One Little Word for the year: Courage

The new year seems more special to me this time than it has in the past. I can't put my finger on it, but I feel that this year is going to be special. Everything is so fresh and new, and it makes me excited for what's to come. We made our goal list together with Rein and I hope it's going to be a family tradition for years to come. I also decided to join the One Little Word™ exercise this year. I've read a lot of great things about it recently, and I just felt I needed to experience it for myself.

At first, I thought it would be hard for me to choose a word, but one little word did pull me harder than the rest. So, my word for 2015 is COURAGE. It's something I need in my life right now. I'm at a point in my life where the only way forward is through overcoming fear and putting myself out there. And that demands a lot of courage.

I want to have courage in my career. At this point I don't have anything to loose. I promise to take on challenges, and crab for opportunities I'm scared of. The worst that can happen is a little disappointment. I think I can live with that. But, the best that can happen is that my dreams will come true. And that perspective sounds amazing to me.

I want to have courage in life. I have some secret dreams that I would love to pursue. So, I'm trying to have more courage and just do what feels right and what I really want. It can only lead to a better, more fulfilling life, right?

It's easy to get sidetracked by fear and self-doubt. Both of those feelings aren't foreign to me, but I will make a conscious effort to move passed them. Most of the boundaries in our life are self-inflicted, so it's time to climb over them and see what's on the outside. I'm really excited to let this one little word lead me through this year and hopefully remind me to take more risks and actively move towards my goals, even if the journey scares me a bit.

Will you join the One Little Word exercise? What is the word that will guide you through this year?

Happy New Year, my friends!
xo. Hanna

Happy New Year! + some plans

Happy New Year to all you awesome P&S readers! I don't know about you, but I've never been big on making resolutions on New Year's Eve. It's not an Estonian tradition and even with all this globalization, the tradition of giving promises you (mostly) can't keep has stayed foreign to me. I do love the opportunity to start over in a sense, but I believe we have to make every day count and if we want to change something in our lives, there's no better time than today. You can make resolutions any time of the year, as long as you follow through.

I do love dreaming about all the surprises that the new year could have in store for me. And being more of a planner by nature, I love cooking up goals and plans for the upcoming months. So, here are some of my plans for the first half of this year:

1. I'd love to be even more creative, so I decided to challenge myself to do a themed week here at the blog every month. That's a full week of projects and posts centered around a certain theme. I'm not sure if I can manage, but I'm going to give it my best.

2. I'd love to create my very first e-course this year. I'm not going to reveal more, because I'm just as terrified as I am excited about it. I do hope I can pull it off. Is there anything you'd love to learn more about?

3. I'd love to better my photography skills. I love taking photos for the blog, but I'm not very good at it, nor at touching them up in photoshop. I'm going to make an effort to learn something new about photography every week.

4. Last, but not least, I'm cooking up a blog design makeover. As much as I love the simple design I've done on this blog, it's time to move on to something bigger and better. Cross your fingers!

Do you have any big plans for the new year? Do share in the comments!