This is a collection of essential elements and examples to help you write your personal statement. Whether it’s your values, outlook on life, or beliefs, you’ll find plenty of examples and topics to help you write an impressive personal statement.
Sometimes a crisis is an opportunity!
As a child, I was briefly confused by the position of always being second in my parents’ pecking order of affection. At a time in my life when the world was becoming more self-centered and I needed to recognize that adults’ affection was also being poured out on me, I was inevitably forced to acknowledge that there was someone in a position ahead of me. I used to resent that situation, but after hearing my uncle say, “Parents are flawed because they are human,” my head cleared a bit.
My father, who was always the one to lead, embrace, and envelope people, favored my older sister, who was similarly inclined, and my mother, who grew up as the youngest daughter in the family, favored my youngest brother. My position in the middle, which was quite awkward, was not something I was willing to accept, so instead of just being sad about it, I thought, “So what am I going to do about it?” It was because of my own efforts to adapt and make the best of my position that I was able to grow up faster than other kids, strive for objective judgment, and have a reasoned and rational personality as a result.
People are not wrong, they are different!
My values start with the idea that people are not wrong, but different. I believe that people have their own individuality and that should be respected, and that’s why we have a private education like ours. Just like there is a lifestyle that suits each person, clothes that suit each person, there is education that should be customized. You can’t just scold someone if they can’t do something, you have to look at why they can’t do it. That’s why I minored in psychology, and I want to build on that to provide in-depth education.
Also, I would say that my personality is a social person who likes people and loves to talk to people. I’m a good listener because I like the individual stories that people have to tell, and that’s why I have a lot of people around me. I always try to acknowledge people and if I can learn something from them, I make it a habit to praise them.
The disadvantage of my personality is that I am not good at making and breaking connections. Because I am a person who listens to people and asks for favors, I often fail to refuse favors when I work. I hope to learn how to make and break connections while working, and learn how to work with sense from my seniors, so that I can be a person who collaborates well and integrates well into the company. I wish you well!
Let’s recognize many things and live widely!
First of all, I would like to explain my life values. I want to recognize a lot of things and live in a wide world. I’m not very old, but one of the things that really struck me while living in the world is that nothing is set in stone, so you shouldn’t have any prejudices. First of all, people are like that. There are some people who are so stupid that you think, how did they graduate from college? Some people are brilliant and can do a lot of different things because they have a good brain and a fast turnaround time, but there are times when they get caught up in their own schemes and end up not being able to do anything and not being able to do any of the things they were doing. I think that’s one of the things that I’ve really realized while working as a consultant for various companies that you should never set limits, especially when you’re working with foreign companies, because I’ve realized that where I live, where I think I live, is a very small place, so I always think and try to be a person who can accept a lot of things and accept things that I think I’m not. I’m still working on it, and I try to push myself out of my comfort zone by going to lectures and reading books whenever I can to be open to different things.
Because of this, my personality is quite calm when dealing with people and in general. I have a strong desire to listen to people, so I try to listen to them calmly and try to understand what they’re thinking. In many meetings with companies, this aspect of my personality has become a positive point, making me a good communicator. Also, I am quick to accept and adapt to new situations and new people because I mostly acknowledge what people say. On the other hand, the downside of my personality is that I tend to strive for perfection, so when I’m working, I tend to be a bit more cold and detached than usual. This is a good thing when it comes to work, but I don’t think it’s a good thing when it comes to relationships, so outside of work, I try to relax and show a more gentle, calm, and positive side of myself in my personal life.
Always look beyond!
We all have a line where we think that’s good enough. It’s a threshold that stabilizes us, but in a way it’s also a psychological safety net that inhibits progress, because regression starts at the point where we stop feeling the need to improve.
There are limits to the human mind, so having some sort of brake is essential for stability, but I think it’s also necessary to come back to that place at some point and revisit it, because while it may seem like it’s enough to finish the project at hand, the possibilities of the theme or the object itself are endless, and I can’t let any item go to waste, so my notebooks or anything related to ideas are always full of ideas, but the joy of being so immersed in them that I forget about my day-to-day life sometimes is very special to me.
