Life In Limbo

Inspiration | September 5

September 5, 2014

I became absolutely obsessed with the idea of having a capsule wardrobe this week. There are two really simple, beautiful ones from Unfancy – for Spring and for Summer.

I loved this article from Garance Doré. “We have to be careful not to project our own dreams of success on the people around us. True success is knowing who you really are and your own definition of success.”

A pretty awesome list of book recommendations from the Coaches Training Institute.

Speaking of book recommendations, the answers to this question on Quora about what smart and successful people read are so great, and I especially liked this answer in particular. Side note: I really love Quora, my weekly email from them is always full of such interesting questions I almost always click through to read some of the answers.

More beautiful quotes + photos from Shutterbean. I want to frame at least two in this series so far.

Serving people is your purpose.

I discovered Your Courageous Life this week and I love her posts.

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I’m off to Seoul for the long weekend! It’s Chuseok, aka Korean Thanksgiving, so I have a 5 day weekend ahead of me, which is so lovely. I’m looking forward to the break, especially after the crazy month that was August. We are going to the DMZ, and then hopefully just wandering around, eating some falafel, reading a lot of books, and relaxing. I really like Seoul (I’ve been twice already this year) and I’m looking forward to my time there. Since it’s a holiday, I probably won’t be posting until later next week when I get back. Enjoy your weekends!

Free Wallpaper Download: Stephen Covey Quote

September 4, 2014

I’m about halfway through my time in Korea, which means that lately I’ve been starting to think more about the future – what I’ll do when I’m done here and beyond. When I arrived in Korea for my “year abroad”, I had a plan for afterwards that I was totally 100% sure of – or so I thought. Being here, I’ve met a lot of really great people who are inspiring me to think bigger and consider what it is I really want. What I know for sure is that I’ve been really enjoying the expat lifestyle, and the opportunities that I’ve been able to explore and pursue in my free time here.

It’s really exciting to think about all the possibilities for what I could do next. That idea used to really scare me, but these days it doesn’t scare me quite as much. I’ve gained a lot of confidence in myself by making the decision to come here and thrive. Over the past few days, I’ve been reading The Success Principles by Jack Canfield and he talks a lot about dreaming really big. In the spirit of that idea, this quote, which I also found recently, is an excellent reminder that my future can look however I want it to. It’s all up to me, an idea which is both overwhelming and empowering.

As I’m daydreaming about my next steps, I decided to make a wallpaper with this quote to inspire me daily. If you’d like a copy to dress up your own computer desktop this month, you can download it at the link below. Enjoy!

Download the wallpaper here

You can also find all my previous wallpaper downloads here.

24 Before 24: Get a Manicure

September 3, 2014

I have never been much of a nail person. In fact, I’m probably about the furthest thing from a nail person – I’ve always been a horrible nail biter. It’s a habit I want to quit, so that’s why “get a manicure” made it onto my 24 list. It was there to represent the fact that I’d stopped biting my nails, at least long enough for them to grow out to an acceptable manicure length. I also wanted to see what it would be like to have a manicure in Korea, the land of perfect nails.

Turns out, getting a manicure in Korea is not as simple as back home. Nail shops are regularly staffed with two or more ladies who tend to sit around on their phones when the shops are empty, as they often are. But if you walk in during one such time, as my friends and I did at a half dozen (empty) places one Sunday morning, they frown and say that you need an appointment. Or if only one of them is doing nails and the other two are just sitting around – still, you need an appointment. Many places seem to only take one customer at a time, one per hour regardless of their number of employees, so it’s really a wonder there are as many studios in business as there are. This is one of the things I don’t quite understand about Korea.

However! After learning my lesson, I dropped by a nail studio in the lobby of my old apartment building on my way to work the other afternoon and made an appointment for a few hours later. Happily, the girl at the place I chose was friendly and welcoming and when I went back I had no idea I’d be in for such a treat. I asked my good friend and fashionista Adrienne for nail colour advice (I believe I said “what nail trend is really hot right now?!”) and she gracefully acquiesced. For my $15, I got the whole shebang – cuticle care, a hand massage, nail colour, and then free star decals! I don’t love them, but my nail artist liked me and wanted to give them to me for free and who was I to say no!?

We actually had a lot of fun, despite the language barrier. She and I listened to some Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift on my phone (after I found out she liked them), and spoke some broken English to each other; she also gave me a plate of noodles to eat and started following me on Instagram. For a nail newbie, it was pretty much the best manicure ever.

And I’m very happy with the results! I love the colour, could do without the decals, and am really pleased that I managed to grow out my nails to the point where they look nice. I never thought I was capable of having nails that looked pretty – I thought they just didn’t grow properly. Luckily I was wrong, and I’m looking forward to treating myself to manicures in the future. I might just be a nail person after all!

How To Have Deeper Connections

September 2, 2014

Over on the podcast this week, Laura and I are talking about having deeper connections and more meaningful conversations with people.

The episode was inspired by this article about changing small talk into smart conversations, and this article on how to be polite. I for one, absolutely hate small talk. I’d much rather be in a corner somewhere reading my book than have to grasp at straws for conversation topics or talk about the weather. When I meet people that I can sense are kindred spirits, I’m usually a bit too enthusiastic to start talking to them about heartier topics.

In first year when I first met one of my closest friends, I’d only known her a few days before I sat down on her bed and asked her what she thought the meaning of life was. It’s a bit embarrassing now, but at the time all I knew was that my brain was starved of meaningful conversations after days of nothing but small talk, so the question just came out without me even thinking. Of course, she took it in stride and we’ve had plenty of deep (and shallow) conversations since.

I’m just like that – for better or for worse, I always try to take things to a deeper level. Sometimes it can get heavy, but most of the time it’s just comforting to talk about real feelings and hopes and goals with people that I trust. I don’t have a huge number of friends, but I am so lucky in that I know I could call any of the ones I do have right now and launch into some deep conversation and they’d be right there with me the whole time. The people I’m blessed to know have depth and layers and are able to really engage.

Since coming to Korea, it’s been great to know that I can form meaningful friendships on my own outside of university. That might seem like a “duh” statement, but to me it never felt like a sure thing. But being here, I’ve made some really true friends I’m able to talk to as if I’ve known them forever. It’s a pretty beautiful thing.

In the episode we talk about how to have more meaningful conversations, how to foster deeper connections with strangers, and how to take your friendships to another level. You can listen to the episode and find out more here.