ON TEAM
Habit 1: Setting the ‘keywords’ for the team development for the whole year – what works, what doesn’t work, and what’s next in 2024
Setting the ‘keywords’ for the whole year's development of the team helped us direct our whole year's activities. Our keywords are ‘total immersion’, ‘internationalization’, and ‘maturity’.
Our team is young and all of our projects are related to foreign partners and significant stakeholders in the ecosystem, like Ministries or World or UNESCO; so these keywords help us direct our experiences during the year to meet the requirements when working with these partners. We worked with 3 residents of experts coming from the USA this year, thanks to SwissEP; we also welcomed almost 10 different partners to visit our co-working space and interact with our startups. Our team, with people aged 20, works with people at the age of 50s, 60s, 70s. We also company our startups and trained coaches in Ho Chi Minh, Danang, Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, and Phu Tho; all to other countries: China (thanks to Dr Hung - RPMEC, MsC Thong – VKTech), Japan (thanks to our partner E-Future), Korea (thanks to Hanoi government, AIT Vietnam, BambuUP). We have spoken to audiences from more than 30 countries at different international events, thanks to Dr Vikas – University of Birmingham.
The other side of that is I fell too much into it, and the time spent on packaging our values and then commercializing it so little. This became addictive somehow in which I was not mindful enough when working with partners, thanks to their kindness to tolerate us. We did one event in Ho Chi Minh and I was not mindful regarding the logistics, thanks to our partner Thinkzone – ms Quynh, and our partner – SwissEP, ms Quynh Anh for supporting us during the event to provide the best experiences for the participants. Thanks to our team working hard during the trip @Hoang Linh, our SICer coming to support us, and @Chương DNES, and our team from home @Khanh Linh.
The habit of moving our physical body to trigger the changes in our mind after a long time of staying in one place during COVID-19 is useful and becomes more useful when the speed and the intensity of packaging and commercializing our values.
Thanks to 2023 for bringing us opportunities to do ‘total immersion’.
Habit toward 2024 to deepen our ‘total immersion’ experiences and effectiveness: prioritize time to package our values in the form of products/services to help others sustain our mission. Being mindful, and thinking through for all stakeholders to have the best experiences for everyone.
Habit 2: Co-creating challenges and co-creating solutions to overcome challenges – being grateful and being vulnerable
We often sat down together to clearly define each team member’s long-term, and short-term goals and how our work can help them achieve these goals along the way. We occasionally raised standards by having bigger challenges for each team member to develop their mindsets and skills.
Sitting one-to-one, sitting in a group, one project learned from the other project was helpful for 2023 – where we could cross-learn and update information in the team.
What was not effective was I fell too much in love with the idea of doing these to develop the team and not even on the biz aspect. This is rooted in my ‘obsession’ for personal development so I could create chances to challenge people to grow, and many activities didn’t directly move the biz forward.
The habit for 2024 would be: to harmonize the growth of the team and the business, knowing when to let go of the obsession to let the team grow, but speeding up the biz side.
In the coming part I would share about my lack of being mindful when it came to finance so we got challenges in finance for most of our projects this year. Thankfully, our team stayed and didn’t mind giving us a hand – such as investing or letting us delay the payment after finishing some projects. Being vulnerable, sharing challenges, and asking team members to be a part of the solution and then overcome with each other made our team closer. Thank you, team.
However, I knew, I sometimes went to the mode of quite relaxing and letting this situation happen again. The habit for 2024 is to not be so easy on me on this matter because my team and I would provide values that deserve abundance regarding finance, as you do.
The habit for 2024 would be: being determined to provide values in exchange for financial abundance.
Habit 3: Shifting the focus from insecure to gratitude and unity
Inner insecurity/fear of not being good or caring: when seeing people who are good or groundbreaking in what they do when they are young. Wow, this is 'big' and 'big' - I feel like I experience it from the perspective of being the one who 'creates that feeling' for those who are much older than me; and more poignantly, I am the one who feels that insecurity when encountering young 'warriors' who have extremely strong 'power'. I had a fleeting feeling and feeling of insecurity when I met these 'warriors' - and at that moment I realized that I still had the 'seed'/'root' of the 'seed' that was not good. The way you transform this seed is to focus on your values, know that you won't do it all, and be grateful that there are amazing people along your journey to continue your mission with you.