This is something I’ve experienced first-hand and proven throughout my career, especially when it comes to the point where it’s clear that I’m done, that there’s nothing left to say, that there’s nothing left to say, that I’m done, that I’m done. Finding the traces of a phoenix in the ashes of what we think is the end of all existence is a philosophy I want to pursue throughout my life.
Even a slug can roll!
This is a thought I’ve always had about my childhood, growing up as a rather normal kid, before I realized my aptitudes and abilities and started running scared. Like any other parent who would send their child to any number of academies to find out their child’s aptitude for anything, my parents would try to enroll me in whatever academy the other kids were attending. I think part of it was to make up for the fact that they didn’t send my older brother to many academies when he was younger, and I think part of it was to make up for that. But even though I was so invested, I didn’t find most of the academies interesting and would often give up halfway through or beg my parents to let me out. I think there was also a bit of conflict with my older brother, who was a little jealous of me because he didn’t get that kind of investment when he was younger.
The computer that my parents bought for my brother because he was interested in it was a treasure that rekindled our sibling friendship and allowed me to discover a new aptitude: he was much happier to talk to me, who was surprisingly intelligent and could play games and do things with great dexterity, than my parents, who bought him a computer but couldn’t keep up with the paperwork. If it weren’t for my brother’s compliments and the softening of our relationship, which at one point had been intimidating, I would have struggled to gain confidence in myself. I believe that everyone in the world has a computer like the one that brought me such joy. Because everyone has at least one thing that they are naturally good at.
Whatever it is, get out there and experience it!
This is a trait I’ve come to recognize in myself and my life’s motto, ever since I was a kid and realized that I was much better at touching and experiencing things with my hands than just looking at them, even when I went to museums and hands-on exhibits with my mother. I try to experience things first-hand, partly because I have extra energy, but also because I’ve come to believe that knowledge acquired through the body can be used more efficiently. There is a finite amount of time we can live, a finite amount of distance we can reach, a finite amount of life, and within that, we must strive to allocate our energy resources as efficiently as possible.
When I think about the world around me as having fewer and fewer possibilities, I sometimes get impatient and can’t stand not to get something done. I wonder if I’ve been given so much energy to experience more than others, and if so, shouldn’t I be able to do so much more with my body to fulfill my obligations in life? Sometimes, when I’m afraid to go far, I comfort myself with this thought, which is why I’ve lived away from home, attended college away from home, and studied abroad. It’s scary at times to start a new life in a place I’ve never been before, but it’s even worse to lose out on the possibilities I could have had by not doing it. And because most of the things I’ve done once I’ve decided to do them have turned out well, I live today with a positive attitude that I can experience anything and do anything.
If you want to have a voice in the world, you have to put in the work!
As someone who has always been at the center of a group and has worked hard to make sure my voice reaches every corner of people, I’ve learned the hard way that someone with my disposition will always have to work hard to be heard. Just like there are introverts who don’t want to be in front of everyone, I’m an outgoing person who enjoys the act of being in the spotlight, but it takes a lot of hard work to make my desire to be heard more than just a desire, but something that I “deserve”.
For starters, you have to polish your speech and your appearance, you have to live in a state of mind where you’re always aware of what’s wrong with you, and because you’re often speaking on behalf of a group, you have to examine your opinions to make sure they’re not just your own. Unlike most people who are okay with being a little bit behind the curve, I’m in a position where I’m leading people, and I have to strive to always be on the forefront. Because I’m always speaking up, if I have a flaw, it’s going to show up in the world with double or triple the intensity, and lies tend to stick in people’s minds and have a ripple effect. It’s great to stand out and be noticed by many, but behind that privilege is a lot of desperation in many forms.
Put obligations before rights!
Today, we are often told that we should be active in earning our rights, that life is something to be enjoyed, and that those who know how to fight for their rights are the ones who are truly in charge of their lives. However, we are often shied away from the fact that we have duties that we must fulfill if we are to have a decent society, or we want to put them behind our rights. We want to talk about what we can enjoy and do, rather than what we have to work hard for.
