypes; the last one, I made up.
On a fourth season episode of the TV show Kim’s Convenience, titled “Chammo,” Kimchee Han, played by Andrew Phung, stakes his ability to eat the spiciest foods ever. During a scene, he discovered his coworkers had given another coworker, Terrence, the nickname…
“The process of changing your habits is the process of rewriting your story.”
The late basketball player Wilt Chamberlain once said, “Everything is habit-forming, so make sure what you do is what you want to be doing.” There’s no time when that’s truer than right now, in the dark days of January, when many of us are beginning to work on New Year’s Resolutions — things like Dry January, working out, eating better, etc.
Many of us were forced to change our habits when the pandemic happened. As a result, our view of the world and of ourselves changed. For the past nine months, I’ve been running. It started with several days a…
It’s not something you’re born with — it’s something you work towards
Have you ever sat on the bleachers at a baseball game, with great anticipation rising up in your chest as you watch a player slide into home base? Or sat at a basketball game and watch with awe as a player dunks the ball into the hoop? Or be mesmerized when you’re listening to a violin player at an orchestra? Or be completely blown away when you’re watching a gymnast fly through the air faster than you can say “cheese”?
These all appear to be great feats done by superhumans who possess a certain skill or talent. …
Here’s my recap of the takeaways that you can apply to your own life
NOTE: Earlier this week, I shared a personal reflection of how 2020 has been for me. Today, I wanted to share some important lessons that I’ve learned in the past five months of writing my newsletter, Little Tidbits, and how it can be applied to all aspects of your life.
I’m not the first to say this, but it’s been a tough year. With new restrictions lately, it feels like Quarantine 2.0 to me, a deja vu. I was looking forward to a more “normal” holiday experience, where people can go places and enjoy some festivities together. …
Reflections on a tumultuous and exciting year
This morning, I checked my email and saw a phrase I’ve never heard before. The writer and creator of Ness Labs, Anne-Laure Le Cunff, said in her recent newsletter, “This year was both the slowest and the fastest of my life. Some parts feel like a blur, others feel like they lasted forever.” The statement couldn’t be truer for me. For many of us, 2020 is the year where nothing happened according to plan.
I began 2020 with vacation plans. Normally, I take awhile to decide on a location and plan it down with precision. However, I decided in January…
It starts with changing the way you think
“Happy lives are not stress-free, nor does a stress-free life guarantee happiness.” — Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D, health psychologist
Several months into the pandemic, in mid-August, I found myself having a rather stressful week. My husband was working overtime that week and was gone six days out of seven. I had a job interview in the middle of the week that failed miserably when my kids decided to pound their fists outside my bedroom door as if the house were on fire (apparently, you can only hide from your kids for about fifteen minutes), causing such a ruckus that I had…
Hoang Samuelson
Editor @ BooknBrunch. Writer who focuses on Asian American identity, language & culture; occasionally business and finance. More at hoangsamuelson.com
