So 2019 (and February) is here and I'm in disbelief at where the hell 2018 has gone. Throughout the year there was so much different things going on with family deaths, finding our first flat, still trying to operate in the world of London and a plethora of other things I feel like I lost a huge part of the year just to trying to let myself deal with everything. 

As with every year I have some of my own intentions I want to try and fulfil for my own self development and well being. And after seeing Aisling's blog post of creating a mood board to reflect this coming year I wanted to do something similar. 

Having been in my job for over a year now, I want to start making meaningful strides in my career. With 2018 bringing opportunities to do illustration and lettering work for Vitality via social content it's something I want that in 2019 I want learn more the backend of so I can be involved in the full creative process. 

Not only do I want to focus on social media at work, I want to stop neglecting my own. I enjoy creating and writing a lot but haven't done much during 2018. So this year I want to spend more time creating content that my younger self would find inspiring and helpful. However, I want to be more intentional and spend the time wisely by being some-what consistent and also engage with others. 

Then on top of this creative outlet, I want to make sure my illustration and lettering work outside of my full time job is fulfilling and pushing me stylistically, technically and exploring new narratives. In 2018 I experimented with illustration but there is still so much for me to learn and to try with it that it definitely needs to take priority this year. 

Reading is a classic 'resolution' but for me, when I seen people's goals being 50, 75 or even 100 and articles saying "Read X amount of books to be successful" it puts me off. So instead this year, I'm doing it for myself and planning to read, at minimum, 24 books over the year. So for I’m pushing ahead with this goal having finished my 4th book a few days ago.

Then lastly, I obviously have the standard and boring goals of wanting to save, eat healthy and yadda yadda. But the more important thing with those boring goals is I want to save money to have exciting and life changing experience and adventures. And while eating healthily, eat foods I enjoy, continue to experiment and play with vegan recipes and use cooking as an escape and time to get out of my own head.

Within my mood board I've included a quote saying "Focus on you". This year I want to make it somewhat a mantra. This year it's about making decisions that may seem selfish on the outside but are important for me to make in order to live the life I want to lead.

But also the quote ties into my word of the year which is ‘focus’. I have a huge amount of goals and intentions and ideas that I want to do this year but the only way I’ll achieve them is giving the most important ones some focus time. It’s the year I sit down and really work on and through the things that will bring happiness into my life. And say ‘thank u, next’ to the distractions.

2019 I'm sure will be a rollercoaster but aiming to better myself will be my motivation for the year. I'll say yes to the things that excite and move me. Then no to the things I'm not interested in. I'll stop using dismissive language like "just" and apologising when I don't need to. But most of all I want to spend this year slowing down a bit and full enjoying everything that comes my way, while making sure to avoid my standard imposter syndrome and procrastination. Even if I say wall this and upload this blog post at the end of the first month of the year.