But if we all start prioritizing our rights to the exclusion of our obligations to others and their rights, we create a never-ending pecking order of desires. It becomes a race to see who can be better and stronger and push their desires forward, and in this process, those in weaker or marginalized positions are pushed to the back of the line, and the world becomes a playground for the weak. This is what makes us human, and what makes us different from animals. We must always be attentive to the disciplines and obligations that make us human, and we must constantly strive to ensure that we don’t let our own selfish desires get the better of us and lead us astray.
A person who has broad aspirations and strives to realize them
It’s better to have lofty aspirations than to have dreams that will never be realized. People say that dreams and ideals are unattainable, and that even the most flying and crawling human being can only reach half of them at best, or eighty percent of them if they try hard enough; that ideals are ideals because they cannot descend into reality, and that people can only run after them like a horse with a carrot on its head, dreaming of the sweet taste of a carrot that will never reach their mouths. In the end, what they pursue as the ultimate goal in life is also an illusion.
But I want you to dream big and believe that you can “make it happen,” especially if it’s a wish you’re not going to fulfill anyway. If any hope is half-fulfilled at best, it’s far more beneficial to have ideals that are 10 than 1, 100 than 10, because the reality of dreaming of 1 is that you’ll get 0.5, 5 if you go for 10, 50 if you go for 100, and so on, and so on, and so on.
Everything in life is a series of choices
Life is a series of choices. I don’t believe that life is determined by luck, I believe that the direction I choose is enough to change the direction of the outcome. This way of thinking makes me think that everything is in my hands. Relying on fate or luck takes away my agency, so I try not to think of it that way and give agency to my choices. For example, I believe that my decision to join your company this time is my choice, not some fateful force. I could have made a different choice and stayed with my old company, but the fact that I decided to try my hand at a career change makes it my choice.
So I also take responsibility for making sure I have no regrets about my choice. Once I have made a choice, I will have to do my best to make sure that I don’t regret it. Doing my best means that I will do my best to fulfill the tasks given to me and work without any deficiency. I will also lead the people I work with to do their best to make the best teamwork possible. In the case of an office job, it will be very important to communicate with the people who are doing the same office work. Respecting and taking responsibility for my choice while considering this aspect, this is the life of a person who is actively pioneering in life.
Your horizons are only as big as your challenges
Your horizons are only as big as your challenges. There are so many things we don’t do in order to “be like everyone else”, “not stand out”, or “blend in”. This is because in Eastern cultures, which are more concerned with the group eye and the overall vibe than in the West, we are more often advised how we, as members of a group than as singular individuals, need to weave ourselves into the fabric of the group in order to blend in and not stick out.
It’s not without a sense of social constraints and molds being imposed on our lives early on, far in advance of our ability to stretch our own branches, and as we grow up, so does our sense of obligation to live with these social constraints, which only grow stronger as we get older. That’s why we believe that the younger we are, when we’re relatively free from social obligations, the more we need to escape them and broaden our horizons, because as we get older, it’s a burden that we’ll have to carry on our shoulders in order to fit into society fully and without noise.
Think of your first real, heartfelt moment
Think about your first real, heartfelt moment. As a child, my father kept a pair of gloves in his study, a reminder of the passion he had for his work, a reminder of the excitement of the moment. Through the gloves, he was able to recall not only the hard labor of those days, but also the initial joy and excitement of why he built the company he did, because he was determined to pursue his heart’s desire and build the company he has today, so when he thinks back to the past, he can remember not only the painful and difficult memories, but also the person he was when he was “wild and innocent and eager to be where he is today.
I, too, who chose my current career path thanks to my father’s discipline, can look back at the diary entries from the time when I made my final decision and recall my childhood passions, rekindling the innocence that I had forgotten in the midst of the daily grind and labor, and be captivated by the joy of building with my own hands the future hopes that I had so longed for as a child.
