2012

When 2011 ticked over into 2012, I hadn’t given much thought to what I wanted to achieve in the new year. More of the same, perhaps?

It was only after a refreshing and relaxing break in South Australia last week that I really gained some perspective and narrowed down some points for the year ahead.

But they’re not really that narrow. Some of them are simply extensions on wishes made in 2011 – but they’re all things I want to extend upon, or do more of. And they’ll all make for a splendid 2012.

Write more.

Read more.

Go back to using a real diary. One that I write in, and scribble on, and schedule appointments in.

Last week, I visited The Cedars – the former home of artist Hans Heysen in the Adelaide Hills – and the preservation of his notebooks, and sketches, and scraps of paper made me realise that the digital age doesn’t allow for the kind of footprint and relics that get framed in galleries, or passed onto grandchildren. So much of the good stuff is found in the scribbles on pages, or amongst the thoughts jotted hurriedly across paper.

Whenever I go through an old diary of my own, I remember the appointments and evenings as though they happened only days ago. I can’t say the same for iCal. I want to look back on my 2012 diary in 30 years and remember.

Take more photographs.

Give more time to the friends that deserve it, less to people that don’t.

Be more honest. With people that need to hear the truth. With people asking for favours that end up turning into nuisances.

Continue to build, grow and explode Onya Magazine (no, I don’t mean expand, I mean explode).

Be firm, or;

Start and develop a new literary project with my friend, Liv.

See more of Australia. Explore places I’ve never been to. Drive along the coast. Stop in country towns. Feel sand between my toes. Rub red dust off my face.

Cement White Echo as the best social and digital media agency in Australia. I’m very proud of the work that we do and how we do it with a difference.

Learn to stop fretting about imperfections. They are often where the real beauty lies.

Blog more.

Purchase more items and produce made in Australia, less made elsewhere.

Build on my fitness. Continue to run. Get faster. Go to bikram yoga. Climb the 1000 steps.

Complete the 10km course at Run Melbourne in July. And try my hand at more after that.

Take advantage of every good offer that comes my way.

Laugh, love and be even more positive.