The Courage to Know Yourself

Episode #85: 나를 알아가는 용기 / The Courage to Know Yourself

나를 알아가는 용기 The Courage to Know Yourself

대한민국 역대 최연소 사법시험 합격자가 8년간 몸담았던 김앤장을 떠났습니다. 실패해서가 아니었습니다. 성공했는데도 행복하지 않았기 때문입니다.

박지원의 세바시 강연은 단순한 커리어 전환 이야기가 아닙니다. 그것은 오랫동안 남이 정해 준 길 위에서 달려온 사람이, 처음으로 자기 자신에게 정직해지는 이야기입니다.

이번 에피소드에서 쥬빌리 코치는 박지원의 이야기를 통해 이런 질문들을 함께 생각해 봅니다:

• 외적 동기(돈, 지위, 인정)와 내적 동기 사이에서 나는 어디에 있는가?
• "나에 대한 데이터베이스"를 쌓는다는 것은 무엇을 의미하는가?
• IFS(내면 가족 체계) 관점에서, 내 삶을 주도하고 있는 것은 어떤 부분인가?
• 자기인식은 어디서 끝나고, 하나님을 향한 여정은 어디서 시작되는가?
• 성취(achievement)와 성장(growth)의 차이는 무엇인가?

성경은 자기 자신을 아는 것과 하나님을 아는 것이 서로 연결되어 있다고 말합니다. 나의 한계와 공허함을 정직하게 바라볼 때, 우리는 스스로 채울 수 없는 것이 있다는 것을 발견합니다. 그리고 그 발견이 우리를 하나님께로 이끕니다.

박지원이 말하는 "성장"의 여정 — 그것은 복음 안에서 더 깊고 더 자유로운 의미를 갖습니다.

Korea's youngest-ever to pass the bar exam spent eight years at one of the country's most prestigious law firms — and then walked away. Not because she failed. Because she had succeeded, and still wasn't happy.

Park Ji-won's Sebasi talk is not simply a career-change story. It's the story of someone who had been running hard on a path others set for her — and who, for the first time, got honest with herself.

In this episode, Jubilee Coach reflects on Park Ji-won's story and explores these questions:

• Where do you land between extrinsic motivation (money, status, approval) and intrinsic motivation?
• What does it actually mean to build a "database of yourself"?
• Through an IFS (Internal Family Systems) lens — which parts are running your life right now?
• Where does self-knowledge end, and where does the journey toward God begin?
• What is the difference between achievement and growth?

Scripture has always held that knowing ourselves and knowing God are bound together. When we look honestly at our limits and our emptiness — what we cannot fill on our own — we discover a need only God can meet. And that discovery leads us somewhere.

The journey toward self-knowledge that Park Ji-won describes becomes, in the light of the gospel, something deeper and freer than a personal project. It becomes a form of worship.

이번 에피소드에서 다루는 내용 | In This Episode

— 박지원 세바시 강연 소개 | Introduction to Park Ji-won's Sebasi talk — 외적 동기 vs. 내적 동기 | Extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation — IFS: 관리자 부분과 Self의 주도권 | IFS: Manager parts and Self-leadership — 자기인식과 하나님 인식 | Self-knowledge and knowledge of God — 성취와 성장의 차이 | The difference between achievement and growth — 쥬빌리 코치의 질문들 | Jubilee Coach's reflection questions

참고 자료 | References

박지원 (Park, J.). (2025). 나만의 행복의 공식 [세바시 강연]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTzomRi_Hwk

Brown, B. (2010). The gifts of imperfection. Hazelden.

Schwartz, R. C. (2021). No bad parts. Sounds True.

Powlison, D. (n.d.). What is your calling? CCEF. https://www.ccef.org/products/what-is-your-calling/

쥬빌리 코치 소개 | About Jubilee Coach

쥬빌리 코치는 개혁주의 칼빈주의 신학, 기독교 생애 코칭(ICF 기준), 그리고 IFS 치료 훈련을 바탕으로 한 Life Blog 및 팟캐스트입니다. 우리는 모든 사람이 창의적이고 자원이 풍부한 존재임을 믿습니다.

Jubilee Coach is a Life Blog and podcast grounded in Reformed Christian theology, ICF-standard Christian life coaching, and IFS therapy training. We believe every person is creative, resourceful, and whole.