Don’t be a bandwagon chaser
Be the kind of person who doesn’t get swayed by fads. The world we live in today is one of rapid change, with news breaking several times a day, technology advancing every day, and a constantly evolving culture that makes it almost impossible to keep up without gaining new knowledge. We’ve become a society where it’s perfectly acceptable to abandon the beliefs you held dearly just yesterday, and to quickly reposition yourself to be swept up in the new ideas of the day. People use things consumptively, and often throw them away as relics of the past, even if they’re still durable.
And as we adapt to new environments, and then jump on another torrent, we are like a puzzle that must constantly reposition itself or it will not survive. But in a society that is so sensitive to changing circumstances, I think it is important to maintain an unshakable center of self. Because if you don’t know how to set your own agenda, you’re going to be pulled around and around and around, and before you know it, you’re going to find yourself an empty shell. Just as you can wear dozens of fancy outfits to show off your fashionable charms, but if you don’t nurture your core, you’re not going to get anywhere, so we need to make sure that we have an unshakable center.
Leading by example
Leading by example is my mantra. I think everyone is the same: someone has to step up, but it’s hard to do so if it’s a difficult task, so I don’t hesitate to be the first to take the initiative. I have received many exemplary awards, certificates of commendation, etc. during my junior and senior high school years, and I have appeared in documentaries as a young person who does not look past the difficulties around him. I think this is not only applicable to school life, but I think this attitude of leading by example is important in social life as well. If someone has to do something, I want to do it.
My hobby is bowling. I first learned to bowl in C.A. class in middle school, and it was fascinating. The excitement of rolling a bowling ball and hitting all the pins motivated me. I was hooked for a while and even participated in amateur championships. Bowling is more fun in a group than alone, so I often go to the bowling alley with friends to relieve stress. Bowling helps me socialize. Sometimes you feel more connected while exercising together. If you use bowling as a way to socialize in your social life, you’ll be more likely to collaborate and ultimately help your company grow.
Pay attention to the little things
I live by the value of “paying attention to the little things”. I don’t take five minutes for granted and set my watch five minutes early to make my day worthwhile, and I believe that nothing in this world is trivial and should always be looked at with interest. I think it’s because of this value that I’m well-liked by the people around me. I value accuracy in everything I do, because a small misunderstanding or conflict can ruin a big thing. I have an attitude of double-checking my work to make sure there’s no slip-up. I also try not to do anything that would make the other person feel bad, and if I’ve done something wrong, I’m honest enough to admit it and apologize so that I don’t foster misunderstandings.
Not sweating the small stuff has also influenced my view of money. From high school to the present, I have been saving three thousand won every day. It’s not a lot of money, but I think it’s a good indicator of my sincerity. I’ve saved every single day, and after seven years of saving consistently, I have a lot of money. If I had spent it because it was a small amount of money, I wouldn’t have the joy I have now. I believe that small things add up to big things. I will do my best to cherish all the work I will be entrusted with at your company without forgetting the joy of accomplishment that small things bring.
No pain, no gain
In English, it’s called No Pain, No Gain. It’s probably a famous quote that everyone knows, and it’s my life credo. I’ve always had to suffer to get what I want, because if I just get it, no matter how small, it’s always too easy to get away with it. For example, when I study for a test in school, or do a sketching assignment, I have this jinx where I have to get sick or do something difficult to get it done in a better way and do well on the test. It’s the same thing with work: if things go too smoothly, I always get to the end and the steam runs out and things fall apart. But if it’s hard or difficult at the beginning, I’ve found that once I’ve gotten through the initial difficulties, things have been easy because I’ve gotten well-funded and popular, so I welcome difficulties in my work, and I don’t dread them because I know they’re coming, and I don’t back down because they’re difficult, but I deal with them. That’s how I deal with difficulties, and that’s how I live my life.
Preparing for this job with your company was no different. I’ve always wanted to continue designing, especially character design, but it just wasn’t in the cards, so I was in a role at the company where I was doing game planning and leading projects. I had the title of team leader, but as with any startup company, I had to do almost everything because it was a small company, so I couldn’t really do much character design or background design that I wanted to do. That’s why I prepared to move to your company as a designer after the company was established. I prepared my portfolio by making two or three sketches and notes every day, even if it meant staying up all night, and I believe that my portfolio came out as a result of my sincere efforts, even if I couldn’t sleep, and I endured the physical and mental exhaustion. I hope to prove my skills and join your company with confidence.
