9. The Power of Intention - Angela Kim (Psychologist, Transformational Life Coach)

I really enjoyed recording this episode. Angela Kim has a B.A. in Psychology from UCLA. She is a Master Transformational Life Coach, a Master Executive Coach, a Master Neurolinguistic Programming Practitioner and a Master Time Dynamics Practitioner. At the age of 7 Angela was in an accident through which she received a traumatic brain injury that changed the course of her life forever. In this episode, we talk about depression, mindset, and the ability to change your life through the power of your own mind. This is an episode you don't want to miss. Follow Angela - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/angela.y.kim Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/angelayskim Linkedin: https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fangela-kim001%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2pzFfApxuv3mlto-jTL--JpVZY0p_bd5_qiV1wsIJBXWE_wafQeXn3OKI&h=AT0Rp9mTUGZni6G8FQDzCCwRV7nlwA_j-nT_zV84CrIVGcRNJcFC5JgCeAFzGwbGJM1FGEph9b6j5foBodyFF27LWTatpYj-f_tE_L8OZxrSqqPhRAQ5cSBg4fDse4eW-zOLy1jshzQCvFCBox1xe1Bf3a8

Because our thoughts actually manifest our reality, right? And it's whatever we think that actually comes true, the more and more we think about it, the more and more it's going to come true. Because the more and more that's we're our focus is, our energy goes where our focus goes, it comes down to focusing on the things that we want to create. Kind of like, how do I want my day to be and setting intentions? Because once you set an intention, then our mind is this is how powerful it is. It actually works itself to make that intention come true. I think mental state is an exercise. It's a muscle, and it's something that people are not used to creating, because human beings are habitual creatures, and we tend to fall into habit. If our habit is to think of negative thoughts or live in the negative land, then that's our default. That's where we go. Hey, what's up, everybody? It's Erin with the Simply Overcoming Podcast. And thanks for coming back. I'm so glad that you are here. Joining us once again today's guest was a privilege to have a conversation with Angela Kim holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from UCLA. She is a master transformational life coach, master executive coach, a master neuro linguistic programming practitioner, and a master time dynamics practitioner. Angela is an expert in human behavior and psychology. And what a great conversation this is that we had. Angela was in a very serious accident when she was seven years old, and through that accident, she received a TBI or a traumatic brain injury that changed the course of her life forever. Anyway, without further Ado, let's get right into the episode. Well, good morning, Sunshine. Good morning, you guys. Thanks for gracing us with your presence, sir, for sure any time. So I was just asking Angela a little bit about herself because I know you shared a little bit with me, Nick, but it wasn't a whole lot. So I'm just kind of curious about Angela. And I think you were the one that was telling me that she holds a degree in psychology and she works in that field. And so I was just kind of curious what you do, Angela. I graduated from Easter David in psychology, and I got on to a lot of the personal development journey into new linguistic programming. And now I'm doing John Maxwell coaching and training and speaking certification. I'm into the whole mindset kind of world into helping people transform their lives with the power of their thoughts and their mind and the overcoming challenges and just through life with the positive mindset and just kind of pushing forward. I absolutely love that. That's totally you, Aaron. That's been my journey over the past, maybe just over the past six months, maybe a year. I've come to realize the power of my own mind in my personal life. And I really want people to learn about how they can control their life through just their mindset. I feel like there's so many things in our world that people are looking for, like happiness and success, and all of these things are already around us. We just have to be willing to see them and accept them. Absolutely. Yeah. Awesome. Well, Nick has told me that you have a little story of your own about overcoming, and this podcast is all about overcoming. And so I would love to hear that story and hear how you have risen out of the challenges that you have faced. Sure. So it all started back when I was seven years old, not to date myself too much, but it's been 25 years. I'm 32 now. So my family used to live in Brazil, and one day I followed my older brother to a basketball court, and I was trying to entertain myself. And I had this weird sudden urge to climb to the top of the post. So one hand at a time, I climbed all the way to the top and little Benowns to me, my hand slipped for, like, a split second, and then I found to the concrete and it landed on my head. So I had a concussion immediately following, and my parents took me to the emergency room. And then the doctors had told me my parents that the injury was released to be Earth, that I need to go into a brain surgery. So I went into eight hour brain surgery, followed by a coma. And then the doctors, I told my parents that if she doesn't wake up within about two weeks, I don't think she's going