25 things for 2025: Q3 reflection
It’s officially October, and we’re fully in pumpkin spice season. It’s still quite warm in Seoul and doesn’t feel like autumn quite yet. Ever since I decided to shorten my trip, time seems to be whizzing by and somehow I only have a week left before I go to the pottery residency.
Earlier this year, I set a list of 25 discrete goals for 2025 (with a few added along the way) and I usually do a quick check-in each quarter to see how I’m doing. It’s rewarding to reflect on some of the progress I’ve made over the last three months. Most notably, I finally attended a personal development related workshop, retreat, or training. I attended the Seoul Smart Life Week 2025 and got to sit in on portions of the Climate Tech for All sessions and the very first Seoul Urban AI Forum. While this was technically doesn’t fit in the “personal development” category I was envisioning, which was more in the realm of like spirituality or personal growth, this was a great experience that did give me a spark of inspiration for which I was looking.
First off, it was surprisingly exciting to be back in the presence of climate tech and other sustainability startups. I got to hear from ambitious companies working on all kinds of hard but necessary solutions to not only avoid catastrophic climate disaster but to enable more humans to live healthier lives. I particularly enjoyed learning about a company working on desalinating water to enable those in water insecure areas to provide these services to their community. What was interesting was that rather than selling the desalinated water themselves, they wanted to sell these machines to locals as a way to start businesses within the community, enabling people to sell well water and simultaneously providing community members with cleaner and cheaper water than they can get currently. I was also impressed by a startup working on a very technical hardware solution for air filtering/purification and resource harvesting from industrial waste processes. Being back in that room, even for a very short period of time, reminded me of the genuine interest I have in this field and why I went back to graduate school to get a degree in environmental policy and my previous work advising climate tech startups. As I transitioned to trading and investing full-time, I have put startups and my interest in climate change on the back burner. While I am no longer a startup operator or advisor as I was earlier in my career, I genuinely am excited about all the innovation happening. This was a good reminder that I need to think about my role in this ecosystem and how I can be involved even if it’s no longer my day job.
Secondly, this forum was also a great experience for getting some investing ideas. As the current crypto bull market peaks, I need to think about how to re-deploy my capital next year and I got a lot of good ideas that I want to further explore from this conference. It was a breath of fresh air to hear from non-U.S. centric perspectives that emphasize the role of China and other growing economies versus just focusing on the U.S. I was also impressed by the robotic displays — I didn’t watch the robotics competition but got to see all kinds of robot demos at the various booths. I had no idea that robots were at the level of sophistication that they are actively at right now. The U.S. is clearly behind in this area and as a result, I’d almost forgotten about this sector. It was exciting to see all the use cases and applications for various robots. Overall, this was an excellent opportunity for sourcing investment ideas that I can further research and think about.
On the weight loss goal, I’ve lost about five out of the ten pounds that I had set as a goal — pretty good progress, right? However, my recent full body exam at KMI showed that the weight that I’ve mostly lost since last year has been muscle, meaning my body fat percentage has actually gone up. I guess this is why so many people say to focus on muscle and fat, not weight. It was interesting to see a tangible example of visible progress that was not actually meaningful or positive — solely because I was focusing on the wrong metric. This was a quite discouraging given that I’ve been pretty active this year. Before Korea, I was doing a mix of walking, yoga, and strength training. For the last month that I’ve bene in Korea, I’ve been walking 10K-15K steps per day and apparently it hasn’t resulted in any fat loss. I had also successfully completed the goal of 13-hour intermittent fasts 5+ times per week for 8 weeks, but clearly to no avail. With the exception of my cholesterol, most of my health metrics look good, so for now, I’m not going to change much in this area since I am still walking so much and just started doing push ups for a little upper body strength. I want to enjoy the last month I have here and will figure out a more sustainable strength-focused routine when I go home.
On my Korea-specific goals, I am finally going to the pottery residency this month! I’ve also spent some serious quality time with friends here. Getting to see some of my oldest friends has been a major highlight of this trip. I’ve blown the 10+ museum visits out of the park, as I’m in a neighborhood filled with museums and little galleries and experience some kind of art almost on a daily basis here.
There are a few goals like growing my pottery Instagram account that I’ve made little to no progress on. However, there aren’t many that I feel bad about regarding my lack of progress. I still need to take trading related workshop or course — but if I don’t that’s totally fine, too. I also have made no progress on my meditation goal. This reflects the lack of inner peace I’ve been feeling lately. Traveling, coupled with very poor sleep for the last month, has stimulated my nervous system in a bad way. I’m hoping that I can get back into it when I go to the country side for the pottery residency. One’s inner state impacts one’s ability to get in the flow and create, so hoping that will be good motivation to rebuild my a more consistent practice.
Overall, it’s been a fruitful quarter that has reminded me that growth doesn’t always show up or look the way we expect it to. I’m grateful for all the new experiences and unexpected learning opportunities I’ve had during this trip. I’m feeling more energized about committing to the projects and practices that matter most. As I get ready for the pottery residency next week, I’m looking forward to taking some to go inward during this chapter of play, presence, and creativity.