You never know when the road will end
The nature of research, which is a lifelong seeker’s path, means that you have to be patient, even if the answer you’re looking for doesn’t come to you. The answer you’ve been searching for may come at the most inopportune time, or it may come after nearly half a lifetime of tedious battles. Either way, you have to remain humble and wait for the answer to come to you like a revelation. Since research is just another brick in a castle already built by countless scholars in the past and countless scholars in the present, the timing of when it will fit is only up to the will of the heavens, and from the human perspective, who must look up at the castle in the dark, it is impossible to see the clear position of the brick he is laying.
Only those who steadily lay bricks will one day see their work revealed, and that’s why patience is the most necessary virtue for a researcher. Just because the answer you seek came easily doesn’t mean the next one will, and there are some answers that seem to have no end in sight, only to be greeted on your deathbed, which is why researchers must always remain humble and wait for the moment of truth to come to them.
Make our limited time count
We often feel like we have so many hours in a day that we forget that our lives will end someday. Until we reach middle age, the rest of our lives seem so far away that we maintain this laid-back attitude, and even then, when we look back and realize that the rest of our lives seem shorter than the ones we’ve already lived, we become impatient to make every minute count.
The attitude towards life is the same as before, but the time left seems much shorter than before, so you can’t help but be overwhelmed with regret, wondering “what have I done with my life?” as you reflect on the past without realizing where the time is going. And then you start to try to live your life to the fullest, but it’s not until you get into the habit of doing so that the navigation is not easy, and the time you spend on it starts to feel like a waste. If you really want to live life to the fullest, I think you should start working on it at a point where you think “there’s still a lot left,” because it’s much more psychologically stable to learn how to live life to the fullest at that relatively relaxed stage, and to carry your habits into middle age, like inertia.
Rules are there to be broken
In today’s world, there are a lot of people who say that set rules and people who follow them are boring, and that breaking the rules that others have universally followed is a form of individuality, but I disagree, because I think that if you really want to be different and stand out from the crowd, you have to come up with ideas that no one else has thought of before. If you approach it as simply deconstructing the rules that other people have built up, you’re giving up on the idea of making yourself unique, and you’re also giving up on the idea that in order to make yourself stand out, you’re encouraging others to think, “I’m going to break the rules too.”
Social rules are a consensual commitment made by many people. It is something that cannot be achieved by one person alone, but only exists through the influence of many people influencing and upholding each other. When one person starts breaking rules, others who are directly affected by it start breaking them, and the cycle of breaking starts to repeat itself, and the precursor to collapse has begun. As someone who opposes this tide of bad influence, I am trying to stitch myself up by adhering to rules much more strictly than others. I do this because I believe that if others see me adhering to even the most basic of moral rules, and are pricked by my conscience or impressed by my example, it will start a cycle, and the world’s chain of promises will be strengthened again.
Indulge without regret
This is a belief that I’ve always tried to live by, whether it’s in the various cultures, arts, studies, or hobbies I’ve been interested in. My passion burns like a flame, and it’s very hard to keep it alive after it cools down, so I tend to cut myself some slack when I have a flaming passion so that I can give it all I’ve got and let it oxidize without regret, because it’s very hard for me to be left with a faint sense of “I should have done that then” or “I shouldn’t have given up on that” when I’m no longer interested in the field I once was.
Also, the burning passion that comes with these interests is not something that I can control or artificially moderate, so once it’s ignited, I try to be inclusive enough to let it burn to the ground in many different ways, even if it’s just for the sake of my own empowerment. This is because the sparks that remain after burning down to the bottom often turn into ashes, leaving me with improved work capabilities, like the phoenix that is said to be reborn from the ashes.
Life is a long journey to find your purpose!
The image of what we usually think of as “stable job, grown-up” is quite limited and often implicitly encourages us to ignore our individuality and mold ourselves into a “socially accepted role,” despite the astronomical number of human beings and their individuality.