to wake up like my injury was way too severe. On the 15th day, I miraculously opened my eyes and I woke up and I looked around, and I could think I didn't know why I was there. And strangely enough, no words will come out of my mouth. So then worse yet, though, my entire right side of my body was completely paralyzed, so I could not even flinch of finger or yet move a single muscle on my right side. So ever since then, I have to pretty much relive my life at the age of seven, learning how to swallow, learning how to talk again, learning how to walk again. And I used to be right handed, learning how to become left handed and just learning how to live this new life with a permanent disability cause in a traumatic brain injury, you were in an induced coma. How long were you in the coma? Two weeks. Okay. Two weeks. You may have said that. So now you have to relearn a whole bunch of things that you had already learned at seven years old. So what did that journey look like for you? I think for me personally, I was so young at that point, and I didn't really know I had a choice or not to choose. Otherwise I just had to learn how to cope and deal with kind of reliving my life. And I think because I was so young, it may have actually benefited me to develop a lot of neuroplasticity and just find my ways just how to do things with just one arm, learning how to write, learning how to type, learning how to do certain things, and just pretty much reprogram my brain in order to live with this disability that I have. So it's not to say that I didn't have any dark times, especially when I was a teenager, young adult not knowing what I'm going to do with my life with this body. I went through anxiety, depression, trying to commit suicide and all these things, the dark days that I went through, trying to find out what is the reason behind all this. And that's when I kind of fell into this rabbit hole. I call it the personal development which really saved my life, learning how to become a more positive person and focus on the things that I can control other than the things that I cannot. It's been a long journey for you, Angela. Yes, I do have people who listen to the podcast who have been down that dark road of depression where they wake up every single day, not knowing if they want to spend another day alive on this Earth. I know you just said that you dealt with your own suicide story and dealing with those thoughts for you personally, being in that place and contemplating suicide. Talk to us a little bit about what it feels like for the people out there who need to hear what it really feels like to be at the very lowest point in their life where they feel the need to commit suicide. Right. I think it's the point where you drive yourself to the edge, right. And I think it's this feeling of hopelessness, as if what's the point? What's next? And you see this kind of darkness. I'm not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and for me personally, it was when I was not driving at that point. And I used to take the bus around Korea town, around Los Angeles, and there was a moment where I saw a bus coming, and I just thought for a second, if I just step one step forward, I might actually get in front of a bus and just get run over, right. And just these dark and crazy thoughts that come to my head. But I think what helped me get out of it was the sense if I end my life right now, is that going to be it? What kind of message am I going to leave to my parents and my family and my friends? Because a lot of people actually look to me for a sense of strength, because in a way, just living my life kind of showed that. But if I end my life, what impact is that going to have on the people around me, and that's what kept me going, thinking that, you know what? There has to be a reason there has to be a purpose behind all this. At that point, I didn't really know what it was, but I was still searching, and I think that this glimmer of hope didn't really kind of tip me over to the edge because I did have dark days. Some days were less dark than others I would call it. And that's what kept me going to help me find the things that still bring me joy in the middle of the storm. There is still a glimmer of hope from time to time and just clinging on to that and thinking that, you know what? There is going to be a better future tomorrow, and there is going to be a better future next month, next year, but not just sitting around and hoping, but at the same time, taking action to do things that really bring me joy and more peace and more calmness into my heart. Earlier, you said I didn't have a choice. You didn't give yourself the ability to think, well, what if I do this or what if I know I'm going to get better whether I like it or not? Yeah, absolutely. I feel that's extremely important. Don't give yourself the option out. You have to deal with this to do it right. Is your option to have a good attitude or a bad attitude, but you still have to go through it, right? Exactly. And I think that's kind of one of my mantras is that for me, there is not an option. I have multiple options. But for me, in my mind, I even blocked out the option of failure that doesn't even exist. I just have to keep on pushing forward Amen. Don't give that mindset the time of day. I've seen that in Nick. In our friendship, I've seen how Nick has always been so