I am grateful that in recent years when I have been able to work with my team - including young people with great potential, I have forged a feeling of 'gratefulness' to replace 'insecurity'. Long-distance missions need dedicated and potential people to accompany us. I am grateful that my team often has young people accompanying me.
And for this habit of gratitude and appreciation to be sustainable, you need to separate yourself from expectations to avoid disappointment - because I believe you, you must do well or do it like this or like that. that. You need to consciously distinguish between expectations - believing, appreciating, creating a nurturing environment, and persevering with the 'speed' of each person on your team/young people born at a different time than you, maybe Your family background and childhood environment are different from yours.
Jen international team: At the beginning of the year, I had the experience of going from a customer to a member of the team. And I experienced the feeling of being a professional - switching to the biz. She has experienced that she is also confused with those two 'identities' within herself in her behavior as well as her orientation towards the biz.
In the new year, I continue to experience the journey of being a professional combining being a 'leader' and being in the biz, knowing how to let go when I need to let go, letting my colleagues do their best and take charge as best as possible. My confusion - many times has made my team confused - I can feel the contradiction and ask questions - what am I doing in the end?
By the end of the year, I had two new employees. You will also experience this feeling somewhere in your journey of working with me, but there has been improvement, because I also opened up to you, and invited Please help me in the journey of 'translating' and 'harmonizing' the two roles - to promote the benefits of the two roles as much as possible.
Habit 4: Appreciating everyone as your team helping you in your daily life or on the way of pursuing your dreams – especially your family
How can you harmonize with every person and everything you encounter each day as a team?
We get on a bus; the bus driver is our team. We get on a bus, and the passenger next to us is our team.
The big one is to make your family your ‘team’ of your mission.
We cannot choose where to be born but we could choose where to go, where to be re-born. We then have to appreciate our family and make them our ‘team’ on our way to achieving our mission.
This is the big one for myself and maybe you: feeling our family doesn’t get what we have tried doing? Maybe it is time to let your family become your ‘team’ of your mission.
Maybe you also have a dream to pursue or a goal to achieve, and your family doesn't fully understand your desire yet. Your family is important to you, so there are times when you feel the struggle between your passions and your family. Sometimes you may feel sad or feel like your family doesn't understand you. Your family may feel the same way.
Even though your family may not fully understand what your dream is, you know that your family wants you to be happy and successful and you want that too. Somewhere, you realize that you and your family share the same desire; It's just that there are different views on how to achieve that success and happiness. You want your family to feel more clearly about your desires and passions so that both you and your family will feel more understood and resonant with each other.
The following three ideas can help accompany us on our journey to realizing our life's passionate dream or mission with the co-creation of our family circle.
(1) The first idea is to realize that your family and you want the same thing as your success and happiness and acknowledge their care and love for you. And also realize that they have been through a life context that makes them see how to achieve success and happiness in a different way than they would like.
(2) The second idea is to create an environment where there is an opportunity to invite your family to feel what you do, for example, invite your family to your place of work or an event to meet your co-workers or invite co-workers to visit your family. It's important to invite colleagues who understand your passion and what you believe in and believe in you and your potential.
(3) The third idea is to act every day with gratitude towards your family who have given you life and love; and thank life for allowing you to define your passion. And from there, every day, take action and move towards your passion – to bring results into reality.
The only thing I have to watch out for in this aspect is to also sink into the concept of being okay with having family worried for too long. I used to rush myself, but now I felt I let myself stay in the stage of letting my family worry for long – as I somehow emerged them with my circles at work.
My habit for 2024 onward is to not be rushed but not too relaxed in the process of achieving my abundance when pursuing my passion, by reducing the number of things that don’t bring financial rewards or big impacts.
