In October 2026, I’m Taking a Short Break from Real Estate

10/01/2026

Today, I’d like to share something a little different.

This is not about homes, mortgages, or the Georgia real estate market.

It’s hard to believe that there are only a few months left in 2026. Time really seems to be flying by.

So today, I’d like to share a little more casually about how I’ve been doing lately, and how I’ve gradually changed over the past 13 years since I started working in real estate.

How Can Every Day Be So Enjoyable?

Sometimes, people I work with or clients I meet tell me, “You’re always so full of energy.”

Sometimes I think to myself, “How did I become like this?”

Then I started thinking that it might have something to do with the morning exercise I started at the end of last year, so I’d like to start by sharing that story.

To be honest, I was originally someone who really disliked exercise.

I always knew I should exercise, but I would simply let it go, thinking, “I’m pretty healthy anyway…”

But at some point, I started thinking:

If I want to keep doing the work I love for a long time, I need to be healthy. So instead of starting after I get sick, I should start doing a little before that happens.

So, for my 2026 New Year’s resolution, I decided to exercise for 10 minutes a day.

When I started looking for exercise videos on YouTube, I found so many great ones. Among them, I chose a 10-minute strength workout and started following it as soon as I woke up in the morning.

Since I had never exercised at all, during the first month or so, 10 minutes felt almost like an hour, and it was really hard.

But as I kept doing it little by little every day, at some point, those 10 minutes started to feel really short.

Of course, I can’t do it every day. I exercise about three or four times a week, but even that makes me say to myself, “I’m actually keeping this up…” and I give myself quite a bit of credit for it.

I used to love doing nothing and lying on the sofa to relax, but these days, my family is amazed when they see me in the evening, laying out my yoga mat and doing exercises on it.

I’m amazed by myself too, and I think, “I really can change this much.”

These days, I’m learning that even small changes are still meaningful changes.

If you’re like me and have been thinking that you should start exercising, don’t try to start with something big. Try starting with just 10 minutes a day.

It’s better than you might think.

A Person Who Continues to Grow

I sometimes jokingly say,

“I think I’m at my thinnest and wisest right now.”

Of course, I may become thinner and wiser in the future.

But through the real estate work I’m doing now, I feel that I have matured in many ways.

I’ve learned many things, but if I had to choose one, I think I’ve learned about taking responsibility for my words.

Not long ago, while working with someone, I heard them say:

“Not everyone wants to take responsibility for what they say, you know.”

Hearing that made me think about many things.

As we go through life, sometimes our words are understood differently from what we intended, and misunderstandings can happen between people.

There have also been times when I unintentionally found out that someone I had worked with for a long time had developed a misunderstanding about me.

As a person, there are times when that hurts and upsets me.

When that happens, I want to go to them right away and explain that it wasn’t like that and that there had been a misunderstanding.

But these days, I try to think about it a little differently.

“If I didn’t do anything wrong, then maybe someday, as time passes, they will understand.”

And if there is another opportunity to talk someday, I think it would be better to have that conversation calmly then.

That is how I slowly comfort myself.

Looking back, I feel that through my real estate work and the clients I have met, I have changed and grown a great deal as a person as well.

I was originally a very introverted person, and although I still have that side of me, I used to be afraid of meeting people I didn’t know and didn’t really enjoy being in crowded places.

Then, while raising my children, I started working in real estate Full Time.

In the beginning, I was so nervous just showing homes to clients.

But now, I talk about homes with clients I’m meeting for the first time, negotiate, and sometimes even clearly express my opinions.

When I think about it, I’ve really changed a lot.

And I’m grateful that this change didn’t happen all at once because of some special event, but naturally came from doing this work little by little every day.

What I Learned Through People

I still remember my first client, whom I met 12 years ago.

I first met a daughter and her mother around November 2014, and they purchased a townhouse in Suwanee in February 2015.

And this is a really embarrassing story, but I used to be terrible with directions. Now I have navigation, and I know the roads almost like a taxi driver.

When I started working in 2013, if I had a showing with a client the next day, I would go to the neighborhood ahead of time so that I wouldn’t get lost while driving the client around.

Back then, everything was new to me.

I remember working very carefully, asking my broker about every little thing.

I still remember the agent representing the other side whom I met for the first time.

At the time, I didn’t even know that she was such a top agent.

After the inspection, if there were any issues that might be harmful to the buyer, I did my best to explain them.

But that agent explained everything very kindly, and she also talked to the seller and had the issues corrected.

Then, a few years later, I met her again in another transaction.

At that time, she told me, “I knew you were going to do well.”

I remember those words to this day.

For me, who had only been working in the business for a short time, those words were a great source of encouragement.

When I think about it, even as adults, hearing someone say, “You’re going to do well,” is very meaningful.

And there is another client who changed the way I looked at the world a little.

It was around 2015.

I received a request to show a townhouse near H Mart in Johns Creek, so I met the client in the H Mart parking lot.

I arrived in an old black midsize car, and the client arrived in a white luxury sedan.

The young couple and their beautiful daughter got into my car, and as we drove together to see the homes, I don’t know why those five minutes made me so nervous.

I wasn’t even confident in my driving, and I had to drive the clients and even open the gate, so I was really overwhelmed.

But as I learned more about them, I found out that they lived about two hours away and were planning to purchase a townhouse as a second home so they could come to their Korean church every Sunday.

That was when I first realized, “People who have the means also buy homes for reasons like this…”

But as time passed, what I remembered more was not their lifestyle.

It was the warmth they showed as people.

I still keep in touch with that client, and now we have become close enough to call each other older and younger sisters.

When I think about it, the greatest thing I have gained through my real estate work was not a home, not a transaction, but people.

That is why I am still grateful that I can continue doing this work.

And every day, I want to keep trying to become a slightly better person than I was yesterday.

I’m Going to Take a Short Break

And during the last week of October, I’m going to give myself a little vacation after working hard all this time.

I’m planning to spend about 10 days in Korea. It has already been three years since I last saw my mother, who lives in Korea, and my youngest daughter has never been to Korea.

So this time, I’m going to Korea with my daughter.

I’m going to take some time to rest and recharge, see my mother, eat delicious food, and show my daughter the Korea I’ve missed.

And then I’ll come back.

In 2027, I Want to Take Things a Little More Slowly

As I say goodbye to 2026, I’ve been thinking about this lately.

People don’t have to change dramatically to change little by little.

The 10 minutes of exercise every day is one example. So is the fact that I, who couldn’t even find my way around at first, have now been working in real estate for 13 years. And so is the fact that I used to be afraid of meeting new people, but now I consider meeting people one of the most precious parts of my life.

I’m sure I’ll learn something new again in 2027.

I’d like to challenge myself to start vocal training again, which I had paused for a while, and I’d also like to learn a little more about design.

And more than anything, I want to become a little healthier and a little more relaxed than I am now.

If 2026 was a year when I worked hard and kept moving forward, I hope 2027 will be a year when I slow down a little more and take the time to look around me as I live my life.

My story may not be anything special to some people.

But if you, too, have been running too hard lately, I hope you will give yourself at least one day to pause and give yourself the gift of taking a break.

I’ll spend the end of October in Korea and will say hello again in November.

Then, I’ll come back to talking about real estate.

Thank you.