The thing with life lessons is that no one can really help you learn them, you have to go through a lot in order to finally understand and learn what everyone is talking about. It's one of those things everyone wishes was easier but needs to be hard for us to understand.
This year was that for me, I went through a lot in order to learn a lot, not everything, there's still a long way to go, but I've certainly come to a point in my life in which I know I am stronger. I've realised that life isn't fair and that doesn't mean I can't do my thing, it just means I have to fight a little bit more.
When I first started thinking about this idea many lessons came into my mind, some fed through pain, others through disappointment but there are two that involved love and what better way to start than sharing some of the love in the festive season.
If you work in the creative business you may be familiar to this but learning to take criticism while trying to trust your gut and your eye is amazingly hard.
Over the past year I came across people that didn't enjoy what I was saying, what I did and it hit me. The creative work I do is out of love. Early in life I realised that design wasn't my thing even when I enjoyed it. So, when someone critics what I do carelessly I get upset because I invested those hours because I wanted to do something beautiful. not something that would get torn apart.
I stopped spending time designing and even writing. I couldn't bring myself to spend time doing something that everyone was going to hate. You can understand the lack of pictures and time spent in this space.
And then something switched, someone told me that you either did something because you loved because of you or you let that dream die down without any hope. The more I thought about those words, the more I realised how wrong I'd been to let someone else's opinion rule what I did or how I did it.
Little by little I'm working on dedicating time to my passions, I can go at my paste and enjoy the ride. Letting other dictate with their opinions isn't worthy anymore. No one should ever tell you what to do or how to do it. Do what you love every single day.

"Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still. "

Henry David Thoreau