All about Lina Lifestyle

The in between season before Christmas

November is a special month for me as it is my birthday. I often look forward to this time of the year when I take stock of what I have been doing for the year. I probably find that this year had been moving at a breakneck speed with my course in Virtual Events and Production running like a bullet train.

Moving on to a new job and managing the new environment with a whole new set of expectations can be quite exhilarating yet fun. Life can be unpredictable so that is where I get to experience a life with adventures. Two transitions happened in 2022 and now I am adjusting well to the second transition in life.

2022 had been quite a kind year to me where I emerged more aware of mental wellness. I do worry that with society resuming its function again that I would be running around busy but unhappy. The previous two years had been a season of retreating to the online space rethinking my mental state and getting a whole reset to my goals and dreams. However, I learnt to put some margins in life where I have a balanced life filled with hustling at work and resting the body and mind fully.

It is now the in between period where the real holidays have yet to begin in a couple of weeks. It is a quiet season of reflection, a lull period where I can ease into a good sleep by relaxing to soft christmas tunes and happily type on my wordpress. It is a good time to slow down and enjoy the process of living again where strivings ceased !

Burning with passion or burnt out?

Like with any persons who want to go on Linkedin to find careers that they have a passion for, I really face a dilemma of whether I can survive just on passion alone. I did conquer my fear of going back to work by making a transition to face Managers and colleagues after my 6 months of honeymoon like training ended.

I had a 101 doubts about my ability to handle real clients with real needs. I felt that passion alone cannot replace the real fear of having to deal with messy and difficult human beings who have emotions. I went from dealing with theories from looking at excel data all day to dealing with people all day. I was downright anxious about making such a huge leap from stoning in front of computers to standing in front of the classroom.

I survived the first two months as I made the transition. And I am glad I took the social risk of having to work for a Manager. Today is a special day as it is the first time in my career I received a message personally saying I have improved and became an effective teacher. It rebuilt my confidence and restored my soul.

People can be difficult and messy and they can cause you to be fatigued and burnt out. But they can be sweet and loving at the right time uplift you and help you survive a difficult storm(hurricane) etc

Is taking a career break risky or is it worth it?

I have been through seasons where I felt taking a career break is risky. As my priorities are in the area of mental health, I thought it was good to look back and I thought about how a #career may be important but knowing who you are behind the job titles or the work is crucial in knowing oneself.

I find it is important in the area of experiencing growth and challenges by opening up myself to new experiences like taking a 6-month course in a completely new industry and finding work more aligned with my idealistic self.

I felt that I have come full circle where after consulting with a few career coaches I found out that I no longer need to keep knowing my personality, strengths or weaknesses etc. I just felt that I had to make progress towards leaving my comfort zone and exploring the growth and development zone this year.

When I return back to work after my course ended, I felt that there is a certain kind of energy that is quite refreshing. It would have been different if I have not taken a step backwards and examined why I was burnout. A change of scene indeed helped made my mood and mental state better.

Is taking a career break risky or is it worth it? Read the WSG article for some examples of young people who decided it was worth the risk. What are your thoughts? Hopefully, you can comment below.

#work #job #growth #development #change #mentalhealth #comment #like #energy

https://content.mycareersfuture.gov.sg/young-singaporeans-career-break/?utm_source=wsglinkedinoct&utm_m

Staying Woke as an employee

I was just reading this post by The Woke Salaryman. I believe that there is much insight to be gleaned from this comic as I have been on the path of being self-employed wholly some seasons and on the side of being an employee ranging from small businesses to large government agencies.

To a large extent, I agree that being an employer is not a good thing as the amount of time and sacrifice needed can take a toll on one’s mental health. The space in between employer and employee was a good fit for me when I went full time self-employed through some seasons. That it when I can really decide on my own time how hard I want to work as I had to only be accountable to myself.

The Woke Salaryman has laid out the deck of cards when it comes to being an employer. I agree that it is not an easy yoke to manage financially as you have to shoulder all the financial aspect. In some sense, it requires more than passion for the industry but a very good mix of business financial acumen to prevent the entire boat from sinking.

https://lnkd.in/g7j5JfFu

Photo by Anna Nekrashevich on Pexels.com

A new kind of Wild

I find living in a city kind of drab and dreary. The hustle and bustle of living really got to me as I wished I could just marvel at the wild side of nature when I whizz past them on my way to work.

Finally, the weekend arrived and I loved wandering especially going for a short nature hike as I luxuriate in the beauty of nature. I realized that I whizzed past life at a frenetic pace wishing time can come to a standstill. Today, I am blessed to actually see a creature so tiny I almost missed it at a nature site.

I actually thought its red bulging eyes and beautiful wings brought much comfort to my weary soul. A refreshing change of scenery can do wonders as I think the simplicity of life is sometimes the solution to life’s anxiety. What an awesome day I had at Lower Pierce today!

What is kindness?

