Links + Likes / 01 / 20

I’m welcoming 2020 with open arms!

After a year of transition and growth, I’m feeling really grounded, self-assured and ready to work on everything I’m passionate about.

There’s so much to look forward to—restoring our chalet, learning how to ski, having friends and family visit, developing my own yoga videos and creative e-books, and continuing to curate my lifestyle shop. Work’s been kind of a funny thing for me lately, and it finally feels right… When I first graduated and started working professionally as an Art Director in advertising, everything and everyone told me to stay in my lane. But I wanted to Art Direct and write—how much cooler could the work be if it were allowed a more whole (I like to call it holistic) approach? But in each job I found myself in, I was told “nope” to many things that actually felt so right to me. The norms for what a job looked and felt like were… unnatural and unattractive. I bumped up against norms and traditions so many times that I developed some nasty metaphorical rug-burns (a close cousin to burn-out, where you’re working a role you aren’t passionate about, but expected to spin your wheels, put in the time, and give into the systems around you rather than do what you feel or know to be best).

Over time, I learned that self-employment is 100% the path for me. That my work is my work: the things I create, write, design and build myself. And that these gifts are what I should focus my work around to help others, be it through creative, through what I write, or through what I say and share with the world. I’ve learned to listen to my instincts and play to my strengths, and it’s landed me in a fascinating territory. The options and opportunities are overwhelming sometimes, and the path isn’t lit, but the view of 2020 from here sure looks awesome…

So without further ado, here’s the first Links + Likes of the year!

Sources:

Simon Walker
Melanie Johnsson 2020
Freelancing Females
Becki Owens
Aaron Horkey
Outback Hound
BC Parks Foundatiom
Kate Marker Interiors
Dwell Magazine