A For Action
On living a devoted life from A to Z
Hello, friend! Thank you for being here. This year, I am doing a creative experiment that I'll be sharing how I choose to live my word for 2025 "devotion", one alphabet at a time. Enjoy!
This week feels more like the real start of 2025 to me.
As the world celebrates the Lunar New Year and the Year of Snake in Chinese Zodiac, the sky welcomes this year’s first New Moon in Aquarius. Both the snake and water bearer embody the energy of release, renewal and transformation – inviting the world to shed the old and outdated, envision the future, and bring our highest vision to life through heart-led actions.
It also marks the tenth month of my second sabbatical, and four and a half months calling Melbourne home. My physical being is finally ready to emerge from its long, dark hibernation. The brain fog, pain and exhaustion have dissipated. The blood sugar level has returned to the healthy, steady window. My palate is enjoying food and eating once again. My arms and legs want to move more. Everything feels so much lighter and easier.
As I savour this newfound energy of vitality, my mind naturally turns its attention to the question “What’s next for me professionally?”
I feel ready to rise up and challenge myself to do something new and different. But every time when I think about “what should I do”, my shoulders hunch and my brain freeze. As if I were carrying this 70-litre black hiking backpack, trying hard to move forward, but I couldn’t work out how to get my feet unstuck in the mud puddle. This is not the first time I have felt this. It is my old friend fear sitting on my shoulders, teasing me about the backpack I carry – one that is full of outdated beliefs and self-limiting narratives.
Auspiciously, a friend offered me an intuitive guidance session as part of setting up her life coaching business this month. “We cannot think our way into the future; only our soul holds the wisdom and keys to opening doors along our path,” she said.
It was no typical coaching session.
There was no brainstorming about my career vision or objectives; no mention about building a personal brand; no goal setting, life hacking, or action planning.
Instead, we burnt rosemary to clear the energy; we sat still in silence to connect with our senses; we said a prayer together to honour our ancestors; and we weaved the mystical imagery of Tarot cards into in real-world context.
A beautiful, supportive message came through when I asked about my professional future:
It doesn’t matter which path you take, nor the direction of your first step — only standing still keeps you stuck and lost.
Release the overthinking, overplanning, and control.
Start where you are. Listen closely to the gut feeling. Choose what feels right, choose what energises you, and follow their call.
Take one baby step and then another, slowly and steadily.
Action will activate and release your inner power. Action will bring clarity and understanding. Action will unlock doors to possibilities and opportunities.
The truth is you already have the skills, tenacity and wisdom to achieve greatness. You have done it before, and you can do it again – this time on your own terms.
Charting your own path is going to be shaky, messy and uncertain. Whenever you feel overwhelmed, reconnect with yourself and rejuvenate in silence and stillness.
Never ever act solely out of duties and obligations. Remember to enjoy the doing. Give yourself permission to feel joy and happiness, regardless of what you have accomplished (or not).
Root your action in love, empathy and courage, and you will not be left astray.
So often, we put the things we do into different buckets: health, family, friends, work, leisure, money, etc. We rank them in the order of importance and decide what to do to get the desired outcome separately. But really none of these things exist in isolation; our action, attitude and differentiation in one area will affect other areas of our lives and beyond. Like, how we care for ourselves shapes how we care for our family; how we manage personal finance mirrors how we handle shared resources; how we engage with our colleagues affects our how we connect with loved ones and friends. Each action, no matter how small, is neutral and equally important to the whole.
Once I’ve realised this, I relax and stop fretting about what I should do to avoid the worst-case scenarios. Because everything I do is the “real work”; professional/paid work is only one tiny part of it. Instead, I ask how I want to be feeling here and now, and what I can do to cultivate, nourish and sustain that feeling. My sincere action is about letting myself be and honouring this wildly colourful human experience – the dark and the light, the horror and the beauty, the loss and the love.
“When you do something, you should do it with your whole body and mind; you should be concentrated on what you do. You should do it completely, like a good bonfire. You should not be a smoky fire. You should burn yourself completely. If you do not burn yourself completely, a trace of yourself will be left in what you do.” ~ Shunryu Suzuki