Habits for the new year to keep family as a ‘team’ of co-creating an extraordinary year:
Spending quality time with family: having a real talk, rather than just going home and not talking
Having a deep conversation with each member: this is a challenging one, except for having it with my niece and nephew
Sending empowering messages and images to family on the group chat: this is a good one and it has made me feel connected with family
Facilitate the environment of family and my team coming together: it has been an effective one, having my team coming home and facilitating the energy with mum, dad, siblings, niece, and nephew
Pass it on the energy to my niece and nephews by having the support of my team
Facilitate a gathering team of a big family and small groups such as traveling or celebrating
Wow, the challenging one is also the one that may bring the most juiceful things.
PEERS, SOCIAL CIRCLES, COMMUNITIES
Habit 5: Being surrounded by people who challenge you to grow, uplift you, and want you to succeed and you want them to succeed
I have been grateful to be supported by communities to grow my mindset and skills over the journey.
With speaking and community leadership, thanks to Toastmasters.
With entrepreneurship, thanks to HEC.
Academic side, thanks to Vikas, Paivi, and Mika… Vikas has been always supportive and he told me …u have to make that impact with that level…u can and u will. And he is not standing outside of that spirit – he put his work to support me in making it happen …Sometimes u may confuse people’s energy…
With coaching, thanks to SIC. Our SICers have supported our activities with hearts and most importantly being great examples in what they do – leading what they do, SICer Chương, SICer Mới, SICer Hồng Mai, SICer Minh Phương, SICer Minh Vũ…
SIC has been the best gift ever I got during the challenging year 2021, thanks to our prof Trung Dung and Bro Tuan Hiep for letting me be a part of this creation.
SIC has also expanded to the Asia Pacific, setting up the very first mentoring coaching in innovation and entrepreneurship in the world with EMCC standards, thanks to everyone for continuing keeping keep it on.
Thanks to all of our seasonal mentors/coaches in the ecosystem to nurture SIC. We look forward to the 4 more cohorts to come, making our SIC family 100 SICers.
Some aspects that I had to change: sinking into doing more activities than needed. Most SICers are people taking important roles in their organizations, so the activities have to be selective and bring the best values possible, rather than just doing activities for the sake of doing it. Moreover, what I could do better on this is the commercialization side to help SICer make coaching as a career, as I am often sinking into the community aspect. Thanks to our SICers for pioneering this movement and making coaching a career – Minh Vũ and Minh Phương…
Habit to go in 2024, keep keeping on, being selective, valuable, and scaleable.
If you don’t have a social circle that helps you grow to the next level, create one!
Habit 6: Intensive experience once a while for your physical and mental – remember the main reason for doing it
Do you maintain a habit – occasionally doing something much more intensely than you usually do to build endurance and focus? For example, every day you run 7-10km, and once a week you run 2 or 3 times that number. Or sometimes you join a running race or run 5 or even 10 times on your own. Or you regularly practice a certain skill, then you participate in some competition, to measure your development, learn from others and increase your persistence and focus.
I apply this habit to public speaking. I often participate in public speaking competitions - in the form of inspirational presentations since 2015 when I was in Malaysia. I remember when I quit my engineering job for the second time, to realize my passion for a career related to writing, coaching, training, and human development, I fell into crisis and depression, and at that time I won against a teacher. has long experience in the industry on the club circuit. After the club competition round, I went to the regional competition round, I was mentally overwhelmed, and instead of sharing messages to inspire, I was overwhelmed by the competition mentality. I always remember the words my teacher told me 'Jen, remember why you started sharing, from day one'. I remember that I wanted to share because that story and message are important, and certainly - participating in a competition - is like going to a race or competition, I will practice and from there I will have the most development. thinking and speaking skills.
I remember after winning three times at the national level in Vietnam for public speaking, I still took the exam, and sometimes wondered, why am I still taking the exam, am I trying too hard? Is the way I say it boring? Am I hindering the next generation? I even asked my teacher - my coach before registering for the exam.
Then I realized - those concerns also came from the 'psychology' of taking the exam...instead of coming from the mindset of practicing to get better - and focused on the message that needed to be shared because it was important.
