Hi. I’m Connie K. N. Chang and I am the Founder | Creator | Curator of The Unblocked Life™.
I launched this site to shine a light on the importance of personal leadership. The Unblocked Life is a love of mine.
There’s so much attention on how to lead—people, projects, businesses, where our eyes are seeing out and our minds are on how we can move others. We often forget that leadership starts with ourselves first.
When our management tactics are stale, when the project team that we lead is fraught with anxiety over a work deadline, or when we know we should be publishing more but aren’t, maybe instead of pushing forward we might consider just stopping to take a few deep breaths and listen for what is going on inside ourselves.
The choices I’ve made in my career and what I’m interested in goes back to this idea of personal leadership.
I gravitate toward books that help me understand the meaning of a well-lived life, how fitness and health affect emotional well-being, how habits play a powerful role in our daily lives, the importance of grit and the growth mindset to achieving success, and the way that entrepreneurs and designers go about their work.
I gravitate toward being of service. I care about the people in my community and I show my care by volunteering my time toward issues of importance that matter to me and to others. I care deeply. I’ve been this way since I was a a young child. How are my friends doing? Can I help in some way? Who in my network can lend a hand?
For most of my adult working life I have played a supporting role, albeit an important one, in helping scientists and engineers fund their research ideas, in helping the government evaluate the economic impact of research funding, and in helping new research teams manage their projects or start up their research centers.
I feel good when I am of service. I enjoy helping others uncover their dreams and seeing them succeed. I also thrive when I put energy into and take the lead on my own entrepreneurial leanings.
I love my paid and non-paid work and working with my collaborators. The theme that consistently runs through my professional and personal life is: Be The Leader You Wish To See™.
I have been told that I have an intuitive sense of the thread that can unravel a knotty situation, the spark that can breathe life into a stale project, and the ability to bring people together toward a common goal in my advisory and consultancy work with government agencies, universities, and companies. These are my hidden strengths.
A weakness disguised as a strength is not sharing my innermost angst with others. I am a fiercely private person. When I grieved over my father’s death, I suffered silently though I shared my pain with my spouse, Nathaniel. It took years before I read myself out of my grief. Eight years after my father’s sudden death, The Unblocked Life was born during a walk with Nathaniel who said I should write what I’ve learned.
I write this blog to serve as a trigger to excite you into making the change you wish, to lead yourself on a journey toward your must do, and to keep you motivated in that pursuit.
Creating the life we wish to lead takes stillness, disciplined thought, commitment, and follow through. And, we cannot do this alone. Community matters and I hope The Unblocked Life serves as inspiration, motivation, and a “place” where you can find this sense of community.
The joy we feel when our lives are in sync with our deeply held wishes is one that I know, with committed practice, you will experience.
I wish you well on your journey.
Just begin.