From the smallest details, such as people who should be out in the field doing hands-on work being stuck in the office and glued to their computers, to people who are better suited to cerebral rather than physical activities, to the phenomenon of people who would be much better suited to a solopreneurial system rather than being part of a group being forced to work for a company, we often make decisions about our lives based on what society says we should do rather than our own aptitudes. There’s an inevitable sense of dysphoria when you’ve chosen a path that doesn’t fit your functioning, and many of us resign ourselves to this pain as an unavoidable bitterness of life, not realizing that it’s as misaligned as putting a tortoise on dry land and hoping it grows.
Design it perfectly and check it perfectly!
I went to graduate school, took classes, and developed my programming skills. I was determined to build perfect software, and I was dying to overcome the handicap of not knowing everything everyone else knew. I studied and applied C language and algorithms more professionally. I also designed an operating system that can be used in the art and music culture industries because I know that SW is needed in more diverse fields using my personality as a designer. I also studied English and Japanese hard to overcome my deficiencies, and as a result, I studied other countries’ JAVA programs in their original languages and achieved good results. All of this education and experience are aimed at creating the perfect SW. I am a person who knows that you can do anything if you start slowly. I would like to design the perfect SW based on my knowledge and professional viewpoint and make a difference in people’s lives.
Do what you want to do and enjoy it!
I believe that a professional should always be a person who changes and develops as the job demands. The organization doesn’t exist for me, I’m a part of it, so it’s important to fit in. But I don’t think opportunities come to those who adapt to the organization and settle for what they are given.
As society changes, the people in it have to change, and to be able to lead that change, you have to constantly strive to improve yourself.
People have different standards of success, but for me, success is doing what you want to do and feeling happy. There are many people who say that doing what you want to do has become work and it’s not fun anymore, and there are many people who say that making money is not play, but I want to be a person who does what he wants to do and enjoys doing it.
I believe in the power of the collective, the power of collaboration!
I’ve always believed in the power of groups and people, so when I was looking for a company, the most important criteria for me was how efficiently the company was taking care of each employee’s well-being and ability to utilize their work. Employees are a part of the company, but the company’s profits are increased by respecting and maximizing their capabilities individually, so the potential of your company’s track record of building strong synergies among a limited group of employees was powerful enough to awaken my curiosity.
Modern society emphasizes individualism and looks at individual capabilities and personalities, but in a company where the power of the collective is fundamental, I think it’s important to have a perspective that accurately captures the “person in a group” rather than the individual, because the attributes of a person are bound to be different when working alone than when working in a group. Even though I work with people, I try to approach my work from a position of considering the totality of people in a group, not as separate entities, and always take a close look at what abilities and efforts are being made to support the pillars of the whole.
Remember to highlight their features!
When you draw a caricature, you don’t just draw the model’s face, you try to highlight the things that would have made an impression on someone else, so that people would say, “I feel exactly the same!” The same goes for remembering your customers. It’s not about cramming head to toe, brow to brow, fingertip to toe details into your head and leaving a blurry outline, it’s about jotting down key memories of what makes a person unique, from their way of speaking to their facial features to their spending patterns.
It’s easy to get confused with someone else if you have a lot of information lumped together, and it’s not always easy to get it right when you recognize someone, so we need to be able to recognize their personality, get it into our heads, and distill it down to a simple but powerful form. This is where my part-time job in hospitality came from, where I was able to recognize the faces of many customers, their habits, and the things they usually buy. We all have a little bit of a need to be perceived as ourselves and not just part of the crowd, and that sense of being recognized as a special regular among the many customers who come in and out of a store is the easiest way to win their favor.
Take pride in what you love and choose to do!
When I was growing up, when I mentioned that I wanted to follow my father into a career related to computer hardware, my mother lamented that I should “study hard and become someone who can work in a neat office, so that I can be more socially acceptable.” She felt sorry for my father, who was always traveling here and there and toiling away in the field, and she was always worried that I wouldn’t inherit the same environment, so that I could have a more comfortable position and be recognized by people.