전체 블로그 (한국어 · 영어) | Full bilingual blog (Korean · English): [링크 추가 · https://www.jubileecoach.com/blog]

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:06):
There was a woman in Korea who passed the bar exam at
20 years old, the youngest inthe country's history.
She went on to spend eight yearsat one of Korea's most
prestigious law firms, doingexactly what everyone around her
said was the right thing to do,the smart thing, the successful

(00:26):
thing.
And then she quit.
Not because she failed, notbecause something went wrong.
She quit because she looked shelooked honestly at her life and
realized this isn't mine.
Her name is Pak Chi Wan and shegave a talk recently about what
she calls her own formula forhappiness, and I've been

(00:50):
thinking about it ever since.
So she makes a distinction inher talk that I think a lot of
us need to hear.
There is extrinsic motivation,the rewards that come from
outside, such as money, status,other people's approval.
These things are real and theymatter.

(01:12):
She doesn't dismiss them, butthere is also intrinsic
motivation doing somethingbecause the doing itself is
enjoyable, because somethinginside you comes alive when you
do it.
She says honestly you need both,but the right balance is
different for every person.

(01:34):
And here's what struck me whenshe looked back at her years as
a lawyer, she noticed something.
The work she actually came alivedoing, it wasn't the high stakes
litigation, it was thecommunication, the translation
reviews, the moments whenlanguage was alive in her hands.

(01:55):
She had been carrying a clueabout herself for years, she
just hadn't known hadn't knownhow to read it.
She calls this building adatabase of yourself.
You have to actually try things.
You have to live it, not justthink about it.
No one else can do that for you.

(02:17):
Now I want to sit with that fora moment because I think there
is something true and somethingincomplete in it.
The idea of knowing yourself isancient.
Pak Jiwan mentions Socrates,know thyself and that's a good
place to start.

(02:38):
But the wisdom tradition I comefrom presses the question even
deeper.
The scriptures, and the teacherswho have faithfully read them
have always insisted that selfknowledge and knowledge of God
are bound together.
You can't fully have one withoutthe other.
When you look honestly atyourself, your limits, your

(03:01):
emptiness, the things you cannotfill on your own, something
happens.
That honesty doesn't just giveyou better career data, it moves
you.
It opens something and it leadsyou toward a need that only God
can meet.

(03:22):
The hollowness Pak Jiwan felt,doing everything right and still
feeling like something wasmissing, that's not just a
vocational problem.
It's a deeply human one, and thegospel speaks directly into it.
Our identity at the deepestlevel is not built from what we

(03:45):
achieve, it's not built from thetitle on our business card or
the path our parents chose forus.
Even the path we chose forourselves, well, it's given
actually, our identity is given,and it's in Christ.
And from that foundation, thatsettled, unearnable identity,

(04:10):
we're free to discover vocation,the calling, how we are
particularly made to love and toserve, and what God has wired
into us that the world around usneeds.
And that's a different kind ofself discovery.
It's not a project for your ownbenefit, it becomes quietly a

(04:33):
form of worship or a life of aworshiper.
Pak Jiwan ends her talk with adistinction that I keep
returning to.
She says if running toward aresult is achievement, then what
she's describing is growth.

(04:54):
Achievement is visible, growthis the process of bec coming to
know yourself while finding joyalong the way.
And she says something else thatstayed with me.
She might have to go back tobeing a lawyer someday for
financial reasons.
She doesn't know.

(05:16):
But if she does, she says it'llbe different because this time
it would be her own choice.
The bitterness would be gone.
There's something quietlyprofound in that.
The same path walked with agencyand self-knowledge is a
different path.

(05:37):
Not because the circumstanceschanged, but because she
changed.
So I want to leave you with afew questions not to answer
right now, but just to carrywith you.
Where in your life right now doyou feel most alive and where do
you feel your breath tightenwith stress?

(06:02):
Is the path that you're on?
Is that the one you've chosen orone that was handed to you, uh
expected of you, and that younever quite stop to ask whether
it fits?
And underneath all of that, whenyou look honestly at what you
cannot fill on your own, what doyou find there?

(06:26):
And where does that lead you?
Well, that's it for today.
Thanks for joining us onceagain.
Now these aren't easy questions,I realize.
And I think they're pretty goodones.
The good news is that you don'thave to answer them alone.

(06:46):
Godspeed.