I practice and continue to participate in competitions, like an athlete who practices running all year - going to running competitions to have a 'more concise', 'deeper' experience with more intensity; The same goes for public speaking. This year, I did not win the regional prize for presenting a 7-minute speech, but I won the regional championship prize in the Presentation Evaluation section. I learned a lot from not letting the schedule of other jobs be a barrier, and not letting the thought that I had experience make me not appreciate the opportunity or my teammates participating in the exam. I learn a lot from other teammates, and I understand more deeply that learning and practicing a certain skill is a life journey, every day, not a seasonal thing.
LIFE, UNIVERSE
Habit 7: Make the power of imagination with positive emotions work for us
Wow, wow, wow, this is a big one, influencing much of what we have achieved and what I have not achieved.
In my case, I would see it in what I have not achieved – financial freedom because I didn’t invest time and positive emotions to visualize the impact of having money, I even had negative emotions about it.
On the other hand, the things I visualized with positive energy would often happen, not in the exact form but similar experiences.
For this particular year, 2023, the power of imagination with positive emotions worked well for me, more than I imagined. At the beginning of the year, I visualized I would go to the skiing area – and it happened during my trip to Switzerland in March. I visualized we would do events in the co-working space made of ancient bricks – it happened during the event with the French embassy in Oct.
I visualized our team would do an open event in a hotel with a nice pool; and it happened during the event with NUS in Sept (even though at the beginning, it was supposed to happen in a normal hotel Zoom).
I visualized I would speak at conferences with many people from different countries, and this happened with bigger events such as the one with IOEM, bringing Vietnam to people from more than 30 countries.
I would visualize that I would run in nature, trail running, and it happened with the running 75km during Lamdong Trail in Nov.
Digging deeper into the impact of it on the financial aspect, if you have a similar challenge, we could use the power of imagination as a starting point for the coming abundant time. We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. –Albert Einstein. And with the fact that I haven't 'raised' my frequency of thinking about 'finances', and maybe haven't even put 'finances' in my thought list/on my life's schedule like other things, and if did, with negative emotions of childhood that money made me not a great person. This made me encounter many difficulties with this part.
I haven't seriously set financial goals, and haven't seriously practiced financial tracking - like other areas in life such as health or developing thinking skills; Therefore, finance also does not 'work/cooperate' with me. Last year, the cash flow for the company and some of the team's projects was 'chaotic' - one of the weaknesses of startups - running out of cash flow/cash flow crisis.
I often use the excuse about my past related to not paying attention to finances. And last year, when it affected my team and relatives, I had another reason not to use it as an excuse anymore. I have had an unconscious shift related to finances over the past year, there may still be 'subtle' remnants, but I am ready to receive those 'subtle remnants', as a part of the journey to continue to 'regenerate' oneself, and to continue the mission.
Will you also join me in continuing to shift to the mindset of 'abundance' in terms of mental, physical, and financial health? For me, to do that in 2024 or the years to come is to thank and welcome 'money' as a good friend - someone who will come for the values that I and my team give, and to create and spread together. Scaling that value to more people.
And we all deserve to have full financial and spiritual health, if we create value, appreciate our own and others' values, and happily give and receive.
Habit 8: Raise your ‘energy’, and ‘frequency’ – expanding to areas that you are not familiar with
As we walked on our path of being open and tuning in our intuition, we could know what to walk next. This year, I learned that different levels of self-awareness
What might stop this process is our fear of not knowing the new areas especially when we are good at what we are doing now. Another side effect is our doubts about what we have been doing and our values. To deal with it, we can learn to acknowledge our values and what other things have to offer to us…
This one is an area to discover more in 2024 and the year to come…But certainly, I would name some aspects of my behaviors when learning from the astrologist, especially the aspect of my love life that I tend to attract people that I had to save them…It also reflects in the working environment…this interesting topic, and I will dig deeper in 2024 to share more…
What is the field that you are not used to…that your intuition telling you that you need to expand to gain more perspectives on your main area?
Habit 9: Pride of the nation and human being
Vietnam has much more than everything thinks.
By going to different countries this year, I felt proud again of my own country – Vietnam.
I also feel appreciated more by other countries and the unity of us.
The habit for 2024 on this is to embrace the pride of the nation and the unity of humanity.
