I wonder what 2013 will bring.........!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and an even better New Years Eve!! Hopefully you will have all recovered from your exploits by now and settling back into the "normal" routine. I celebrated New Year with my friend http://sutleress.blogspot.co.uk/ and many other lovely friends including http://curiositything.blogspot.co.uk/ and http://seamstress-waffle.blogspot.co.uk/. It was a great evening and a nice way to see out the old year and welcome in the new.

As is tradition at this time of year people start talking about New Years resolutions and what they are going to attempt to do, or usually give up! The big ones are usually quitting smoking, losing weight and cutting back on alcohol (especially after the indulgences of Christmas and New Year!). Another tradition for this time of year is breaking your resolutions, sometime within hours of making them! I have already met someone who vowed to give up drinking and detox, only to be tucking into a bottle of wine over dinner less than 24 hours later! Bless!

I don't generally make resolutions. I find them pointless and they are never treated seriously and are often made up on a whim, usually when you are put on the spot by someone asking you what your New Years resolution is going to be! However this is not to say I don't see New Year as an opportunity for a fresh start, new beginnings, clean slate, etc. In fact I think one of the best things about January is that is does feel like a fresh start (lets face it, January has nothing else going for it. The weather is rubbish, everyone is skint and everything seems dull after the colour of Christmas). So instead of making resolutions, I like to set myself aims for 2013. These are specific things I want to achieve. Not empty wishes on a superstition hoping that someone else is going to do all the work and you magically get what you want, but real targets that I want to work towards. Obviously some things do have an element of luck, such as finding a job; you can do the best application and best interview, but its luck as to whether you get the job or not.

So my aims for 2013 are:

1. Find paid employment in something I enjoy doing (museums, research, craft, First World War Centenary etc).
2. Continue to fight my eating disorder and make some positive moves forward.
3. Improve my health, and ideally as a direct result lose some weight.
4. Finish my MA dissertation and therefore complete my Masters!
5. Make more time to do things I enjoy and find relaxing such as reading, craft and writing.
6. Improve my sleeping habits. More sleep is urgently needed and a better routine would help matters greatly.
7. Continue ticking more things off my to do list (Museums, galleries, places, shows, etc).
8. Find out what things make me happy and do more of them, while moving away from the stuff and people who make me unhappy.
9. Spend more time with people who genuinely like me and care about me who want to spend time with me and less time spent on people who are selfish, self-serving and two faced. I don't want to be the "useful" or "convenient" friend any more. I believe when you care about someone it works both ways. You don't "use" people.
10. Be myself and be comfortable with who I am. If someone doesn't like it, tough!

So thats 10 aims for 2013. Lets see how I get on. I wonder what 2013  will bring................