To a large extent I believe there is kindness in the community. Somehow, with Covid-19 being one of the biggest mental health challenges, I felt that there is a greater awareness of displaying kindness in the workplace and to vulnerable communities like the migrant workers.

Students in primary school are also able to think about kindness like helping their friend understand concepts they don’t understand or lending a stationery to a friend and standing up to the bully etc.

Sometimes as adults, we go through life forgetting that being a flourishing human being one needs to give and receive kindness. Hopefully, the community and #mentalhealth situation will gradually improve and lives will be transformed with one small act of kindness growing into a big thing making a difference to the community.

Have you ever felt happy when you are true to yourself?

In the earlier part of my young adult years, I often felt sad and often read books on depression. Ironically, I often felt depressed when I was a student in the top university. I had good friends in varsity when associated me with depression. I knew I was still struggling a lot emotionally due to a lot of questions on my purpose and meaning in life from my teenage years.

From my early twenties, I start to read many books on depression in the psychological sense. I struggled a lot till my mid twenties with being happy as I did not want to pursue the typical success route by being an MOE teacher or doctor and so forth. My mental health was not in the healthy range, and I felt that my natural inclination was towards the humanities. I thought a lot about the deeper stuff hence my natural major was in Philosophy.

Fast forward to my mid-thirties, I think I have been through a period where my career questions have been answered and my mental health is well managed with a lot of rest and following my heart. I decided to have faith in my decision not to live out other people’s version of success. But to live out something that is uniquely my own.

I felt that even if doing a course in Virtual Events and Production is so different from what I am used to, I would go through this path again when I would cross path with unconventional people. Novel experiences definitely got me intrigued and happy. Being friends with people whom I have not associate with like successful company’s directors will be something memorable.

Lastly, I would like to share my very happy photo taken on the last module of my six-month training programme to prove how enjoyable life was when I was able to be living out my unconventional love for seeking new and novel experiences.

I am glad that I can safely say I am happy for conquering life’s mystery of pursuing a new course of study and recalibrate my state of happiness.

Why Planning an Events is like the Fairy Tale Cinderella

Planning an event is like being in a position like Cinderella where the initially planning and framework is unglamorous and there are many hidden sides to things. The set up includes knowing how to connect floor plans with the real-life conference room and ensuring that the place is safe with no LED screens at risk for falling for example.

The details that needed to be looked into is like Cinderella sweeping the attic. For example, knowing how the schematics work. This is where one needs a strong understanding of how audio input works and how the cables have to connect with each other to ensure that there is sufficient planning before the actual show run. Fundamentals of events include having to communicate with other team members to coordinate the logistics to ensure that an event is planned coherently on the cue sheet is not easy.

When events run smoothly, it is like watching Cinderella enter and leave the ballroom at 12 midnight. A good event that delights the audience is like having the prince find Cinderella by matching the right glass slippers. It takes a lot of strategy and acumen to know how to cater to the right target audience segment be it finding Michelin star chef or special keynote speakers delighting the audience.

Ensuring that the everything goes according to cue sheet is something an events manager can hope for a fairy tale outcome. All in all, it is still possible where the right event can be so memorable that the audience is left living happily after.

Final Capstone Project

My final Capstone presentation ended well, I can get to close a chapter of rehearsals and project work without any dent to my mental health. I think six months of trying to figure out what a professional events industry practitioner does is quite an adventure if taken in the right spirit.

I try not to take in all the stress inducing anxiety moments by taking things in my stride if I am not at an expert level yet. Chilling out when things get heated is not easy as I try to prevent burn out and fatigue from setting in my deliberately stowing away my multiple gadgets like Ipad and laptops whenever I could.

The work in #events is tough. It can be hard to put on a smile when there are last minute changes, abrupt decision switching affecting the show. I suppose stress management is something I have to pick up by knowing myself better when it comes to handling the uncertain and unknown aspects of working on group work and adapting to the technical side of things from livestreaming to knowing what an audio engineer does.

Six months of Self-fulfilling Journey

I stuck it out with a new virtual events and production programme for close to six months. I had a steep learning curve as my knowledge of virtual events and production is close to primitive.

It felt surreal that my mind is still functional and with all the technical information swimming about to ward off the early onset of dementia.

For close to a decade, I did dream about going to school for self-fulfilment. Glad that I put in 100% attendance as amazingly I was not late for a single module.

It is amazing how much I want to put my mind through such rapid growth spurt. I enjoyed meandering through many knowledge domains from data analysis and design thinking. I thought 💭 how stress management is really important as this is one of the top 5 most stressful industry due to its volatile and uncertain nature.

At last, a life chapter has to come to a close when I reached the summit. I am left with a final presentation of my Capstone project on a Clean Energy event.

All in all, I loved how 2022 have been a pivotal point in enabling me to have the opportunity to widen my social network, broaden my mental horizons and equipped me with practical skills to survive for the future of hybrid post Covid.