positive, and he's never given himself a way out because he knows where he's headed and nobody's going to tell him differently, right? Yeah. Well, like, as I've said before, I can do anything you can do. It's just going to take me longer. I'm just going to take a different route. But I can do exactly what you can do. And he does. Going back to depression. Oftentimes, people who struggle with depression, like you were saying, it may not be visible to people around them. And so what people need to do who are struggling with depression is they do need to look at the people in their lives and realize how calling it quits in life could affect their family, their friends, people who truly care and love them. Everybody has somebody out there who cares for them, and you need to be thinking about those people in your life, and the depression will pass. It always will for me. I've dealt with depression. I deal with it to this day, and what I've learned the difference between now and years ago is the fact that I've learned that I will get through it. I know I will get through it. The day will pass. You're so right. And I think I totally agree with you with the fact that depression, in a way, it's a state, and it's also feeling. And the thing about feeling is that feeling common feelings go. But I think the important part is my identity and who I believe myself to be at the core of my soul that actually does not fleet once we know who we are, and once we know what kind of message and impact we want to live in this world. And I think one thing that really helped me get out of this dark times and dark depression is helping me kind of imagine kind of 1020 years, 30 years ahead. And if I become an older person and I'm an older looking back on my life, would I actually regret my life, or would I actually say that I was at the bad hand of cards? But I actually made the best out of it. And I made the most out of the circumstances that I did not choose, whereas I chose to make the best out of my life and just living that sense that you know what? I'm going to make it so that my life. I don't regret it at the end of my life, looking back and leaving a legacy, leaving some kind of imprint onto this world, saying that you know what, Angela's life mattered and she mattered because I brought hope to other people's life. I added value to other people. And because of me, other people were able to move on another day and find the strength within. And that gives me the sense of resiliency and just the power to push through. That's amazing. You said that you were dealt a bad deck of cards or bad hand of cards, but the thing is, you still played them a hand of cards, and it's not necessarily who's going to win it's. How are you going to play them? It's not necessarily erase to finish. And Angela, now, because of your experience in life, you can help other people and understand where other people are coming from who struggle with these things. And that's amazing. Like this is where you are meant to be. So how are you going to use your depression? How are you going to use your traumatic brain injury or something that has happened in your life to help other people and to make it a positive. Yeah. And I think that kind of comes back to exactly the work that I do because I work with a lot of youth and a lot of young adults and also their parents and family dynamics as a whole, helping them imagine trying to create a more purposeful life. Right. I think a lot of people these days struggle with mental health, but they don't have anything to look forward to. This Jade is kind of lifestyle that we live in every day is the same day. Every Monday is the same work week. It's like we don't really have a lot of excitement or a lot of passion that people tend to feel these days. And it doesn't have that we're in the middle of a pandemic, right? It's hard to find passion and purpose in the middle of a pandemic. I think still, when people have something that they're striving for and when they have a goal they want to accomplish in life, it kind of lights up something inside of them, and it keeps them alive. And I think especially young teenagers are used. That was actually the darkest time of my life. And that's something that a popular student that's very dear to me, helping them realize, let's have them dream about something. Let's have them imagine a future where they can make and create impact into this world and helping them find their strengths, something that they're good at, something that they're passionate about to help them overcome that sense of depression and that anxiety and all these mental things that we have instead of focusing on the things that are bad and detrimental to us, let's change our energy and shift into focusing that we want to create that we're good at, that brings us alive. So kind of helping people shift that mindset and seeing the transformation in the students and the clients that I work with. It's like, the best really in the world where they a couple of months ago, I started working with them in this day, and now they are a completely different person. It's life changing. Wow. Our brains were never meant to be able to process being able to see every single bad thing that's happening in every corner of the globe. And that's where we're at right now, we are all focusing on every bad thing that's happening in every corner of the