Thinking about Vietnam, more than only thinking about agriculture, we can also think about passionate dedicated entrepreneurs who want to turn their hometown agriculture resources into high-valued products (e.g., ECOFA’s story).
Thinking about Vietnam, more than thinking about labor with repetitive work, we can think about dedicated scientists who want to create deep-tech or smart systems to replace repetitive work (Apicoo’s story).
Thinking about Vietnam, we can also acknowledge the rising dedicated dynamic young people...who want to do great things and can bring great value to national and international projects.
Thinking about Vietnam, we can also acknowledge THE COLLECTIVE - different stakeholders collectively work together to move their shared mission forward!
Habit 10: We are bigger than doubts or current limitations/situations
This lesson got deeper during the experience of attending a conference for managers/leaders with the topic ‘Leading Change’, organized by TLC and facilitated by a Harvard professor in Oct.
Fellow participants in the program and Jen learned about the 'case study' of a family company with a history of more than 10 years. We learned about the company's situation and positioned ourselves as successors to manage the company and systematize the methodology/theoretical model behind how this company handles the change.
At the end of the workshop, the professor summarized the change management process in the form of a diagram: the change journey from point A to point B is not a straight line; it will include ups and downs – from A to C (lower than B), and when we get to the low point – we will feel uneasy and will wonder if the decision to leave point A was right, and there may be tendency to return to point A – old ways of thinking and doing things; When we have faith and let ourselves keep going, everything will gradually become clearer and clearer.
At the end of the workshop, one of the company's successors, and also the current CEO, talked about the company's change journey.
He said after nearly a year in the context of internal family conflicts regarding the succession of the company, the company turned to a consulting company and found a solution to creating change. They have gone through nearly three years of revolutionizing the company's structure, human resources, and methods of doing things... and they have gone up and down many times, and many times wanted to return to the old point... many times. when they lost confidence in their initial decision... But in reality, they felt they had already left point A, there was no reason to turn back, so they just kept going...'
Also participating in the workshop was the founder of a startup company, ECOFA, supported by this family company and TLC (who organized the workshop). Exactly one year earlier, on October 19, the CEO of this family company together with the director of TLC visited ECOFA's raw material area. At that time, ECOFA had just started its startup journey, there were still many unclear points, and there was no sharpness in developing core products or business models... At that time, there were many unconvincing points to consider. Whether to invest or accompany ECOFA, one thing everyone could feel was the determination and commitment of the founding team.
Jen spoke to the CEO after more than a year of meeting the founder of ECOFA, about the change of Nam – founder of ECOFA; the CEO replied, 'I felt this a few months ago when I met Nam again, I saw that Nam might also go through ups and downs when determining what to do on this path, but I see Nam is going in the right direction... let's keep going...'
Last week, talking about the topic of change, ups, and downs, I heard an American actress and talk-show host - Jada Pinkett Smith talking about her feelings in an interview with Jay Shetty. She had just gone through a period of 'resurrection' from a 'suicidal' experience, despite having achieved great success according to society's definition. When asked about what she would do differently if she went back to the past so she wouldn't experience 'sad' and 'painful' times like the past, Jada went silent and then shared ‘good and bad experiences…that made me who I am today… seeing more clearly the parts of me…that I had not seen…
The CEO of the family company, the ECOFA founder, Jada Smith, has decided to change and improve/achieve his mission goals; they all go through ups and downs, and each downtime is a time when it can be easy to return to the 'old path', and it can also be a time to gain stronger momentum and experience wonderful things.
You and I will also be grateful for the moments of 'sadness, anxiety, loss of faith...?' - consider them a positive signal that we are moving out of our comfort zone. and if we continue…we move to a place where we are strong, profound, mature, and joyful…and we go on another journey to continue expanding our comfort zone – Expand our perspective and experience about ourselves, those around us, and life.
WELCOME 'BEST NOTES' IN THE JOURNEY OF CHANGE:
- Deciding to change comes from within.
- Thank you for the concerns and challenges along the journey.
- Wondering what 'this concern, this challenge...' teaches me about myself, the people around me and life.
- Do one thing to move forward.
