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.

I don’t set goals. I don’t see the point in thinking about what I’d like to achieve and how I’d like to get there – I’d rather start acting upon the things I want to do and working towards the place I’d like to be.

I recently read, in What I Wish I Knew At Eighteen by Marty Wilson and Daniel Gregory, this quote from Ken Roberts:

“Do not have goals – they’re too limiting! My career has taught me that things work out much better than I would ever have been audacious enough to ask or pray for. Just do what you love and see what unfolds.”

Those words speak to the very core of me. I have no idea how this blog post will end, let alone my life. I don’t plan articles. I never once used an essay plan in high school. I started a business with no business plan. I certainly don’t plan any part of my personal life. It’s just too boring to do so.

But it seems, now, early in January 2011, that a lot of people are planning their goals. And thinking about what they’d like to achieve from this New Year. Resolving to do things. And I’ve no problem with that. There’s something refreshing and promising and hopeful about a New Year.

And whilst I may not set goals, I do like to reflect. And resolve to do things.

So, in 2011, I resolve to:

• Only spend time with people I like. Somewhere, between Primary School and growing up, we manage to accumulate an android phone bursting with contact details of people we don’t actually like. I’m not interested in spending time with those people any more. Harsh? Perhaps. But life’s short, and I don’t intend to waste it on people that I don’t like. There’s too many people in the world that I love, and I’d rather spend my time with them.
• Write. A lot.
• Take lots of photos. And then some more. And then even more.
• Work, work, work.
• Actually plan some things; day trips, mini breaks, a trip to New York, catch-ups with the people I like, adventures.
• Read. A book a week. At least.
• Keep a memories box. I did this for a number of years when I was younger, and looking back through them after time has passed is an exciting re-discovery – each item kept triggers a memory or an emotion. And that’s definitely worth the shelf space the box requires.
• Be me – unapologetically, wholeheartedly, and with so much gumption my ponytail will emit sparks, like a firecracker.