globe, and we cannot get away from it through media, through social media. And when you're young and you've got lots of energy and very focused, you become focused and obsessed about the wrong thing, which is focusing on these bad things. Yeah. Absolutely. There are so many news, right. And politics. I'm not going to get into politics, but there are so many things that kind of tend to help us focus on the bad side of things. And it seemed as if this world is dangerous and we can't really trust people and that there is so much violence and so much negativity going on. But the thing is that's how we're wiring our brain. If it's focused on the negative, then that's what we're reinforcing inside of ourselves. It feeds into the anxiety and it feeds into the depression, making it feel like, you know what? This world is a dark place. What's the point of living? Whereas if we focus our energy into more positive things, beating our mind, reading positive books, watching motivational speakers or just more positive things. And we're constantly feeding it with gratitude. Positive thinking in general. Then we're actually able to reverse and rewire our brain into creating more happier moods, more happier mental state. Okay. So I don't deal with depression. I've never been like, well, this is fun. Peace out now. It's always been okay. Yeah, that sucked. But how can I make tomorrow better? And so instead of, like you just said, watching motivational speeches or videos or whatever, be the motivational video, be the motivational speech. I love that be the change that you want to see. I love that. I was telling Angela when we were texting last night that somebody gave me a book. This may have been about a year and a half ago, and I have never thought about any of these things up until that point. And when this book was given to me, I read it. And in fact, it's sitting around here somewhere. And what struck me, what I was able to relate to in the book was the simple illustration of buying a new car. And after buying a new car, suddenly seeing all the cars on the road like the one you just bought. Yeah. And I know that's very simplistic, but I have just realized that this is so true in my life. When it comes to my thoughts on a daily basis and waking up and telling myself my intention for the day and how I want my day to go, it always ends up being better. And it seems as if things have gotten better in my life. It's like I'm manifesting these things just because I'm focusing on them. Right? Absolutely. In psychology, there's this thing called a particular active system. Right. And that's exactly what you mentioned about once we kind of open our conscious awareness into certain things, we actually see it everywhere around us. They have, like, registered. And when I bought my first car and I'm like, oh, my gosh, I didn't know that same car. There's so many of them in the road, whereas before I didn't consciously, too, it didn't register into my consciousness. Now that I'm aware of it, I see it everywhere. And that is how the way how the universe turns and how we manifest certain things that we imagine and certain things that we think because our thoughts actually manifest our reality. And it's whatever we think that actually comes true, the more and more we think about it, the more and more it's going to come true, because the more and more that's where our focus is. Our energy goes, where our focus goes. Maybe if you can share some tips with our listeners, ways that they can improve their thoughts on a day to day basis. Yeah. Maybe some tricks that you can share with them. I think in terms of mental state and mental tips and tricks, it comes down to focusing on the things that we want to create. Kind of like, how do I want my day to be and setting intentions? Because once you set an intention, then our mind is this is how powerful it is. It actually works itself to make that intention come true. For example, if I'm working on a project, if my intention is, I'm going to make this project the best project it can ever be that entire universe, then that's how your energy is going to flow. And that's how you're going to make that happen. Right. So if I say, you know what? Today is just going to be another day. I mean, what's exciting about today, then that's how today is going to be. But if I say, you know what? Today, I'm actually going to try something different. I'm going to go outside and take a walk, right? Because we can't really meet anybody because we're in the middle of a pandemic. If I set my intention, I'm going to get some Sunshine on my face and I'm going to take a walk and I'm actually going to enjoy it. Not just take a walk for the sake of taking a walk. And I think the more intentions that we set, the more we realize the power of it and we become to manifest the things that we want to create. So I think mental state is an exercise. It's a muscle, and it's something that people are not used to creating because human beings are habitual creatures and we tend to fall into habit. If our habit is to think of negative thoughts or live in the negative land, then that's our default. That's where we go. But we have to make a conscious effort to kind of move ourselves out of it and listen to something that brings us one bit of joy in our life. If you keep on doing that and reinforcing, that's actually the power of a positive mindset. And I