- Thank you for moving on, and keep going.
- Walk with everyone.
- Be grateful every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year.
Thank you, Dr Ramesh, TLC, the family company, the CEO, and everyone participating in the program.
Habit 11: Love and Abundance
The desire to be loved, to love, to feel enough, and abundance, helps to nourish and strengthen the inner and collective strength within us, between us and those around us, and between us and the world.
During the journey of being born and growing up, we have the opportunity to choose and nurture the 'seeds' of thoughts, beliefs, actions, and behaviors - to realize our desires and needs to be loved and feel enough. The 'seeds' we choose may have positive, sustainable effects or not yet be positive and unsustainable.
--------------Jen’s story----------------
‘I appreciate you always being thankful, grateful, and kind to me; But I feel like, no matter what I do to show I care for you... it's not enough for you,' an ex-boyfriend once shared with Jen after more than 2 months of us getting to know each other.
That day was the day Jen came home from jogging, and Jen’s ex helped prepare a bottle of blended fruit juice for Jen. Jen was touched, and thanked; but also heard a small voice - 'this is normal, my sister cares about me ten thousand times more'.
That was one of the many times Jen fell into that feeling every time the boyfriend showed caring behavior to Jen - feeling grateful - then immediately feeling that this was normal - because Jen compared his care to Jen's sister's unconditional love and care. (Later on, Jen understood that by comparing and referring to Jen’s sister's love, Jen would feel better because even if Jen did not continue with him, Jen would not feel hurt).
Jen knows that little voice is an ‘ineffective friend’ in a relationship - Jen always said thank you to the ex-boyfriend, but somewhere, Jen felt the smoldering energy generated from that little voice – that ‘No matter what he does, it's not as good as Jen's sister unconditional love’... And Jen knew that that little voice came from a seed – already becoming an ancient tree of 'fear of not being enough' and 'fear of not being loved '.
After more than 2 months, the ex shared his feelings as the above, he would feel the invisible energy that Jen's 'little voice' created.
And at that time, there was a change in Jen’s 'subconscious, unconscious' level about 'the ancient tree’ of being not enough, afraid of not being loved'. Jen's body changed, there was a flow of energy moving through her body, making Jen feel relieved, feeling like a rock had been removed - the invisible, smoldering energy - the ‘ancient tree' that “I'm not enough, I'm afraid the hurt” has been named, recognized and 'uprooted'.
Thank you to my ex-boyfriend for calling me the 'friend who is 'afraid of not being enough, afraid of not being loved'.
Thank you to ‘the friend – the seed of being afraid of not being enough, afraid of not being loved' for being born and existing to protect Jen - to express Jen's desire and desire - of every human being in life - to be loved and appreciated. That helped Jen recognize that every one of us has good enough abilities and deserves to have a prosperous life.
Thank you to ‘the friend of being fear of not being enough, fear of not being loved' for signaling what are effective thoughts, behaviors, and behaviors to nurture the desires and needs in each of us - to be loved, to be felt enough and abundant.
----------------The story of a ‘coachee’ – Jen calls her Helen-----------
* The old way - 'old seeds’ to express Helen's desire to be loved and satisfied is short-term effective:
(1) play with boys, be nice as a boy with girls to be considered strong;
(2) do many things to be seen by everyone that Helen can do many things;
(3) choose to 'laugh' at challenging and contradictory situations to relieve fear and anxiety
*New way - 'new seeds’ to express Helen's desire to be loved and satisfied in a long-term, sustainable way:
(1) cherish each person as a human being - a soul worthy of respect, love, and care as well as oneself worthy of respect and love;
(2) care for people because they are worthy, and you are worthy;
(3) do important work and do her best because she is enough and worthy and that is her calling, mission, and ability
The story of a ‘coachee’ – Jen calls him Philip
* The old way - 'old seeds’ to express Philip's desire to be loved and satisfied is short-term effective:
(1) choosing to humble himself and 'pretending to be dumb' but still feeling unconvinced in his heart;
(2) choose to learn different programs to receive knowledge and experience to feel enough;
(3) choose to give away a lot to chase customers;
*New way - 'new seeds’ to express Philip's desire to be loved and satisfied in a long-term, sustainable way:
(1) be humble and appreciate the value of himself and everyone else - dare to share what he finds important with the mindset of sharing and contributing;
(2) based on what is important – important goals, select knowledge, take action, and look back to summarize the lessons, then share;
(3) determine the core values of himself and his business firmly; Give with a clear mind and certainty about his value
And you, will you join Jen, Helen, and Philip? to reflect on which ‘seeds’ you have chosen and nurtured to realize human nature's desire for 'love and abundance'?
