Prelude

Most people assume we know the best way how to relate to each other naturally. Studies show that this is not the case as many of us already had preconceptions about the world built into us. It only takes 0.07 seconds to make a first impression. This is a story about how I got from where I was to where I am now, providing people I work with “an oasis to the soul” helping them maximize positive impact in their own lives. I'd like to see myself revolutionize the world of connection as it is in a state of disconnectedness. Ultimately I'd like to see everyone in the world understand each other better.

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Everyone loves a great story and here is mine

As I kid, I love to ask “why?”.  I was wondering about the meaning of life when I was 5 and wanted to know what motivation fuels our decisions and what makes us click as human beings.  At 8 years of age, I brought back to school fun personality tests published on random magazines and asked my best friends to complete them because I was so hyper curious about their response.  These quick tests aim at revealing the like or dislike of the respondent thus their hidden personality facets.  They were not backed by any strong scientific research findings nor did they possess actual validity.  Nevertheless they fascinated the young me. And then, I experienced something totally unfamiliar to the Chinese self: I agreed to be sent to the United Kingdom for schooling after my primary school graduation.  Suddenly, so many other questions about life came up.  They come from the cross-cultural part of me awakening to the foreign environment and I began to develop senses on dissimilarities and diversity particular to global citizens.  I started to investigate how people from such different backgrounds connect.  Needless to say, I enjoyed discovering these profound ideas so much that I eventually took up a psychology masters degree after completing my first degree in Business (Here's a fun fact: culturally speaking, Business or Economics are the default subjects for majority of Chinese students!).  My desire to dig even deeper in order to understand the humankind was massively invigorated around that time. This inevitably led to my pursuit of the coaching expertise in search of the best way to help people get to the core of their challenges.

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Life mission based on passion

Over the years, I also find myself returning to another passion of mine: the love of solving puzzles.  I enjoyed reading and watching anything that makes me ponder.  Psychological thrillers is one of my favourite movie genre because complicated twists and turns require us audience to think before the truth revealed.  I especially liked reading Sherlock Holmes stories because from the characters' dialogue, I have a chance to see overlapping events unfold while they solve the mystery.  Tackling metal ring puzzles was another favourite pastimes and basically any games that train my brain to find feasible solutions were appealing.  It is not surprising then after years of education, working in different size organizations and positions, having been through a kaleidoscope of life events and finally connecting my dots that I return to these two favourites of mine.  Having them as a foundation, I decided I need to live my life differently and with intention.  This time around I'm going to help those who want to make changes to their lives, especially in interpersonal communication challenges and to guide them through so they could develop their own unique creative solutions.

The various experience also made me re-examine my life purpose.  I wrote up a list of things that are important to me and a mission statement comprising of these 9 positive C words emerged:

“I strive to be Candid and Courageous, to Cherish those who Connect and Communicate with me in the space of Curiosity, whereby I Commit to Co-Create no matter the Challenge facing us!”

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Multi-dimensional belief

This life mission permeates everything I do from this point onward, be it my personal life or my work here on Earth.  I want to make an impact to the World in as positive a way as possible.  This became my end goal and while on my way to this goal I want to take pride in the work I do knowing that this is going to improve the well-being of the individuals and groups I come into contact with. But how? Where is this enlightening path?

Coming from one of the busiest city background, I noticed that many people never took the time in self-discoveries but immediately reach out for advice from those who seem more experienced.  Having been brought up in Hong Kong where I spent my first 12 years of life, I had always been different from my peers, a bit of a black swan perhaps, when it comes to tradition.  Out of respect for the elderly, we were taught “one must never challenge anything the older generations say”.  Against all objection, I continue to challenge my teachers, parents, relatives even my friends, not due to disrespect for the tradition or a need to argue for argument's sake but because none of them could silent my curiosity in how people really behave and why.  My moment of truth arrived on a day when I was having yet another one of those business meetings where everyone disagrees with each other but pretends everything was great in my multinational corporation office located in Shanghai.  The realization of what I must accomplish in order to facilitate and make the most positive impact in this area is that I must start my own business again.  I want to fully embody and employ everything I have learnt, to lead a truly meaningful life before I embark on the journey in helping others discovery the power of conversations. With this goal in mind, I set up Centric Quest, and the rest is history!

Through my global and cross-cultural exposure, I can only agree wholeheartedly with what my aspiring mentor Judith E. Glaser advocates: “To get to the next level of greatness depends on the quality of the culture, which depends on the quality of the relationships, which depends on the quality of the conversations. Everything happens through conversation.”

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Journey to the next level

On my Centric Quest journey, I came across many who neglect their authentic self and the quality of their conversations.  Misunderstanding is an understatement and concerns over how people truly relate to themselves and others are especially problematic. This led me to look into Dermatoglyphics and psychology of connections.  I am an avid researcher on personality profiling, interpersonal connections and conversations.  I wish to share with you my findings, recipes of conversational success, how to build trust to connect and other valuable resources.

So here we are, I hope you enjoy reading my story.  I'm sure yours is as interesting if not more so.  Having been told repeatedly that I am an effective attentive listener, I wish to extend my power to you to go deeper and have your own authentic voice to overcome your barriers.  What can be better than when my clients and I get goosebumps because our oxytocin spiked every time we have an exchange?  Will you join me in writing the next chapter of this story?

Book me for consultations, coaching, workshops and keynotes in the self-discovery and conversational connection space.

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Aristotle said: “The beginning of all wisdom is wonder.”  Let’s get wondering and spread the words about how we can achieve great results with the help of scientific research methodologies and much much more!