[wForum] Determined for Thirty-One Days

Jeong Eun-gwi, Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

At the start of a new year, everyone harbors at least one wish?quitting smoking, reading more, exercising, obtaining certifications, and so on. However, we also have a long-standing tradition of weak willpower. This is the concept of ‘Jaksim Samil (作心三日)’, meaning a resolution that lasts no more than three days. Faced with this saying, we erase our firm New Year’s resolutions into awkward forgetfulness and continue our daily lives monotonously. Some say it’s okay to dream a new dream every three days, but renewing one’s resolve repeatedly in the daily battles of life is not easy.

But this year, I have been practicing a certain wish for a full ‘Jaksim Samsipil’?thirty days of determination. It’s nothing grand: walking 12,000 steps a day. The initial motivation was shoulder pain. After many days spent sitting at a desk for extended periods, I felt my body stiffening. Although I usually enjoy walking, it was difficult to exceed 3,000 to 6,000 steps in daily life, so I resolutely decided to walk 12,000 steps every day.

It wasn’t easy. Walking on days when the temperature was minus 19 degrees Celsius, when it snowed, or when the wind blew in winter was a hardship. But since I made up my mind, I walked. While walking, I encountered many wonders and gifts. Negative feelings like unresolved memories from the past, anger, resentment, and frustration disappeared, and complicated matters were calmly sorted out. Faces that came to mind during the walk became prayers. Priorities were set on what was important and what was not, and I was able to reflect on myself, who had been neglected for a long time.

Walking also made me realize how much this world gives as a gift to insignificant humans. I came to know how beautiful the sky is, how resilient the winter trees are. I felt how warm the afternoon sunlight is and guessed the hardships of life from the unsteady shoulders of the person walking ahead. The alley scenes were always so new... The wonders newly discovered at my eye level, things I couldn’t see when passing by in a car.

For some, walking may seem like a leisurely pastime. Even I, who work and study against time, did not walk because I had leisure. But by extending ‘Jaksim Samil’ day by day into ‘Jaksim Samsipil’ and walking, my shoulder pain disappeared, and both my body and mind became more flexible. I gained the leisure to look around more and improved my concentration on seated tasks. Walking, I see the fragile inner world, and walking, I grow. By meeting this land and these streets concretely, my hope to safely get through these gloomy times has also grown a little more.

Besides walking, another ‘Jaksim Samsipil’ I recommend to those around me is taking one photo a day. Taking photos is about looking. Carefully and attentively look at things you usually pass by without notice. Then you realize how many gifts this world holds and how easily we miss them. In these times when many things have come to a halt, which path are we on now? Or are we lost? Wherever we are, if we are walking and looking, the path is there and is created there. On that path, I, we exist, and the world expands. Whether ‘Jaksim Samsipil’ becomes ‘Jaksim Sambaegil’ or what else we discover, like a line from a movie, I’ll be back?I will return and tell you more.

Jeong Eungwi, Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.