Wishing you and us to appreciate what we have gone through, so that we can reflect and make the next choice - every day for ourselves - which seeds to nurture to realize our rights and needs in life.
Habit 12: Being present
At around 3 pm yesterday, I was walking on the way from the lecture hall to the school gate, at National Economics University, in the cool autumn sunlight.
On the way, there were students also walking, some with umbrellas, and some without umbrellas.
While walking, I suddenly saw an umbrella covering my head, and a slim student was already walking next to me. She cheerfully said, 'Miss, come with me and my umbrella to avoid the sun'.
Feeling happy because of the student's kindness, I smiled and teased her, 'Thank you..., my skin couldn't be any darker. Do you also go to the school gate?'.
‘…Yes, we will go together,’ the girl said, smiling when hearing my joke.
'Do you have a phone number? My team will send you a book to thank you, I asked the girl.
'No need, my phone's not here...', the girl shyly said.
'Then maybe until one day we meet by chance’, I thanked the girl and said when I saw that she was shy about my somewhat sudden request.
The girl then greeted me and strode away quickly.
What do you feel about the story?
Feeling nice because of the kindness of the student? Yes, it is.
Thank to the girl, thank to all of us for nurturing and practicing kindness together, daily.
What else do you feel?
Something about my behavior?
I felt that I had ‘not fully enjoyed the kindness, but instead quickly wanted to send something back to thank the kindness. I recalled what a friend called it 'killing the kindness because of not fully enjoying it and wanting to give back right away while the give doesn’t need it, even feeling bothered about it'.
Jen chose to use a present (the book) rather than being the 'present' by being present 100%, enjoying the moment with the girl, walking with the girl, and feeling the surroundings. Proposing to take a friend's number to give a present made the student feel suddenly, and she walked away quickly. Somehow, the student is also worried when being asked about her phone number by a stranger.
I recently continued to learn the practice of receiving openly along with giving. Somehow, many times we are not fully allowing ourselves to enjoy 'fullness' and open our hearts to receive, 100% because maybe that is our best present to the giver.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE STORY? ABOUT BEING A PRESENT BY BEING PRESENT, 100% WITH YOUR MIND, BODY AND SOUL?
Wishing you a meaningful week, giving with all your heart and receiving with all your heart!
2024: BEING RE-BORN
How would you live the next ‘X’ years of your life? (X represents the number of years that you have lived till now).
This has been a big question over the last year for me, as I was in the process of writing my next book ‘RE-BIRTH’.
The story of a little girl coming from the countryside wanting to open her mind and coming back to do something for Vietnam has shaped my life until now. Till I was 34 years old (last year, 2022), I started feeling the story had to be upgraded with the foundation of the 34 years of living. It is this year when I was 35 years old on paper, I was struggling with the ‘being reborn’ process.
The solution for this is to complete it rather than make it great because we have moved on from it…It can be we are under that process and we can share this, we then can figure it out together.
It was the reason for me to thrive since I was a kid. And the story I told myself for many years was rooted in my family. It is time to give back to family and the universe.
My family has had a hard time getting what I have been doing, and thankfully VYV1 has made the short movie to speak it out …the struggle of my family over the years of seeing me doing what we may call people development and empowerment.
I am grateful to my family for being that patient and dedicated…
I am grateful for my family to be my foundation, no matter what I do, or where I go, my family is still there for me, thank you dad, mum, sisters and brother, and relatives, thanks to my aunt and my younger sister who passed away - I have felt to live for them to deepen different dimensions of life.
Our new story is emerging! Exciting for it in 2024!