think one exercise that I do on a regular basis that really helped me, was it literally it takes less than a minute per day at the end of the day before we sleep, just think about in your mind or Journal down. What are three things I'm grateful for today? Just three things. It can be as simple as I had enough coffee today to not have coffee this morning or something that I didn't realize that I wanted a piece of salad, and I realized that I had a leftover left in my fridge or even just simple things like that. When we allow ourselves to bring gratitude into our life, we're actually reprogramming our brain into helping us get out of that depression. Amen, what is the importance of verbalizing your intentions and maybe even writing them down? Why shouldn't I just be thinking about it? But why would it be better for me to verbalize or write things down? Oh, my gosh. The power of visualization is so huge. I have posters and written things all over my office, and my husband said, oh my gosh. There's another paper up on the wall today. I think the more you look at it, the more you are consciously aware of it, because any given day, we have thousands and thousands of thoughts that kind of fleet our mind. And if we're not constantly reminding ourselves and we tend to forget and like I said, about our habits, our habitual thoughts, if our habits are tend to be in the negative land, we actually have to force ourselves to look into the more positive. So I have a vision boards on my walls and that, you know what? In five years, this is how much money I want to make. This is how many speaking engages I want to do. This is how many followers I want to have. This is how many clients I want to work with and things like that once you create it, it's really amazing how, like the more you look at it and you don't really realize it. But after a couple of years, you actually made that thing come true. That's the power of intention, and that's the power of, oh, yeah. That's what I'm working on. And it keeps you grounded in a sense to your quote, maybe even subconsciously, it's becoming a reality even when you don't realize it. I love the idea of having things on your wall that set intentions and make you think about. I have a poster on my wall, a photo that I took when I was in India of a woman. She is 103 years old. And when I met her, I was in a remote jungle village and 103 grew up in the same village, never left her whole entire life, slept on the same dirt floor 103 years old. And it makes me realize how thankful I am for my life and how I shouldn't take my life for granted. I am breathing and I am healthy. And there are things in my life that I just have a bed to sleep in and I have a pillow. There's just all these things that you can be thankful for in your life. And you just need to be focusing on those things because we just take those things for granted. Right. And like you said, it's kind of the things that we don't take granted sometimes be forced because we're not used to being in a gratitude mindset so oftentimes, it's hard to say, wait, what am I grateful for? Am I grateful for anything? I don't think I am, but the thing is, you have to force yourself, right? Kind of like you say, you know what? I have a cell phone where I can call people and get into contacts with British people around the world. Right. And thankful for Zoom time zone doesn't matter anymore. I talked to people in Europe and Nigeria the other day, and I'm like, what time zone are. You know, this world is still connected. And I think once we realize that I'm actually grateful for our technology, I'm actually grateful for the time that we live in. Right, then our energy actually changes and our state naturally changes. It's a muscle that we need to develop. I think if you're listening to this podcast and you have been focusing on the negative for so many years and you decide tomorrow is the day that I'm going to focus on the positive and set my intentions at the beginning of the day do not become discouraged. If it is harder than you thought it would be because it will be difficult in the beginning, I guarantee it it will almost seem impossible. But trust me, it will get easier over time. And before you know it, it will just be muscle memory to be in a positive state all the time. Yeah, absolutely. And like you said, everything is hard when you start. And I think that's where people don't even put the effort to start it because they're scared. And everything that holds people back in life is due to fear. And I think that's kind of one message that I want to share with your listeners and to everybody is that every hindrance that we face is due to fear. It's due to fear that, you know what? Maybe we're not good enough. Maybe I'm going to be a failure, or maybe I'm going to disappoint people. What if I do this? A lot of what if that pop in our head, right. But that's where anxiety kind of tricks our brain because anxiety is something that's not necessarily going to happen. But then you think it is, and then you manifest that in a way, we have to almost be forceful to say, okay, I'm going to force myself to be great. Thank you for three things. Even if we live with people who we sometimes have a lot of arguments or a lot of negativity around. What is one thing I like about this person, like, literally just one thing. And then once you kind of go that route, your