Are you a Yappie (Young Asian Professional)? If you are, are you feeling fulfilled? What else would give your life meaning?
The first time I heard about the concept of “Yappie” was through Wong Fu Productions (a popular Asian American filmmaking group. Watch their Yappie series if you haven’t already). A Yappie, or Young Asian Professional, is someone who spends his / her life chasing the “right’ milestones, someone who is okay staying at a cushy 9-5 and never stopped to question what else he or she could do. I really related to this concept because this was me.
Being A Yappie
I had spent my life doing what I “should” do. I got into a prestigious university, studied something practical (i.e. Finance), and secured a coveted professional job at a large corporation. I ended up exactly where my parents wanted me to be: in a safe career with great prospects in a big company. I would never starve. Life was sweet.
Being a Yappie did make me happy for awhile. I had a great career going for me. I bought a place and married my soulmate. I checked all the boxes, and yet it wasn’t long before the high of all that wore off. A persistent, nagging sense of emptiness hung over me like a cloud. I felt like an ungrateful brat, overridden with guilt for wanting more than what I had, and yet I couldn’t quiet the voice that asked me to find the missing piece that would give my life more meaning than it had.
The Realization
I decided to seek help from a career coach, expecting some sage advice, but the conversation was completely different from what I thought. There was no advice-giving. Instead she asked me, “What do you truly want?” I was thrown off. I never asked myself that because I didn’t think what I wanted was important. After answering a series of deep questions, I realized that I spent most of my life doing what I should do because I was afraid – of judgements, of failures, and of being seen as incompetent. In the process, I failed myself because I was not living in alignment with who I was. This life-changing conversation prompted me to go on a search for what really mattered to me.
Discovering My “Fire”
In the months that followed the conversations I had with the coach, I kept wondering, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if I could help others the way that she helped me?” I decided to try a coaching course from The Coaches Training Institute (CTI), not knowing that this would be the experience that would transform my life. Everything suddenly fell in place. A match was struck, lighting up the fire I’d been looking for all along. I discovered my life purpose, which is to fearlessly inspire people to lead fulfilling lives through my practice, Joanna Li Coaching.
And you, what would light the fire in you?
