2021 · Film Photography · Penghu County, Taiwan
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One day, I found myself asking a simple question.
What do I really believe?
At first, I thought I already knew the answer.
Health.
Family.
Freedom.
Joy.
Creativity.
But after a while, I noticed something.
What I said I believed didn’t always match the way I lived.
That’s when I started to realize something important.
What we truly believe is often hidden in the choices we make every day.
My journey began in 2010.
I started exploring personal growth and spirituality. I read books, attended workshops, practised meditation, and learned from many different people and ideas. Every book, every teacher, and every experience taught me something, and I’m grateful for all of them.
But after many years, something didn’t feel quite right.
Not because those teachers or methods were wrong.
They helped me in many ways.
Still, I kept asking myself the same question.
Many stories tell us that our lives change because we meet the right teacher, discover the right method, or follow the right process.
Maybe that’s true.
But I began to wonder:
What if the real change doesn’t come from the method?
What if it comes from the person who is willing to change?
Later, I started noticing something else.
Sometimes people tell me,
“Health is very important to me.”
I believe them.
In fact, I’m happy to hear it.
If they’re willing to share, I’m curious about something.
What do they actually do every day?
Because I’ve learned that people can tell us what they believe.
But their everyday choices tell us much more.
If health is truly important, our daily choices will slowly move us toward a healthier life.
If family is important, we’ll naturally make time for the people we love.
If freedom matters, sooner or later our choices will begin to reflect that.
Our deepest beliefs are not what we say.
They are what we live.
The first person who taught me this wasn’t someone else.
It was me.
For many years, I thought I simply needed to find the right method.
Later, I realized the real change wasn’t about finding something new.
It was about changing the way I saw myself, the way I saw life, and the way I made my choices.
Because every choice reflects something we truly believe.
Since we were young, we’ve all heard similar stories where
“I worked hard, and eventually I succeeded.”
“I hit rock bottom, and then I turned my life around.”
“I suffered first, and that’s why my story became meaningful.”
I don’t think these stories are wrong.
They have inspired many people, me inckuded.
But one day, I found myself asking another question.
Does life have to work that way?
Do we really have to fall apart before life becomes meaningful?
Do we really have to suffer before we can be happy?
Maybe the question isn’t whether these stories are true.
Maybe the question is whether we’ve been living someone else’s story without ever stopping to ask if it’s the one we want.
These days, I spend less time asking other people what they believe.
Instead, I ask myself:
Do today’s choices help me—and the people I love—become healthier, happier, wealthier, and freer?
I’m not looking for a perfect life.
I’m simply trying to make choices that move me in that direction.
I no longer spend most of my time searching for the next method or the next answer.
Instead, I try to pay attention to the life I’m already living.
Because our lives don’t lie.
They show us what we really believe.
So I still come back to the same question.
What are my choices saying today?
Perhaps the path of our lives isn’t something we find.
Perhaps it’s something we create—
one choice at a time.