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Monday 24 December 2018

My Journey to the New York Bar - Focus During the Holidays




When I logged into Facebook three days ago, an “On This Day” picture posted three years ago, popped up. It was a selfie picture I took on a Sunday afternoon with my study materials on the dinning room table, just before I started studying for a few hours. It was during the start of the Christmas holidays and I was taking advantage of the holiday season to fit in some quality study time.

I was thinking that during this holiday season, many people here in the UK (and in other parts of the world) have time off work until the 7th of January. Many are using this time to unwind from what has been a very busy and even stressful year; catching up with sleep; spending time with friends and family and just enjoying the time they have off work.

I’m all about taking time out to unwind, rest and spend time with family. However, I’m not all about using the holiday season as an excuse not to do anything at all; leaving everything until the New Year! There are some things that we really need to get done now, before the New Year, to make way for new things to take place or so that we can move on to the next thing.

Many times people around me ‘advised’ me not to work so hard, to enjoy my time off etc. I believe some said this with good intentions so that I wouldn’t burn myself out completely (which by the way, I did have Christmas Day, Boxing day and New Year’s day off, to rest) however, I had exams to prepare for, which after the Christmas holidays, would only be a month or so away. I couldn’t afford to take the whole holiday season off like everybody else around me.

With all due respect, they were not on the same path as me, so therefore, they couldn’t understand my grind and the hard work I still needed to put in, regardless of the season or time of the year it was.

It is the same with you who are sitting or resitting the bar exams or any other exams in the coming months or starting a business and working on achieving something within the next few months. We are not living the same life as those around us. Our commitments and responsibilities are different and therefore, the time we have off and how we make use of our time will also be different to others.

By all means, take time out to rest and enjoy time with those around you, but don’t forget that you have a goal to work towards within the first few weeks and months of 2019 and only by putting in the hard work now, will you achieve the results you want. No one can do this for you, only you can, so be wise with your time and make the most of it.

Work hard now and play later!