mind cannot think of a positive and a negative start at the same time, you're always choosing one way or the other. So if I choose to think something positive about that person, then you're actually going to have a lot more positive thoughts following other than going to the negative. I woke up this morning and there's a lot of negativity going on in the world right now. And I woke up this morning and there were some very hateful comments on some of my YouTube videos on my YouTube channel. And I was really having a hard time. This morning before our meeting, I felt like I was focusing on the negative, as I should not have been doing. And I was paying attention to these comments. I realized, and I caught myself this morning I'm sending myself down a bad road right now. I'm focusing on these things. I need to stop focusing on these things. Set the phone down, delete Facebook off your phone. If this is something that you struggle with, focusing on the negative, you are not going to be able to change your mindset. If you continue to focus on the negative things in the world, you're not changing anything and don't let somebody make you feel less or don't let somebody belittle you because you have made the decision to not focus on these things because right now, the suicide rates have just skyrocketed since Kovit and everything going on politically, and my wife is a paramedic. She deals with this all the time, and it's a struggle. It's a struggle to see this because the unfortunate part is what's taking these people down and what's causing them to take that final step, I believe, has to do with what they're focusing on and their mindset. And if they could change that, their life would be changed forever. Right? You're absolutely right. I think you're right. 100%. And I think especially when it comes down to people who don't like us or who have negative things to say about us. Here's what I realized. The truth is half of the people that you meet are not going to like you. And the thing is, some people are in every week and not like, for whatever reason, maybe they don't like the color of my hair or they don't like the shirt that I'm wearing or the fat that I'm Asian or whatever it is, whatever the reason is, it's something that they're going to have something against and that's actually something that I cannot control. And if I focus on their opinion of me, which I have no control over whatsoever, and I make that something about me, that's the choice that I'm making, which is not empowering. So if I kind of shift my mind and say I'm going to focus my energy on the people who like me. And there are many people who like me and the people who don't I'm sorry, God bless them, but I can't do much with changing their opinions of me, right? It's shifting on the things that I can control. I can only control my thoughts and my feelings about the way that I live and their thoughts or feelings about me. That's their business. That's not my business. And if I just focus on my business and just working to improve myself, then their opinion actually doesn't really matter as much as we think it does. These are all things that we all have to work on. I'm a pleaser. I own my own film company. I manage social media for a living as well, and I am constantly without even realizing it, looking for that validation, constantly looking for those people to like what I'm doing, and social media makes us sort of trains us that way. It trains us to enjoy that good feedback. But when bad feedback comes along, whether it's called for or not, we struggle and it's difficult, and it can take you down a dark road. And so we do have to change our mindsets and care less about what people think. Like you said, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what somebody else thinks. This is your life. Stop wasting your time and your breath on people who don't really make a difference in your life one way or another. Absolutely. Stop wasting your time on thinking what you think they're thinking. They don't like me. Well, they could be like, well, I've been really stressed out about something else, and I can't they might not have you in their mind at all. They're thinking this about me. Yeah. And I think it comes down to a lot of assumptions that we make right. I think we assume that we are so important and that everybody is thinking about us where if you think about it, everybody is thinking about themselves 99% of the day, they're thinking about their own thoughts the way that we think, oh, my gosh, what are people going to think about me? The thing is, they actually don't think about you as much as you think they do, because they're busy worrying about themselves. And that's where we have to realize, who am I giving the power of myself worth? Am I giving my power to me, or am I giving that power away to somebody else and letting them dictate what I'm worth in this world? And if we think that other people's opinion is so worthy, you have to think about how much am I valuing my life? How much do I feel like my life is worth it to carry forward? Or is it a matter of everybody has to like me? The thing is, we can't have the world like us. That's kind of impossible. I'm curious, Nick. When did you meet Angela? How did you meet Angela? I think it was like, two weeks ago, two, maybe three weeks ago, he posted a post on your post. You're like, hey, I'm looking