The start of a new year is often a time for starting fresh, when we look ahead to the future and focus on new projects and personal growth.

It seems only fitting that the New Year arrives during the heart of winter, at least where we’re from, so that by the time spring rolls around and the earth is coming to life we too feel refreshed, energized, and ready to bloom into our new and improved selves.

Our personal growth so far this year has involved learning how to brew the perfect pot of tea and making strides towards learning a new language.  We’ve also reconnected with our youthful energy and given gymnastics a try, and now we want to take things a step further and nurture ourselves from the inside out by following the advice of gardening expert Emily Murphy to find joy in the simple things and grow something fresh and delicious.

Emily’s philosophy for gardening — and for life — is simple: when you cultivate joy and growing in all parts of your life, wonderful things will happen. In other words: grow what you love.

A Guest Blog by Elfi Schlegel

New year, new goals, new dreams… New Year’s resolutions almost always involve getting fit. What’s stopping you?

It’s likely fear. Or a little voice in your brain saying it’s too much of a bother.

Well, I’m here to suggest an alternative to jogging or going to the gym or yet another fitness class. Here’s a shocker: I’m going to pitch gymnastics.

A fresh new year has arrived and with it the opportunity for exciting new experiences in the year ahead.

Last year we made it our New Year’s Resolution to spread happiness, and this year our goal is to learn something new. To help us get started we turned to Charlie Burton and his new book GQ How to Win at Life, which is filled with expert advice on everything from food to fashion and from politics to parkour.

This small but mighty book is filled with achievable New Year’s Resolution ideas and is where we found inspiration for the first segment in our Learn Something New in the New Year blog series: learning a new language.

The Foreign Service Institute’s James Bernhardt and Catherine Doughty — whose words of wisdom are included in GQ How to Win at Life — are experts in learning new languages quickly, as they regularly assist American diplomats in becoming fluent in new languages, sometimes over the course of just a few months.