The Question Of What’s Next

As immigrants to this country, my parents had to work hard and maintain a laser focus and dedication to make it. It makes sense that they passed down these values to their kids, values of never giving up, giving 100% to our efforts (or don't bother), and being serious about what we do. As a result, I developed an avoidance of dabbling, because dabbling seemed wasteful.

So I've been working on commitmentless exploration. A few years ago, I started ukulele lessons. I bought a tenor Ko'Olau ukulele that is way above my skill level, and learned some chords and a few songs. The next year, having not practiced at all for the previous 10 months, I was starting over. Now in my third year, it's taken discipline not to give up based on my completely unserious study, but it's been fun to just be a semi-permanent novice.

Another time I took a stand-up comedy class, which is scariest thing I've ever tried. The week before the final "graduation" performance, I had an existential crisis, but told myself I would get up there even if it meant standing there for 4 minutes in silence. In retrospect, silence might actually have been profoundly funny. By performance night I had some stuff, and got some laughs. It's true that the audience got explicit instructions to laugh loudly and a lot, but it still felt good.

Getting certified as a coach admittedly started as a curious dabble, on the encouragement from a friend who is also a coach. But, big reveal, this was the proverbial lightbulb moment. Accidental wanderings somehow landed me in the exact right place. I love lateral thinking, exploring a world of what-if, asking fun and deep questions, and daydreaming ideas into reality. (Even as a kid my friends always wondered, where did THAT come from? what if we recreated Shakespeare's Twelfth Night as a puppet show set to the soundrack of Footloose for example, where "Almost Paradise" is the song for the final scene?)

As a coach, all of these can work in perfect synergy to help people who are wanting to leave the status quo. Whether that's pursuing a level-up, a new gig, or retirement like me, helping others shift into a different gear while being my authentic self is a beautiful alignment, and one that I intend to nurture for years to come.