2019 Focus: Work Hard

I’ve managed to lose my habit of writing even semi-regularly. I don’t like that I’ve got out of the swing of writing because it means that I really struggle to start up again. I keep writing one sentence posts or half starting something and giving up, knowing somehow, that I’m now a quitter. Simply because I haven’t sat down at the keyboard and written for myself in months.


I’ve always loved writing and really want it to be a habit I stick at. It’s one of those skills for life that I know I’ll need, I do love and is something that helps to keep my creative and present. I just struggle to put in the time for many things at the moment unless I attend some kind of class. Attending classes has been so good for me to force myself to focus on specific areas of my life and actually progress.

One class that I have been attending regularly is yoga. And I’m in love. Yoga has become the best choice for me for exercise, mental health, self-care… It’s enhanced so many aspects of my life without me even realising it would have such a holistic effect on my mind and body. It has definitely been life changing and I can feel the benefits it has had to my stress-prone mind and the strength and flexibility it has brought to my body.

Another thing I have been focussing on for 2019 is my theme of working hard. This relates to the obvious ways to work hard such as in my psychology degree with lectures, assignments and exams. However, this also refers to in every other aspect of my life. I want to try and work hard at yoga, my degree, my activism, consuming less animal products, relationships with family and friends, creating a daily routine… I could go on. This focus has really inspired me because I know it is something which is easy to work at, doesn’t have specific targets for me to not reach and can apply in so many aspects of my life.

I think this yearly focus will definitely leave me feeling proud of myself by the end of the year because I will know that regardless of the small or large things I have achieved and act as concrete evidence, I have worked hard. Therefore, anything I have achieved will be enough. Life is of course a work in progress anyway. There is no point reaching perfection because then you have nowhere to go. We should all strive to work hard and try our best because that way we can never disappoint ourselves. And we are obviously the most important people in all our individual lives.

anastasia tasou

As you can see I’ve been doing a lot of self-reflection at the moment, but I haven’t been able to actually put very much of it into practice. I keep focussing on thinking about what I want to change and then just seem to forget about all those goals and ways I want to improve myself and my life. I keep spending just a little bit too much time listlessly scrolling my phone, watching Netflix, staying indoors or just browsing social media. I have so many goals that I know I am capable of achieving but one of my biggest struggles has and continues to be that I cannot always self-motivate when the awards are not immediate.

This is interesting because having written about how I’m an introvert and that many introverts are able to be intrinsically motivated and don’t need immediate gratification, but somehow this part of introversion has passed me by sadly. I really wish it hadn’t because I do realise that I would be capable of a lot if I sat down and did that shit. But I don’t always, and it really does frustrate me.

I was shown in a lecture recently a TED Talk by Tim Urban on procrastination. This hit home very hard, for me and my friends sat next to me. All of us procrastinators have to eventually realise that ourselves and our minds are in the end the only things holding us back from achieving everything we wish to. I plan to make some kind of schedule and specific list of goals so that I will have something very specific to work towards and be able to say that I have achieved what I wanted to. I need something like this to be able to keep me accountable for my life goals otherwise time will have gone by with me spending too much time on my phone and I will not have very much to show for it.

I apologise for not having shown up on my blog very much in the past year, but hopefully, this will be a turning point for me. I have lots of ideas and things that I have learnt, and many people would probably benefit from. I feel like I have become a better person in general, but I know I have much further to go before I can be my true and most content self.

So here is to working hard in 2019. (Even if we’re already a quarter of the way through.)

What is your focus for 2019?