for parents. I was like, Well, I'm not the parent person, but I can tell you what I've dealt with. And so we talked, and we had a great meeting. I just loved the way that Nick just reached out to me, because the thing is, I think that translates to a lot of life is that sometimes we just have to kind of go out there and just put ourselves out there and say, I don't know what this is going to take. I don't know if she's going to respond or not, but I'm just going to send her a message, and then we develop an amazing friendship as a result. And I think that's when we it takes a lot of courage, and it takes a lot of that person's willingness to get out of the comfort zone and thinking, I just want to see if I can connect with people and things like that and then they made it happen. And then now here we are, kind of leading our friendship and being in the podcast and speaking to your listeners. And that's where a lot of opportunities in life just come if we get out of our comfort zone. And I think that's a big part of our mental health kind of problems is that we think there are certain rules in society in life that we just have to be quiet and stay still be the status quo. But this life is meant to be stirred up a little bit, not stirred up in a bad way, but just to kind of action networking, meet people. Right. And the thing is take uncomfortable and imperfect actions, because when we're waiting for the perfect action to happen, we're actually never going to move forward because that moment is not going to come. Angela, aren't you working on writing a book? Yeah. Writing a book has been on my bucket list for many, many years. And I think that's one of my goal this year to write a book and publish it and just have my kind of story out there, not to brag or boast about myself. My biggest intention is to bring hope to people and think if a girl who got injured at seven with a severe brain injury and who still struggles with all these things, but at the same time, I'm still trying to create the best version of my life. A lot of people I think need this more message of hope and inspiration kind of to the world just so that I can have them kind of get up and rise up and live in this beautiful world that we're creating together. It's not about me. It's about the people that I serve. Amen I understand that all too well? I started this podcast about two years ago. I recorded two episodes and then I scrapped it, and I walked away from it until recently. And the reason why I did that was I was struggling with the fact that who am I to be starting a podcast about overcoming when I'm still struggling with things in my life? And I continue to struggle with things. And I realized a few months ago that we all struggle with things, and I will always continue to struggle with things in my life. But it's not about me. The podcast is not about me. It's about the people that I could reach through the stories of people such as yourself. You have an incredible story and you can reach so many people through that story. And so yeah, I really appreciate people who are willing to step out and share their experience. I think that sharing your experience is so important for your growth as well, not just for reaching other people, but for yourself. Yeah. And I think it's also this idea where people are looking for genuine leaders. Right. And I think genuine as in they're not looking for people who've been there and then done that. And then now they're all this massive ginormous person, successful millionaires billionaires, because that, in a way creates this big gap. And people think that, well, I'm here. How am I going to get there? Well, they inspire me for, like, a split second. But I don't know how I'm going to get there, right. But people are looking for genuine leaders who can hold their hand and say, you know what? I have dark days, too. But this is how I still get up. And you can do it, too, because you're on this struggle together, right? That person who made it is not any better than the person who are kind of still trying to make it. We're doing this together. And I think that authenticity. And that genuineness saying that the willingness to be humble and saying that I'm still working on myself. But this is the beauty of it. And I'm enjoying my journey. And let's get on this journey together. I think that to me, that's more of a leader who I really want to follow rather than somebody who's been there. And now they've done that. And I'm like, Well, I like you. But then you're like, way ahead of me. How am I going to get there? It's like when you have a million subscribers for this podcast or whatever next week, look at Aaron. Look where he started. He started from his little shack hole in the wall up North Idaho, and he's taking it, well, I'm going to do this. And I'm going to try. And it's like I've said this before. God cannot bless you unless you try unless you do something, he can't help you. He can't be like, Well, they're trying. No, he's not going to give you a million dollars, like, well, here you go. Most likely. Not yet selfishly. I started this podcast because I just love meeting awesome people like yourself, Angela. And hearing your story of overcoming in life, it's inspiring for me. And I know it's inspiring for others. Absolutely. Hey, I'm a little curious. Talk to us about your journey, writing a book. I'm actually in