Meet Kevin Shen

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kevin Shen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kevin, so glad you were able to set aside some time for us today. We’ve always admired not just your journey and success, but also the seemingly high levels of self-discipline that you seem to have mastered and so maybe we can start by chatting about how you developed it or where it comes from?

My self-discipline comes from my motivation to be someone that can be something in the world. Growing up I always wanted to be someone or something that had an effect on people, someone that people could be motivated by and look up to. This all started when I was younger. Growing up I honestly felt like a nobody and had no sense of direction. I was a bit all over the place. I looked up to movie stars, nba players, and my father who was a surgeon. Other than my father, It was extremely hard to look up to anybody that looked like me. As an asian american we were subjected to bullying and verbal abuse often looked as the “weaklings” and “nerds”.

I wanted to be something different, I wanted to be the role model I wish I had growing up. Therefore, I took matters to my own hands and started to workout, build a physique in which that I felt powerful in, a superhero, a movie star physique…so I pushed myself in the gym. What also motivated me was having my first breakup which pushed me to the next level. At my lowest point I remember locking myself in my room for 2-3 months and I told myself “Kevin you are now 20 it’s time to get up, stop whining and work on yourself”. During this time I continued to push myself in the gym. I came to the conclusion that I wanted to be someone that can take care of patients, family and my future family. I immersed myself into the medical field in an effort to accomplish these goals. There was a point in my life where my abilities were doubted but I prevailed. Going in freshman year of highschool, my guidance counseler told my parents I was not going to go to college. My 4th grade english teacher told my dad to prescribe me adderall because without it I would be dysfunctional. Those advice didn’t phase me and I pushed myself and my grades skyrocketed, I got accepted to all the colleges I applied to, and excelled. I took all those criticisms I grew up with and used it to motivate and keep myself disciplined. Finally I got into modeling to show people that as an asian american we can be comfortable in our own skin. The asian hate crimes motivated me more to stand up for who I was and to show that we are strong individuals. I took all this motivation and self discipline in 2023 and said let me test my limits and I competed in my first ever body building show.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Currently my brand is just to motivate people to get up! There are people who are going to doubt you and that’s what you use to motivate yourself to be the best version of you. I enjoy helping those around me and helping them to not give up. I want to continue that by pushing myself on social media, filming more content and hoping to inspire others. I want to show people that you can do anything you want if you put ur mind to it.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Self Discipline: Try the 21 day rule in which you do whatever you need to do for at least 21 days. This can be as simple as waking up early each morning or even forcing yourself into the gym. Eventually your new routine will become addictive and you almost feel naked without doing it.
Empathy: Understand everyones background, dont judge people from who they are at first glance, understand that theres always something that led them to who they are today or maybe they are just having a bad day, try and brighten it up by bringing good energy into the room.
Openness: I think it’s important to be as open as possible in trying new things and meeting new people. Always willing to learn and understand you are not perfect and there are many things you can be better at. With that mindset you will never stop growing!

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

Life hit me like a truck when it came to medical school board exams, life, the expectations I had for myself, pressure, and other personal issues I was dealing with. I believe at the time I was leaning way too much on the outside and not holding onto myself. I genuinely lost myself for the past couple of months and I let lots of bad energy take me over. I was holding onto the wrong support systems and really digging myself into a dark hole. I felt lost and disoriented.

I made a couple of big decisions of letting go of certain things that held me back. I went to therapy to work on myself to learn how to self regulate and took time to myself to understand how to relax which would help me work better under pressure. That really helped me. Therapy does help, but what really helped me the most was my ongoing self reflecting. I went through the past couple of months self reflecting on situations and how I dealt with them and understanding how I can handle myself better. I learned a lot about myself and how to become better, I took what I learned and talked about it to my therapist and we worked together.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ksh3n/

Image Credits

@photographer.978 @henry.juliao