Where attention leads

Where your attention goes, your life follows. Diving down the rabbit hole of my curiosity led me to make the single most important decision of my life. This is the story of how I find myself moving away from everything I know, pursuing my curiosity deep into East Asia.

When we were kids, my cousins and I were watching Bruce Lee’s movies on repeat. I even enrolled in martial arts classes for a couple of months. Growing up, that interest in martial arts faded and became one of those dormant childhood memories.

But when a few years ago, I saw my yellow jumpsuit-wearing hero printed on 2-meter-wide billboards in the Parisian metro, my curiosity was piqued. There was an exhibition on Asian Martial Arts in the Quai Branly Museum. As my cousins and I were spending a weekend in the city, we went to the museum together.

The exhibition was amazing. So great actually that my long-forgotten interest came rushing back. As soon as I got back home, I started researching Wushu (referred to as Kung-fu in the West) schools in Paris. I wanted a school that felt authentic—something that connected me to the rich tradition we’d glimpsed during the exhibition.

The road to the East

I ended up enrolling in the Kung-Fu Chang school. On the first day, I was both excited and nervous—this was way out of my comfort zone. I wasn’t the sporty type—at all. Honestly, just keeping up during warm-up was a struggle. Yet, I was hooked. Here and there, small details came to validate that I picked the right school.

One thing caught my attention. Aiming to be as traditional as possible, teachers were counting reps in Mandarin. Even as we were doing push-ups, they went “yī, èr, sān”! I loved it. I was fascinated.

As Shaolin (少林拳) and Tai Chi (太極拳) were starting to grow on me, I thought, why not learn to count in Mandarin? It’ll make remembering the forms easier. So I downloaded Duolingo, expecting it to be a quick detour—a complement to my Wushu classes.

I was wrong. Mandarin became an obsession.

The next Fall, I enrolled in the Saturday morning classes of the Encrier Chinois. It’s crazy. A year ago, I had no particular interest in the Chinese culture or its language. And now, I found myself waking up earlier on weekends than any other day of the week to read, write, and speak Mandarin.

But the best was yet to come.

Taiwan’s calling

By sheer luck, it happened that the school I enrolled with was an official Taiwan center for Mandarin learning. At that time, I couldn’t even place Taiwan on the map lol. I only picked this school because my Mandarin-speaking acquaintances recommended it.

My teachers were native Taiwanese who now lived in France. Through them and thanks to my developing interest in the language, it took little time for me to grow curious about this mysterious, far-away island.

So naturally, when months later, my girlfriend and I were planning our next trip, I started building the Taiwan case! After research, the island had a lot to offer for a vacation. So, we started mapping out our itinerary. By October 2023, we were flying to Taiwan.

Once there, everything I’d imagined came to life in ways I hadn’t expected. The landscapes, the people, the sense of calm and safety—it was everything I’d hoped for, and more.

In two weeks, I watched the sun rise behind the Yushan (玉山), marveled at the seas of clouds drifting through Alishan mountains (阿里山), trekked in bamboo forests in rural villages where tea farms stretched along the hillsides, and climbed on top of Elephant Mountain (象山) to contemplate Taipei from above.

I fell in love with the capital city, which blended modern architecture and backstreet alley culture. Dining out in the bustling night markets was my daily joy and I quickly developed an addiction to bubble tea.

But more than anything, I was thrilled to see that my girlfriend too was in awe.

One day, we were in Kaohsiung (高雄市), debating whether to visit the Fo Guang Shan Monastery (佛光山寺). Exhausted from nonstop exploring, I wanted to snooze this one out. But I wasn’t at peace with potentially missing out on another incredible experience.

My girlfriend understood that, and she looked at me. “I’m okay skipping this one,” she said. “I know we’ll be back,” she added smiling. “I feel really great here.”

I knew what she was alluding to. My heart started rushing.

Where curiosity takes you

For years, I dreamed of living abroad. But with both our busy professional lives, it always seemed too complicated to make it our reality. Our incentives for traveling were different. We couldn’t agree on the places we wanted to visit—on the lifestyle we wanted.

Suddenly, everything started falling into place. A plan emerged. We would go to Taiwan.

As we got back to Paris, we started making arrangements. We gave ourselves a year to make this shared dream a reality. The plan was to settle in Taiwan before the end of 2024. There was excitement but also fear—fear of stepping into the unknown, of abandoning the life I built over the past decade.

But as I followed my curiosity these past 2 years, I learned to step out of my comfort zone. I enrolled in a physical activity for the first time in my life. I started learning a foreign language. I felt ready for a new adventure.

Life has a funny way of turning interests into callings. Pay attention to where your curiosity leads you. One day, you may just find yourself following them to the other side of the world.

Credits

Jiddu Krishnamurti is the author of the “Where your attention goes, your life follows” quote.

The full quote is:

All of life is the study of attention; where your attention goes, your life follows.