the process of trying to gather my stories and trying to highlight what are the life lessons and the Nuggets that I want to embed in my story because like I said, the book is not going to be about me and not just to kind of say, well, not to brag about myself, but I want to be able to use my life experiences to share life lessons. Right. And to share these are things I did. And here let's do a little bit of exercise. What is the kind of mindful exercises that we can do? So we can implement the stuff that through my life experiences. So I think writing a book in the beginning, it was like a daunting journey and I'm like, okay, I have this vision of writing a book, but then it seems like way up there. How am I going to get there? Kind of thing. But in a way, there are like, once you have a will, there's a way and once you have a dream and a vision and you're like, I'm going to make it happen no matter what happens, then opportunities are going to flock in your way, which is kind of weird. So then I came across a couple of publishers and authors who may want to co author a book with me. Or I have an option of writing a chapter, or I have an option of writing a whole book, or I have this option of, you know, there's a lot of options that are opening to me now that I have this vision, that's kind of what we go back to about your thoughts manifest your reality before. I wasn't interested in that idea. Now that it's part of my goal, I'm now in a position. Okay, which direction I want to go? What is the general message that I want to create and kind of centering my book around that central theme of overcoming obstacles about growth and who is my target audience? And how do I want to inspire and bring hope to these people? So these are like the pieces of the puzzle that I'm trying to create to make it the most impactful and influential piece that I can possibly before we let you go, I want you to speak to our listeners, and I don't know exactly what you want your final words to be. Maybe there's a young girl out there who is struggling with depression. I don't know where you want to take it, but speak to our listeners and a little bit about your thoughts on living your true life. I think the biggest message that I want to share is everybody gets to live life once. And I think that's the common denominator across all human races or beings, no matter race, gender, age, or whatever it is, color your skin or what it is. Everybody just gets one chance at life. And I think that's in a way, it's fair. But it's also not fair because, like we talked about, sometimes we're dealt with a bad hand. Sometimes we have traumas or experiences that we would have never wanted to happen in our lives, whether it's a disability, it's an emotional trauma, whether it's abuse or whether it's whatever people go through. At the end of the day, everybody goes through struggles, and it may seem like my struggle or your struggle is bigger than other people. We don't want to know what everybody is going through behind the doors. Everybody is fighting the demons in our head and the negative internal voice that says that, you know what? Your life sucks. You're not good, you're not pretty. And all these things where people just struggle with a lot of negativity inside their head and kind of becoming the biggest critic of our lives. But I think the most important thing is and I'm going to let that over take this one chance that I have this beautiful gift of life that we're given, and how can we make the most of it and the best version of it? Because oftentimes money and Fame doesn't really bring us the biggest joy, like money is a commodity that is essential for living. But at the same time, I think the biggest thing is our mental health and our mental state and how much we're able to bring joy into our lives and just the relationships that we build and the impact that we create and thinking that, you know what, at the end of the day, my life mattered, right? And I live my life fully. I loved fully. I lived fully and that I mattered fully, so that when it's time for us to pass, we don't really have regrets. And I think that's something that everyone needs to create for themselves. No one can really create that life for them. It's this thing where we have to take ownership of our own life and say, I'm the driver of my bus, which road am I going to take and consciously making choices every day, every day, every moment, every single second is a choice and helping us realize that? Okay. What am I choosing? Am I choosing to be happy or am I choosing to soak in my sorrows? Am I choosing to move forward or am I retracting backwards? Because every moment we're either growing or retracting? And so what is my choice? What do I want to create for my life? Beautiful. Angela, thank you so much for being willing to be on the podcast today. Where can people find you on the socials so I have an Instagram account they can find me. Angela Y. S. Kim, I can have it down in the show. Notes. Okay. Got you. Yeah. People will be able to find you in the show notes. Well, thank you very much. And everyone out there listening really hope you enjoyed this episode of the Simply Overcoming Podcast for more great episodes like this. Subscribe to the Channel comment below. Let us know what you think, and we hope to see you here next time on the Overcoming awesome. Thank you for having me.