Mid-School-Year Motivation. You've got this.

Mid school year. Perhaps the hardest part of any academic year.

The “safe” period before Christmas is gone. Your burst of January motivation has dwindled. The New Year’s resolutions you set… wait, what were they again?

I always found it was this time of year where I became stagnant. It’s temptingly easy to forget why you bother, drowning in the slog of revision and homework and to-do lists.

Slowly, inevitably, we lose motivation.

Hence, I thought this was necessary. A virtual reminder of why you bother.

At the end of the day, school teaches you a lot of things beyond the curriculum that we tend to forget - how to work hard, have discipline, commit to and strive towards goals that we personally wish to attain.

These things are all learned in you choosing, again and again, to see the big-picture. To be here not just for short-term gain, which is easy and gratifying, but for your future self. For the YOU in that job interview, proudly passing over your CV displaying those grades. For the YOU on Result’s Day, knowing you couldn’t have worked any bloody harder even if you tried.

Every minute you invest NOW in learning, every time you drag your wandering mind back to the teacher’s boring voice, you are making a choice for your future self. You’re making that future exam easier. You’re reducing your future stress.

Grades don’t happen by magic. There are no secrets to success at school.

It’s just hard work, commitment and habits. All guided by the belief that you can. do. it.

And this part of the school year is when it’s tempting to give up. You scroll more. You binge-watch Netflix more. (I’m guilty, Sex Education was too good….!).

Instead, acknowledge that everything in your academic life right now is SO TEMPORARY.

Revision won’t last forever.

You won’t always have homework to do.

End of chapter tests won’t spring up on you in all aspects of life.

It’s all temporary. So you may as well just do your best now. Try now. Invest yourself, now.

It’s a lot easier to give up than to care. Caring about how you do at school… that’s a scary thing. You’re opening yourself up to this fear of failing.

But here’s the thing: you can never regret working hard.

Every moment now, it’ll always be worth it when you look back.

So, if you’re on a cheeky procrastination binge right now, HEY HEYY. I see you.

I see ya scrolling. Clutching at the next video to watch, blog post to read, post to like.

If you know you need to do something, mate, just click off this blog post. Phone on airplane mode. Shove it out of sight. Completely, out of sight. Draft up a to-do list.

And then go slay that schoolwork. Your future self is already thanking you. :)