However, in order to win my mother’s approval, I tried to convince her of how much I truly loved and enjoyed the path I chose, and how proudly I chose my current career path while watching my father’s back. Rather than being embarrassed by society’s prejudices and ashamed of my duties, I always maintained the consciousness that “I am doing something that I truly love and that contributes to society.”
Transparent management, fair management, let’s save the company!
I went to business school because I was interested in management, and while it was important to learn management theories, it was also important to collect data on what business people were doing in the real world, so I went to corporate briefings, SME fairs, and lectures by entrepreneurs. In doing so, I came up with my life and business credo. The core question is this: What really saves a company? In answer to this question, I would say transparent management, fair management.
The only person I admire is Dr. Yu, who is a businessman. He is an entrepreneur who built a company called Yuhan Yanghyang and applied for true social return. He is one of the few living examples of Noblesse Oblige in Korea, and he is a fair manager who excluded his relatives and family members from the management team. Not only that, but he practiced transparent management that even in the tax investigation, not a single dust came out. As I collected stories and examples about him, I gained more respect for him and studied harder with the mindset of becoming a true manager myself. This is why I applied to the business management department, and I will continue to work as a manager who prioritizes transparency and fairness above all else.
A person who performs well while resting properly
In the midst of an overly busy and demanding life, I would like to devote myself to a job that allows the human soul to rest for a while. Just as a machine that runs day and night needs to rest and cool down from its fever, so do people need proper rest for their jobs, but today we often ignore it and move forward blindly. There is a widespread consciousness that rest is a sin and labor is a virtue, and that people need to contribute to society by repeatedly self-sacrificing for the sake of the whole, not for personal gain or convenience.
But I believe it’s important to give not only our bodies but also our souls the rest they deserve, to give us a chance to reassess ourselves and rejuvenate ourselves for tomorrow, because work doesn’t happen when we have the strength to move our limbs, but when we have the mental space to fully engage, think, and participate.
The person who takes on the work no one else wants to do
In my previous jobs, I’ve been known to step up and do things that no one else wants to do. For example, I cleaned the restrooms, wiped down the microwaves, and watered the potted plants. I also took on the task of washing cups and trays left behind by customers. I didn’t set out to do it, but I did it because no one else in the office wanted to do it and it smelled bad. Other people didn’t want to do it because they thought it was a chore, and I didn’t think it was a chore at all. Usually, the interns were the ones doing the small tasks, but I was the new kid on the block helping them out and working with them.
The reason why I worked with them was because I used to do small tasks as an intern, and I thought it was better to get along with them and work with them even if I was officially hired. I also thought that the more you can do the things that other people don’t want to do, the more you can be recognized as someone who truly cares about the organization. So, I felt rewarded when I cleaned the office and took care of the plants, and the plants came to life. Not only in the organization, but also at home, I tend to take on tasks that my family members don’t often do. I’ll do my own laundry if there’s a load of laundry, I’ll do the dishes if there are any left over, I’ll change the sheets, I’ll clean the bathroom, etc. I do this because I feel it’s a courtesy to the space I live in, and it’s my mantra to take care of the little things first.
Being well organized is the key to life!
I’ve always had a mindset of looking at the whole, the organization I’m a part of. I’m definitely not an individualist, but a holist would be more appropriate. The reason why I think this is because in Korea, I think that having a good organizational life is a shortcut to a good life. If you think of organizational life, you can basically think of family life, relationships with relatives, and even relationships with friends and classmates that you have met through school, and groups that you belong to, such as personal groups, private organizations, clubs, and societies, are also organizations. Organizations have the power to give me a sense of security, a sense of belonging, warm recognition, and allow me to grow within them, learning teamwork, coexistence, and cooperation.
So I always think it’s important to be around people, to respect each other’s way of life, and to share and learn from each other. You only have to watch a television program like “Law of the Jungle” to see that people live in organizations, not necessarily societies, but people are more important than tools to survive in the wilderness. Even if you are dropped on a deserted island and try to survive in the wasteland, what you need is people, so I tend to think that true happiness is to live among people, and that’s why I try to be good to the people around me, be flexible in my organizational life, and always try to get along with the people around me and build empathy.
