Twenty Nineteen
It’s my fifth year of doing this a year in retrospect thing. And the year is 2019. Trump is still president, so is Dictator Buhari. The war still rages on between the patriarchy gatekeepers and the feminism warriors with neither side willing to compromise. If the Time’s Person of the Year is anything to go by, then 2019 seems to be the year outrage over climate change is embraced. Don’t even get me started on the fact that… Yeah you know what, let’s get into it.
Consistency & showing up is also a life hack
I know that consistency and showing up get a lot of flak for being slightly overrated and being over flogged in today's world of buzzwords. I get it, I agree too. But it doesn’t mean both of these things aren’t true.
In 2019 I did a lot more showing up which was something I decided to take a break from midway in 2018 LOL. I showed up even when I had done a 13 hour night shift and had to watch a tutorial, then put it to practice. Eventually I learned video editing. And illustrating. And I animated 2 things in After Effects which is much more than I had animated in my entire life.
Yet it wasn’t enough to learn all these things, I had to apply them consistently too. I frequently get bored of repetition even if it’s something I genuinely enjoy doing or participating it. I used to hack it by constantly looking for ways to reinvent the novelty attached to things. This time I tried something different: being consistent long after the novelty had worn off. I might just have messed around and proved something with my self-imposed 31 day #CreateSomethingEveryday challenge. (P.S Yes, yes I will still hack things on occasion, stop judging me.)
Sometimes, it’s just plain good luck & timing
I used to get so frustrated when certain things just didn’t come to fruition. After putting in the work I assumed that the definite end result would be the payoff right? Wrong! Sometimes things don’t payoff as much as you expected to or the outcome isn’t even as big as you’d hope.
It sucks. I won’t even bother mincing words because boy does it suck and also slightly feel like you’ve failed. But sometimes you won’t get the expected outcome because luck and timing just didn’t collide this time. So give yourself a break, you did your best and now it’s time to move on.* But never forget that while you cannot influence either of these things, you can position yourself to be ready when they do.
*Note to over worrying self
Someone lied: your work CAN also be part of your purpose
You know how you can pull up any site aimed at the millennial slash Gen Z audience and find articles on “work-life balance” and other variations? I think it’s really just made up mashed rubbish. For a lot of people, they achieve their purpose through the very same work or jobs they do. So where on earth is this narrative of balance coming from?
Probably from the same place that diamonds are forever and breakfast is the most important meal did. Don’t fall for it kids, it’s okay if your work or job is entwined with your personal and social life. When your purpose is achieved through it, it’ll happen and it’s perfectly fine.
Or you might have problems like this:
You know, because you work at one of the coolest places with the coolest company: Cowrywise! Yup, I had a job switch. Part of the application was rewriting an article on mutual funds. Here’s my draft where I compare mutual funds to amala. I got hired so clearly someone likes amala around here.🤔
Expectations take the fun out of everything
I can’t count how many times I get hit with the “Sooooo, when are you getting married/having a kid/doing your masters?” question. To be frank, they are valid questions but only ones I’d prefer to ask myself in moments of reflection and planning. Not by someone who would much rather mind anyone’s business but their own.
I won’t even get into the fact that it zaps the fun out of relationships too. After two years of together, I think year two has seen both of us rethink the expectations we’ve brought to the table. 10/10 recommend thinking through your existing expectations and eliminating unrealistic ones.
So yeah, I’m asking that we all drop the expectations we have about people and things in 2020? It’s about time that we approached things with a little less of the apprehension that comes along with expecting.
So it’s a wrap! (Almost anyway because we have a few weeks until we properly bow out for the year.)
Mood as I’m ending 2019:
Fun fact: All my end of the year posts have one thing in common. I’m either moving house or moving house. Sometimes in a different city or within the same city. This year seems to be keeping it consistent too. Weird.
