Happy New Year

Here in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday was January 1st. Just like last year, I was house- and dog-sitting merely blocks from the beach. I like to greet the new year with a 5 day break from work, household duties and all other commitments. This way, I find that I can clear my mind fully and consider all that was good from the closing year. Then I start to contemplate how much better the coming year will be.

The stuff of dreams :-)

Successful people are quite often prepared, organised, diarists and great thinkers. They set goals, manage the processes required to achieve them and then evaluate reaching or completing them. 2012 was the first year that I had a genuine, grown-up attempt of goal-setting, monitoring and achievement. My natural tendencies of NOT keeping a diary, calendar or journal, coupled with my displeasure of anything that resembles paper work were challenged and overcome.

For a first 'real' attempt~ I achieved a lot in 2012. Almost all that I set out to. I lost 15kg of the 20kg I wanted to. I had no plan in the beginning, just liked the sound of 'twenty'. I started off well, then plateaued during Winter. As Spring came around I learned that the only way I was really going to reach my goal was with a very specific plan. The old me thought that specific plans were boring and tiresome. The new me realises that they are a foundation which fosters greatness.

My current BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) will require more than one year to achieve. A component of that BHAG is to communicate more with like-minded others. So even though it is the 2nd of Jan here today, I plan to post 365 times this year. I hope that you enjoy the read!