To be honest, we stumbled a bit into the new year this time. December passed by so quickly that the end of the year came sort of as a surprise to us. I’m sure you know the feeling. That’s why I published this blog post also later than planned.

Writing a New Years blog post is a small Elmastudio tradition and I always take the time to read the posts from previous years while preparing the post. It’s a good opportunity to reflect and really recognize the changes happened over the years.

At the beginning of 2017 we decided to celebrate the year as a “Yes Year” (as we called it). After we made decisions more cautious and at times maybe overly sensitive in recent years, we wanted to say “yes” more often. Yes to new challenges and potential risks, Yes to things and events that could possibly go wrong, and Yes just to all ideas and dreams that come to our minds.

My hesitation often comes from thinking we might feel overwhelmed and lose control (work and life related). I wanted to let go of this tendency of being a slight control freak. The funny thing is that during last year, I not once felt overwhelmed or uncomfortable in a situation.

On the contrary, I felt more confident and calm, somehow more free. I was able to enjoy the uncertainty and openness that we found ourselves in and I could see things more relaxed. Especially when we had lots of work to do, I didn’t start to stress about it and drop everything else, in order to spend more time working. I kept up doing Yoga, spending time outside and preparing healthy, yummy food. This helped me to become more balanced and actually get my work done better.

We also travelled quite a lot last year, but very slowly and without any super fixed travel plans. We took our time at every place and only did what we felt like doing, even if we just spend the days working in a café during the day and buying fruits at the local market for dinner. Traveling while still working is very different compared to being on a regular holiday. We actually like it a lot, since it inspires us to be more open and flexible and forces us to travel slowly.

So the most valuable lesson we learned in the past year is to live our life to the fullest every day and without restraints, while making sure to feel comfortable and true to yourself.

Then it seems as if everything starts to be “in flow”. When you are honest to yourself, honest ideas and thoughts come to your mind automatically and you get an instinctive feeling of where your personal journey will take you. This feeling is so precious. And although not everything goes without difficulties, it’s much easier to deal with those struggles, if you can rely on the feeling of inner peace and gratitude.

I hope my little thought journey maybe helps you in some way. Our intention for this new year is to continue working on being present. We want to remain true to ourselves, but at the same time have the courage to redefine ourselves every day. It’s not easy to be open-minded and accept new directions, both professionally and in our private life. But we feel it’s definitely worth it.

To begin the new year with a little challenge, I started my January video series on YouTube again. I’m still experimenting in which direction I want to take my videos, so your suggestions and ideas are very welcome. At the moment I started working on Gutenberg tutorials, but I also want to add more personal videos and tips on freelancing, owning your own WordPress business and working remotely.

We are also working on new features and the further development of our Pukeko WordPress theme, the improvement of our Uku theme and a video course for creating business websites with WordPress.

We are looking forward to a new inspiring year together and we love to hear your suggestions for improvement, ideas and feedback. Please contact us at any time.

To a peaceful and healthy New Year 2018!